WI Badgers-Ahmed & Connor

i heard the decision will be made day-of, so as to keep indiana and michigan sh!tting their pants

i heard from an inside source that they both are redshirting, reason being that wisco's 4-5 guys are not racing well enough to contend for a national championship.

and what magical potion are they going to use to have a 3, 4, and 5 runner to win next year (darling will be out of eligibility and i dont see anyone else on their roster who is going to be a "top dog")

is mick willing to risk the ncaa streak on this?

could be an end of a program in the making

If Ahmed and Connor are healthy and fit (and all indications are that they're both), don't you have to run them this year? There is no guarantee about next year. Healthy, late career redshirts are a gamble.

No matter what Byrne ends up doing, I'm curious to see whether some of the other guys are as bad as they showed at the adidas meet. Wisconsin was in 7th through 5K with about 300-310 points, which was all anybody could expect.

Darling was up front and stayed there through the end.

Finnerty was in the 30's at 5K and ended up in the 60's, with all of that drop occurring from 5K to 7K.

Then, they had four guys in the 80-100 range at 5K. Hatz stayed there. But Brice, VanVoorhis and Brill all went south. Brice dropped about 60 spots, VanVoorhis dropped about 90 and Brill dropped a stunning 120. The 7th was out the back door early. As a team they dropped about 190 points and went from 7th to 17th.

Michigan, on the other hand, did exactly the opposite. They were in 12th or 13th at 5K and dropped about 120 points to finish 7th. Indiana went from 10th to 15th.

So the question is whether this is really a measure of Brill, etc.'s true fitness. It's hard to believe that it is, but fitness doesn't matter if it doesn't show up on race day.

And on the other end, did Michigan have a dream day, or are they really that good?

Byrne will likely be meeting with the media Monday afternoon, so it will be interesting to see what he says about it, if anything.

The problem here is bigger than it appears. His first four years there were done with Jerry's boys and hid the bigger problem, Mick can't recruit.

I think Wisconsin needs to wake up to this soon or not only will the Big 10 streak be gone, so might the NCAA streak and a big mess to try to reestablish the program because who do the Badgers have for the coming years? The answer is no one that scares you.

Mick can't recruit wrote:

The problem here is bigger than it appears. His first four years there were done with Jerry's boys and hid the bigger problem, Mick can't recruit.

I think Wisconsin needs to wake up to this soon or not only will the Big 10 streak be gone, so might the NCAA streak and a big mess to try to reestablish the program because who do the Badgers have for the coming years? The answer is no one that scares you.

This idiocy comes up every now and again. Tell me which of the recruits last year were no Mick's; it is his fifth year and several top guys left when Jerry left, which left a bit of a whole that takes a while to reach equilibrium when filling given the scholarship constraints. Guys like Ahmed, etc. are not very good, neither are Austin and Hatz. Unlike OSU and Iona, UW is not a XC-only program

Mick's Recruiting at Wisconsin

2008 (May have been recruited by Jerry Schumacher)

Elliot Krause

Maverick Darling

Rob Finnerty

2009

Mohammed Ahmed

Reed Connor

Alex Brill

Daniel Buechel

Donald Schwaderer

Drew Shields

Michael Brice

Neal Berman

Noel Bateman

Robel Kebede

Timothy Hucke

2010

Alexander Hatz

Jacob Erschen

Matthew McKenna

2011

Ryan Collins (Transfer)

Austin Mudd

Sam Hacker

Connor Kaddatz

Jack Stapleton

Mike Wallace

2012

Jacob Naylor (Transfer)

Malachy Schrobilgen

Michael Van Voorhis

Russel Sandvold

This is why Wisconsin is struggling to find a group of 7 good XC runners

It's a tricky situation for Mick. If he runs Ahmed and Connor this year they can get a trophy. In fact it would be a disappointment if they didn't, as Finnerty and Brill/Hatz CAN serve as a more than capable 4/5. If Ahmed and Connor redshirt there's a legitimate chance this year's team doesn't qualify for NCAAs after what happened at Adidas. But, what Mick is probably keeping in mind is if Mo and Reed run this year the team definitely won't qualify for NCAAs next year. They'll have no sort of front runner as there wouldn't be a single sub 14:10 5K guy on the team. Yikes.

Personally I would go all in this year and just prepare to take my lumps next fall, because as someone said earlier there are no guarantees with "late in career" redshirts. Minnesota redshirted Ben Blankenship for the 2011 outdoor track season when he was in sub 3:40 shape, thinking they wouldn't need him to win Big 10s and that he could then help the team in 2012, but they lost Big 10s in 2011 by about two or three points and then Blankenship was hurt this past season and couldn't race. If a guy is healthy and fit, you've got to run him now.

national championship in 2013? wrote:

and what magical potion are they going to use to have a 3, 4, and 5 runner to win next year (darling will be out of eligibility and i dont see anyone else on their roster who is going to be a "top dog")

is mick willing to risk the ncaa streak on this?

could be an end of a program in the making

The bigger problem is that its not like Connor, Darling or Mo Ahmed have exhausted their indoor and outdoor eligibility so all three will be back next year and occupying three scholarships. I honestly don't see a way Byrne can get himself out of this dilemma

bigger problem wrote:

The bigger problem is that its not like Connor, Darling or Mo Ahmed have exhausted their indoor and outdoor eligibility so all three will be back next year and occupying three scholarships. I honestly don't see a way Byrne can get himself out of this dilemma

Darling, Finnerty, and Krause are all 5th years this year so all three will be gone and their scholarships will open up. However, it's not realistic to think that a bunch of freshmen are going to carry the Badgers to a trophy. Maybe Mick will bring in a few more transfers.

IMO the decision for Mo comes down to:

1) recuperating this season because of the Olympics and aboslutely needs to because he is not a piece of NCAA meat

2) Is looking to make the World Championships this summer and will have to take a down season between the Olympics and then anyways.

I just think that we can be a little bit myopic when it comes to his priorities here. Remember, a Canadian as good as Mo is shooting for much more than NCAA team titles (especially at the conference meet).

THEY WILL RUN!!!!

Byrne announced at the Badger Press Conference that Connor and Ahmed will be running this weekend. Go Badgers!

Excellent. Going all in on this season is the right play in my opinion. I suppose I'd probably look for Connor to redshirt indoors then in order to have both track seasons next year...coming back just for outdoors hardly makes sense.

Nice. Glad to see they'll be going for it this year

Byrne did mention that they're ready to go now and who knows about next year. Also acknowledged that next year will be a rebuilding year.

Ahmed almost certainly will be gone after this year, so that should open up some additional money.

This is a very, very strong senior distance class in Wisconsin, with both top quality and depth. There are at least five guys who should be national-type recruits and then several others after that who are very good. Last spring, 4:16 finished 9th in the 1600 and six of the top eight were juniors.

The Badgers won't get them all, but they have to get their share.

So the Badger lineup for Big 10s is:

-Ahmed

-Darling

-Connor

-Finnerty

-Hatz

-Brill

-Brice

Who gets the last 2 spots?

Hacker and Van Voorhis