MEN'S BASKETBALL
The Badgers were typically tough in grinding out a win over Vanderbilt, and their NCAA tournament success can be traced back to something as simple as knowing how to take a charge
BY MIKE LUCAS • UWBADGERS.COM
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isconsin's Jordan Taylor and Syracuse's Scoop Jardine crossed paths over the summer at both the Chris Paul and Deron Williams basketball camps. At the latter – an elite guard camp in Chicago – Taylor and Jardine were room- mates.
"He's a cool dude, we talked, we kicked it,'' Taylor said. But did they talk in June about the possibility of crossing paths again in March at the NCAA tournament? "We really didn't talk about playing each other,'' Taylor said. "We talked about both of our teams, and I knew they were going to have a good team.''
Taylor also knew the Badgers had a chance
to be a good; maybe Sweet 16 good. Maybe they could get back to the level they reached last sea- son — though neither Taylor nor Jardine could have likely envisioned that they would be stand- ing in each other's path or way. Now that would have been a scoop, if they had.
But that's the Sweet 16 matchup that has materi- alized in the East Regional at the TD Garden in Boston. Thursday night, it will be Wisconsin vs. Syracuse — and to a lesser degree — Taylor vs. Jardine. "He's a lot like Jordan,'' UW assistant coach
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Gary Close said of Jardine. "There are some sim- ilarities. He's not the scorer that Jordan is. But he's a great leader. He's tough, he's physical, and he makes good things happen around him.
"As a fifth-year senior, Jar-
dine has been through the wars and won a lot of games. He's not afraid to take a tough shot — he's not afraid of anything, whether it's taking it (the ball) at somebody or guarding any-
» Drawing charges — like the one Mike Bruesewitz absorbed from Vanderbilt guard Brad Tinsley — "won the game for us," UW head coach Bo Ryan said.
