Bucky’s Fan Favorite Tournament Sweet 16: (2) Jon Leuer vs. (3) Marcus Landry

With COVID-19 crushing everyone’s March Madness vibe, we at B5Q crafted our own tournament to determine which basketball player from the past 20 years was the biggest fan favorite.

With two rounds in the books, we now enter crunch time. It’s the Sweet 16 baby.

For the Sweet 16, we will be dropping two pairings from a singular region each day in separate articles. We at B5Q will state the case for each player, and it is up to you the fans to vote and ultimately decide who moves on, and who is eliminated.

First, we turn our attention to the Midwest Region. Just like the first two rounds, the voting window closes at midnight each day, so get those votes in quick.

You can check out the players still vying for the title in the complete bracket...Bucky’s Fan Favorite Tournament Bracket.pdf.

The second Sweet 16 matchup in the West Region is a showdown between two Badgers big men who could play inside and outside.

Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

The case for Jon Leuer:

Leuer was an honorable mention AP All-American in 2011 while also being named first-team all-B1G by the coaches and second-team by the media. He was also honorable mention all-B1G in 2010.

The native of Orono, Minn. finished twelfth in school history with 1,376 career points and is one of just eight players in UW history with 1,300 points and 500 rebounds. He scored 621 points in his senior season (18.3 ppg), the third-highest single-season total in school annals. His 85 career blocks place him 10th on UW’s all-time ledger.

Leuer led UW in scoring and rebound during both his junior and senior seasons and was a two-time Academic All-Big Ten (2009 & 2010).

Leuer’s senior season was particularly impressive. He shot 37% from three-point land and 84.3% from the charity stripe, which was No. 104 in the whole country, while being used on 29.3% of all of Wisconsin’s possessions (No. 57 in the nation). It should also be noted that the Badgers offense in 2011 was ranked No. 2 by KenPom in the nation and they also led the country in turnover percentage and free throw percentage. Leuer (and Jordan Taylor, obvs) was a big reason for that.

Photo by: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

The case for Marcus Landry:

My last girlfriend in college, who is currently my wife, always liked Marcus Landry. That bumps him up at least one seed for me, but that’s neither here nor there. During his Wisconsin career, the Milwaukee native averaged 9.2 ppg, 4.2 rpg and 1.2 apg. He also shot threes at a 36.1% clip and averaged 12.7 ppg in his senior season. He was named the B1G Tournament MVP in 2008 after leading the Badgers to the tournament title.

A two-time second-team all-Big Ten pick in 2008 and 2009, he finished his career ranking eighth in UW annals with 185 career offensive rebounds and fifth in Badgers history with 99 career blocks. He became just the 18th player in UW history with 1,000 points and 500 rebounds when his career ended.

Landry was a prototypical Wisconsin Badgers player. He improved every year (except for his offensive rebounding, strangely) he was on campus, and like most Badgers that was for four years. His offensive rating went up every year, as did his minutes played, and he also shot a career-best 36.7% from three during his senior season while also having his lowest turnover percentage of his career.

Landry was also a part of some brutal NCAA Tournament losses including in 2007 to UNLV and 2008 to Davidson, while helping beat Florida State in OT in thrilling fashion in the first round of the 2009 Tourney.