Wisconsin basketball: fantasy draft

Sports have been gone for months now and while there is early morning Korean baseball on now and early morning German soccer coming soon...it’s not quite the same as watching the Wisconsin Badgers play, often in the late morning if it’s football season. We wanted the thrill of live sports back in our lives so we did the only logical thing:

We held a 10 round snake fantasy draft that included every Wisconsin basketball player, coach and jersey to see who could come up with the best team.

On Monday night, Owen, Belz, Phil (PHIL’S BACK!), Drew and Ryan gathered on our Slack channel to pick eight former Badgers, one head coach and one jersey combo to try and assemble the ultimate Badgers basketball team.

We will leave it up to you, loyal reader, to decide with a poll at the bottom of the post.

Owen’s Team

Owen was awarded the first pick in a drawing done by my daughter. He then announced that he, sadly, wouldn’t be able to participate so Belz had the first pick. Mere seconds after Belz picked Frank Kaminsky, Owen popped back into the chat and said he COULD participate now. Being far more magnanimous than I would have been, Belz allowed Owen to have his first pick back and Owen took...Frank Kaminsky.

The draft was off to a rip-roaring start.

Here is Owen’s rotation:

G- Jordan Taylor
G- Bronson Koenig
F- Joe Krabbenhoft
F- Mike Wilkinson
F- Frank Kaminsky

6- Sharif Chambliss/Mike Bruesewitz
7- Clayton Hanson
8- Jared Berggren

Head coach- Greg Gard
Jersey- No. 9 in the tweet

You may notice that Owen has two players listed as 6th Man. A few rounds after selecting Bruesewitz, Owen realized he’d made a huge mistake and tried to trade him. There were no takers and so Owen unilaterally announced after the draft that he was cutting him and picking up Chambliss. This was never discussed. Should Owen be allowed to make roster moves?

Here are the jerseys we were selecting from, btw. We figured these would be the most popular choices anyway, but any of the participants were free to pick a jersey from any season.

Belz’s Team

The consolation prize for Belz was getting Devin Harris with his first pick. Not too shabby imo. Belz also punted on coaching until the last round, but managed to land Doc Meanwell who won three national titles and eight conference titles for the Badgers in the ::squints:: 1910s and 1920s. This was after Belz tried to weasel his way into drafting Tony Bennett because he was a former Wisconsin assistant. Gotta respect the effort.

Here is Belz’s rotation:

G- Devin Harris
G- Josh Gasser
F- Marcus Landry
F- Andy Kowske
F- Brian Butch

6- Brad Davison
7- Keaton Nankivil
8- Jason Bohannon

Head coach- Doc Meanwell
Jersey- No. 2 in the tweet

Phil’s Team

Making his triumphant return to B5Q, although he still updates the recruiting pages which you should definitely be checking out if you’re into that sort of thing, Phil took the longest view in the draft with his picks. In the fifth round he took Rashard Griffith one spot before Drew planned on taking him, which Drew predicted and Phil confirmed a few picks before it actually happened. Phil was concerned about his outside shooting so he snagged the first coach in the draft, Bo Ryan.

Here is Phil’s rotation:

G- Tracy Webster
G- Michael Finley
F- Sam Okey
F- Jon Leuer
F- Rashard Griffith

6- Trent Jackson
7- Michael Flowers
8- Micah Potter

Head coach- Bo Ryan
Jersey- No. 4 in the tweet

Drew’s Team

Drew was satisfied with selecting the program’s all-time leading scorer and winner of the prestigious Bucky’s Fan Favorite Tournament, Alando Tucker, with the fourth pick in the draft. Drew also earned Owen’s ire early by selecting Nigel Hayes. “Hate you,” Owen posted in the chat. Later, Drew got Phil back for the Griffith pick by sneaking Claude Gregory in the sixth round, who Phil had graded as a third round talent. Later, Drew got very excited about selecting Stan Van Gundy to coach the team. Reports say that Drew wasn’t drinking during the draft but with that pick we at B5Q have our doubts.

Here is Drew’s rotation:

G- Trevon Hughes
G- Kirk Penney
F- Alando Tucker
F- Nigel Hayes
F- Nate Reuvers

6- Ben Brust
7- Claude Gregory
8- Freddie Owens

Head coach- Stan Van Gundy
Jersey- No. 5 in the tweet

Ryan’s Team

Ryan started off the draft by disparaging my three year old daughter for awarding him the last pick. After hearing that it was a snake draft he was less upset, but we still may need to settle this in the octagon on Fight Island. Ryan snagged a nice inside/outside combo with the swing picks and then picked a coach who probably would’ve cut Sam Dekker after a couple of practices freshman year. Ryan also wanted to fight Owen and Belz for taking the two best jerseys, so maybe we can schedule a whole PPV where Ryan settles his scores from this draft.

Here is Ryan’s rotation:

G- Mike Kelley
G- Wes Matthews
F- Sam Dekker
F- Danny Jones
F- Ethan Happ

6- Sean Mason
7- Kammron Taylor
8- Duany Duany

Head coach- Dick Bennett
Jersey- No. 1 in the tweet

Here are the full draft results. Keep in mind it was a snake draft when looking to shout at people for who they picked where.

Alright, now that you’ve had a chance to look over the lineups, please vote for who has the best team.