Realized I left a couple things out from my game story Wednesday that would probably be of interest, considering it was the first game of the year.

— For his new starting lineup, Bo went pretty predictable, adding Tim Jarmusz and Keaton Nankivil to the Leuer/Bohannon/Hughes trio that finished the season as starters. I would be surprised if that wasn't the same group we see next Wednesday for the final exhibition against UW-Superior and then again when the season starts a week after that against the mighty IPFW Mastodons.

— I mentioned in the Wednesday story Bo used a nine-man rotation in the first half. The four subs (in order of appearance) were Berggren, Evans, Taylor and Wilson. That will probably be the nine guys that see the majority of the minutes, and it's a group that allows for a lot of different lineups. You could go big and play Leuer, Nankivil and Berggren along the front line. You could go small and play Evans at the four with Jarmusz and two other guards. You could do anything in between. Should be a fun team to watch this year, and one that can match up with a lot of different lineups.

— Not that you can necessarily take all that much from it (because, of course, it was against Bemidji State), but Trevon Hughes (7) and Jason Bohannon (6) combined for 13 assists and four turnovers, including eight and two in the first half. With Hughes scoring eight and Bohannon going for 14, that's what you want out of your senior guards.

Now for two links and one hilarious video.

"50 Reasons To Be Excited For College Basketball Season"

Wisconsin comes in at No. 22, with the following reasoning:

Their marketing slogan might as well be, “Making basketball 8 percent less cool, every time they take the court, for the past 10 years."

Still cooler than Northwestern, which makes basketball 20 percent less hip every game.

Gary Parrish's Big Ten preview

I really respect Gary Parrish. I believe he's one of the best basketball writers on the nation beat, and he's incredibly enjoyable to read. But I have to call him out here. A little over a year ago he wrote about how some site crunched numbers and came up with the notion that Wisconsin is consistently one of the most underrated programs in the country. I'm sure this is shocking news to you. 

Anyway, in that post, Gary included the following line:

... that belief is what led me to promise to never again leave the Badgers unranked in a preseason poll as long as Bo Ryan is the coach.

Now, that was probably hyperbole. Obviously there would be circumstances to leave the Badgers out of a preseason poll. And, sure enough, he's omitted the Badgers from his preseason Top 25 (and one). That's fine and understandable. If I put together a top 25, UW probably wouldn't be in either.

But less than 14 months after saying he'd learned his lesson not to underestimate Bo's Badgers, not only does Parrish not have the Badgers ranked, he has them missing the NCAA tournament.

At least he admits "it's probably stupid to pick the Badgers to finish just on the wrong side of the bubble." So, I would argue, is picking them to finish seventh in the Big Ten. Bo's never finished lower than fourth in the league, and with as strong as the Big Ten will be this year they might not make the top four. But they're finishing higher than seventh. That you can count on.

Now, for a chuckle...