BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Tai Strickland has always taken pride in breaking down a defense off the bounce. He loves getting into the paint with the option of creating a shot for himself at the rim or finding a teammate.
During the recruiting process, he found Brad Davison… to be on the same wavelength.
"He's got a great basketball mind; he's very motivated and he works hard," Strickland said of his new teammate. "Those are things that I want to rub off on me, too. I want to come in and just work, work, work."
On Wednesday, it all worked out for Strickland and the Badgers who upgraded their backcourt depth when the St. Petersburg (Florida) High School point guard signed his national letter of intent.
"I'm happy… a lot of weight is off my shoulders right now. I'm able to finally let go and get ready for next season," said Strickland who chose Wisconsin over Rutgers and Minnesota among others.
"Being on the campus, being around the coaches, being around the players, the culture is really special. They've got a lot of things going on up there (in Madison) and I'm glad to be a part of it."
On his campus visit, Strickland got to know Davison, the high-energy freshman guard who started 29 games and averaged 12 points despite playing with a shoulder that kept popping out of place.
"He's very motivated and I love that because I'm motivated, too," Strickland said. "I wasn't the most highly-recruited player until late in my recruitment. That definitely kept a chip on my shoulder."
Strickland didn't fault recruiters for overlooking him. When he was a freshman, he was only 5-foot-3. "I was definitely undersized for most of my high school career," he said. "That was always a problem."
There were major growth spurts between his freshman and sophomore year (five inches) and again between his sophomore and junior year (four inches). Today, he's listed at 6-2, 180 pounds.
"There were a lot of awkward stages — knee problems, hip problems, tendinitis — just from growing," he said. "My athleticism started coming this summer. My legs caught up with my body."
All along, Rod Strickland offered reassuring words and positive feedback to his son.
"He just told me to stay patient," Tai said. "He had been through it, so I went along with it."
His dad was also a late-bloomer.
Rod Strickland began to blossom during his junior year at DePaul where the 6-3, 175-pound guard averaged 20 points and eight assists and was named first-team All-American.
After playing in three NCAA tournaments, including a couple of Sweet 16 appearances, he was a first round draft choice of the New York Knicks in 1988 and played 17 NBA seasons with nine teams.
Strickland had his best season when he was 31. In 1997-98, he led the league in assists (10.5) while averaging 18 points for the Washington Wizards. He retired with the Houston Rockets in 2005.
Overall, Strickland accounted for 14,463 points (13.2 ppg) and 7,987 assists (7.3 apg) in 1,094 games. He was on teams that made the playoffs 11 times and was known for his ability to "finish in traffic."
Most recently, Strickland was an assistant coach at the University of South Florida (Tampa, Fla.). Prior to USF, he served in an administrative capacity on John Calipari's staff at Memphis and Kentucky.
Given his credentials, as a player and coach, you could see how he could cast a shadow on his offspring. "But I don't really believe there was a whole lot of pressure on me," Tai Strickland countered.
Not that others haven't tried to make that connection. Aren't you Rod Strickland's kid?
"Everyone always compared me to him, but I don't compare myself to him," Tai said. "That's not a big deal to me — to try to be him. That's not what I expect to be. I'm trying to be me."
By now, Tai Strickland has come to grips with being overshadowed… on his own team.
At Tampa Catholic High School, Strickland was teammates with 6-11 Kevin Knox who led Kentucky in scoring this season and has since hired an agent and declared for the NBA draft.
After transferring to St. Petersburg High for his senior season, Strickland shared the backcourt with the program's all-time leading scorer Serrel Smith, who just signed with Maryland.
Strickland feels comfortable in the company of basketball headliners. After announcing his UW commitment via Twitter, it was retweeted by John Wall, an all-star guard with the Washington Wizards.
Wall, 27, played at Kentucky the same time that Rod Strickland was Calipari's special assistant.
The elder Strickland grew up in the South Bronx housing projects with Drederick Irving who later asked Rod to be the godfather of his son, Kyrie Irving, who has become one of the NBA's bigger stars.
Tai Strickland is not a name-dropper, but he has "hung out" with some of the more impressive names in the game. Wisconsin's back-to-back Final Four teams had a player with comparable DNA.
The starting point guard was Traevon Jackson, the son of Jimmy Jackson, a former Ohio State All-American and national college player of the year and a long-time pro (12 teams in 14 seasons).
Trae Jackson had a toughness, a grittiness to his play. Tai Strickland has the same qualities.
"In my early stages — when I was short and little — I had to be tough or I would get bullied," Strickland said. "So, the toughness is there. I always loved guarding the best player on the other team.
"Everyone can score; there are a lot of scorers out there. But what separates you is if you can play both ways. And I feel that's definitely something I can take pride in."
The Badgers were attracted to Strickland because he can get downhill on the dribble. "I can get to the basket whenever I want," he boasted. "That's something I also pride myself in."
Two years ago, he wasn't bold enough to say something like that. Last summer, though, he began to turn the corner athletically with his performance at an NBA Top 100 camp in Virginia.
"After I came back from that camp," he said, "it was the turning point for me in confidence."
Last December, St. Petersburg played in the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic in San Diego, California.
"I played my butt off the whole week," said Strickland, who practiced and played alongside of his younger brother. "That's when it definitely showed in my game that I'm ready for the next level."
One of the things selling Strickland on the Badgers was the positive attitude of everyone in the program even though Wisconsin failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament for the first time in 19 years.
"The players are really motivated; they're ready to start winning again," he said. "Everybody is getting healthy and the full squad will be back. And I'm ready to help with whatever I can do."
Besides Davison, who had off-season surgery, the Badgers will return guards D'Mitrik Trice, Brevin Pritzl and Kobe King. Plus, Trevor Anderson will be eligible after transferring from Green Bay.
Trice and King, who can also line up at small forward, played in only 10 games last season because of injuries. From a personal standpoint, the 18-year-old Strickland has one thing in mind.
"To get better," Strickland said. "I want to be better this year than last year. I want to keep getting better because that development shows I'm working. If I'm working, then the sky is the limit."
