Congrats to Chris Witty, Derek Parra, Casey FitzRandolph for this year's performances, and all the Wisconsin speed skaters who have won medals in previous Olympics.

But, have we seen the end of a long tradition? Going back to the days when the facility was nothing but a cold outdoors oval, what now is the Pettit Center has turned out Olympic speed skaters.

Eric Heiden, Dan Jansen, Bonnie Blair and others preceded the current crop of Pettit alums who have earned medals.

But, as was emphasized several times during the Games, the Salt Lake facility is faster and much more modern than the Pettit Center. In fact, several of this year's skaters moved there for the last few months to train at the facility.

Will that be a trend? And, if so, what is the future of the Pettit Center? Will it simply become a nice recreational skating rink?

I ask these questions because I really don't know the answers. In fact, I would love if anybody linked to the Center, and especially some skaters, would respond to this column.

My hope is that the skaters from the Midwest will remain loyal to the Pettit Center, and train there at least when no special competition is planned in Salt Lake.

But, I also recognize that the Pettit Center sits in the middle of an urban area, not likely to ever host a Winter Olympics. Meanwhile, Salt Lake is right next to one of the great winter recreation areas in the country, and it has facilities where the Olympics were held.

It would be very understandable if young, promising skaters started moving there, but it also would be a shame for the Pettit Center. While those skaters have never provided the financial bread-and-butter for the Pettit, they certainly have added prestige to the place. It would be a shame if it became just another ice rink.

The Bucks seem to be getting back on track, with three straight wins. Sam Cassell's health remains a key. His sprained toe is very painful.

"It feels like it does when you stub your toe getting out of bed, but all the time," Cassell said last week. "I just have to play through the pain. It's okay when I get a day between games, but games on back-to-back days might be tough."

The Bucks have two of those coming up this week, when they host the L.A. Lakers at the Bradley Center Tuesday night and then travel to Boston on Wednesday. They could use Sam for both of those games.

The Bucks stayed on track despite some whining by Glenn Robinson, after he was removed from the game in the fourth quarter of the tough win over Golden State.

Big Dog flung his headband into the stands when coach George Karl removed him, and refused to join the huddles during timeouts.

After the game, Robinson whined that he didn't like being removed from the game after "giving up one offense rebound." The truth is that Big Dog had been getting used by Jason Richardson of the Warriors all night. He also was turning the ball over and not blocking out and not even shooting the ball very well.

Michael Redd and Tim Thomas were playing much better. And, when Robinson was removed, the Bucks started their comeback that led to eventual victory.

Robinson has come a long way in the last couple seasons, but he still falls into the trap of being a selfish player at times, who doesn't always give his best effort and doesn't always think about the team first.

Big Dog whined that he wasn't sure if he wanted to continue to play in Milwaukee if things didn't change. The inside word always has been that the basketball people with the Bucks wouldn't mind trading him, but Senator Herb Kohl wants to keep the guy.

If the Bucks don't make it to the NBA Finals this season, maybe Kohl can be convinced that Robinson should be traded if the team is going to take the next big step to championship caliber.

I've covered the Bucks since the late 1970s and never have seen a shooting display like Redd put on in the fourth quarter of the win over Houston last week. He set a NBA record with eight 3-pointers in one quarter.

"I never had a streak like that in my career, at high school or college or up here," Redd said. "It was crazy out there. My teammates were getting into it, the fans were getting into it, and I was getting into it."

Redd has turned out to be a great No. 2 pick. That might be another reason for trading Big Dog this summer, so the Bucks can get the money under the salary cap to keep Redd for a long time.