Badger numerology
October 20, 2009 | Men's Basketball
Oct. 20, 2009
MADISON, Wis. - For some, the process of selecting what jersey number to wear is almost scientific, for others it's close to random. In any case, a player's number becomes his identity. UWBadgers.com polled all 15 members of the men's basketball team to find out why they wear the number they do and when they first selected that number. Here is what we found:
No. 2 Wquinton Smith - "I wear No. 2 because it's half of my high school number, which was 22. I wanted to stick with 22 when I got to Wisconsin, but Michael Flowers had it. And then I originally picked the number 22 in high school because it was double my football number, which was 11."
No. 3 Trevon Hughes - "I wore number 1 when I was younger playing AAU ball, but when I moved here for high school, that number was already taken so I had to pick something else. My sister wore number 3 and my brother wore number 4, so I picked 3 for basketball and wore number 4 in football. I just stuck with 3 when I came here."
Note: It's just a coincidence that 3 also means trey, which is the shortened version of his name, Trévon.
No. 5 Ryan Evans - "I wear number 5 because that's the number my mentor, Anthony Blakes of the Harlem Globetrotters, used to wear."
No. 10 Dan Fahey - "I actually wore number 21 from grade school up until freshman year when my twin brother stole my number on the first day of our freshman season. He took number 21 and I had to find another number so I just picked 10. There weren't many left to pick from on the B team."
No. 11 Jordan Taylor - "I wanted number 21 for Kevin Garnett, but that number was gone when I got to high school so I picked number 11. There wasn't really much of a reason that I picked that. When I came to Wisconsin I would have taken 21, but Morris Cain had it, so I stuck with 11. If I could, I'd change my number to 28 these days in honor of Vikings running back Adrian Peterson."
No. 12 Jason Bohannon - "I wore number 23 in high school for Michael Jordan and I wanted to wear that at Wisconsin, but Kammron Taylor had it already. If not that, I wanted number 22, but Michael Flowers had it. I thought about picking number 3 I think, but Pop [Trévon Hughes] had picked it before me. So, I guess it was my fourth choice, but I picked 12 because that was the number that Kirk Hinrich wears. He's from Iowa and I thought that was a good pick."
No. 15 Brett Valentyn - "I think originally I got number 15 because it was the smallest jersey on my youth AAU team. I picked it also though because it was the number that my dad wore when he played basketball in college at UW-Eau Claire."
No. 24 Tim Jarmusz - "The number I really wanted when I got to Wisconsin was 12, but J-Bo already had it, so I picked 24, which was my second favorite number. It's funny how later Kobe Bryant changed his number to 24 after me."
No. 30 Jon Leuer - "Well 22 was the number I wore in high school, but Michael Flowers had that when I got to Wisconsin. So I picked number 30 because I wanted a number that wasn't very popular and nobody is really known for that number."
Note: The last Wisconsin player to wear number 30 was Dave Mader (2001-04)
No. 31 Mike Bruesewitz - "I was given number 31 when I joined my eighth-grade AAU team late and that is what they had left. There isn't really anything special about it, I've just been wearing it ever since."
Note: For the past several seasons the Badgers have traveled with a number 31 jersey in case any player gets blood on his uniform and has to change jerseys. It's simply called the blood jersey. Upon hearing that he picked the same jersey that was formerly used as the blood jersey Bruesewitz said, "That doesn't surprise me."
No. 33 Rob Wilson - "I wanted number 23 in high school for LeBron James, but somebody else already had it. So I picked 33, because I guess it was next closest thing. It's also the number Kobe Bryant wore in high school."
No. 40 Jared Berggren - "I wore number 40 during my freshman and sophomore years of high school, but then I switched to number 52 as a junior because it was a bigger jersey. Then when I came here, Keaton was already in 52 and I wanted to switch back to number 40."
No. 44 J.P. Gavinski - "I picked 44 when I was in high school and I've been wearing it ever since. I picked it because my dad wore the same number in high school. He went to the same school that I went to."
No. 50 Ian Markolf - "I picked number 50 because it was my older brother Sam's high school number. I did it for him."
No. 52 Keaton Nankivil - "I had the last pick of numbers during my freshman year of high school and number 52 was the highest one left that fit me. I wore 52 all through high school and then kept it when I came to Wisconsin. I also like it because it's the number of cards in a deck... or weeks in a year."
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Patrick Herb
UW Athletic Communications
