(This is written prior to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship
Game being played in Indianapolis.)
I am a mess
– nervous, edgy – a certifiable basket case.
I have the Basketball Jones,
addicted to the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team coached by Bo
Ryan. I have worn UW red everyday since
March 1st – alternating two red Badger hats, two Badger sweatshirts,
a red Badger pullover and three other red Badger t-shirts for my daily attire. A red Badger Motion W flag adorns my car.
In the coaching parlance, I am a Badger Basketball Benny gone ballistic
and bonkers, as UW has advanced to the NCAA Championship game.
I have been
going to Badger games at the Kohl Center for over a decade. Bob Stirn, who was superintendent for the La
Farge School District for a number of years, had Badger season tickets and we
started going to some of the games together in the 2002-03 season. Eventually, after Bob had retired and started
wintering in Florida, I bought his season tickets for the Badger basketball
games. We sat in those seats in Section
220 of the Kohl Center for a number of years.
Those seats looked right down on the Badger student sections, the
Grateful Red, as they are sometimes called.
Sometimes watching the student section and the UW Pep Band was more
entertaining than watching the basketball team play. For the last two years we
had seats in Section 223, which is on the same side as our previous seats, but
behind the Badgers bench.
The 2013-14
Badger basketball season was interesting in that the team started the season
with a long winning streak, which led to a high national rating of #3 in
week-11 of the season. Then they hit a
really rough patch in January in the beginning of the Big 10 season, losing
five of six games. That string of losses
would cost them any chance at winning the conference title, but they again
started playing well in the back half of the conference schedule and finished
tied for second in the Big 10. With a
26-7 season record, Wisconsin was awarded a #2-seed in the NCAA tournament and
started their tourney run at the fan friendly Bradley Center in Milwaukee. After demolishing American by a score of
75-35 in the NCAA opener, UW found themselves in peril in their second game
against Oregon. Trailing by twelve at
the half, Wisconsin put on a furious second half rally fueled by the huge
home-state fan support to outscore the Ducks by 20 on their way to a 85-77
thrilling win.
The Oregon
comeback introduced the country to an emerging star for the Badgers – Frank
Kaminsky. The 7-foot junior center led
the Badgers with 19 points and 10 rebounds and set the stage for his true
coming-out party at Anaheim the next weekend in the NCAA Regional games. In the semi-final game, UW dismantled a good
Baylor team as Kaminsky again led the Badgers with 19 points and 10
rebounds. More extraordinary was
Kaminsky’s passing as the Badgers sliced up Baylor’s vaunted zone defense. In the Elite-8 regional final game, Kaminsky played
a remarkable game, scoring 28 points and recording another double-double to
lead the Badgers to a pulsating 64-63 overtime win over #1 seed Arizona. “Frank The Tank” had led the Badgers to the
Final 4!
As we all
know, Wisconsin lost in that first game of the Final 4, falling 74-73 to
Kentucky on a last second shot. UW
finished 30-8 for the year and ranked #4 in the final coach’s national poll. But more importantly, that Badger team laid
the groundwork for this year’s amazing season.
Of the nine-man rotation used by Coach Ryan in that magical run to the
Final 4 in March of 2014, only Ben Brust was a graduating senior. When Kaminsky announced a month after the end
of the season that he would forego the NBA draft and return for his senior
season at UW, the stage was set for this year’s magical season.
The Duke
Blue Devils came to the Kohl Center to play Bo’s Boys on December 3, 2014. It was a battle of college basketball
heavyweights and one of the most anticipated games in Badger basketball history. Courtside seats were being scalped for
thousands of dollars per pair on Stub Hub.
Tickets in Section 223 were valued at anywhere from $250 to $350 per
seat. Watching the game, I was seated
beside three rabid Duke fans clad in their colors.
It was a
great college basketball game, fiercely fought from beginning to end. Duke led most of the way and near the end of
the game, the Duke fan seated beside me turned and said that the game felt like
a Final 4 game. He was right because the
level of talent and the intensity of play were first class all the way. The ten-point victory margin, 80-70, for Duke
was a testament to their outstanding shooting and ability to penetrate to the
basket. For the next week, I told everyone
who would listen that I wished the Badgers would get to play Duke again.
Duke shot
65% from the field in that game! That is
an outstanding, almost unheard of shooting percentage for a college game. My thinking is that nobody can shoot 65% in a
game like that – for crying out loud, you can put most college teams on the
floor with nobody guarding them and they could not shoot that percentage! Could they ever do that again if they played
the Badgers?
Wisconsin
on the other hand missed an inordinate amount of shots in the paint in the Duke
game, especially in the crucial points of the second half. The Badgers magnificent front line never
could get going in that Duke game. Frank
Kaminsky did not score in double figures nor did he rebound in double figures
either – a rarity for a player who would lead his team in both categories for
the season. Sam Dekker, the 6’9” Badger
forward was still nursing a sprained ankle and was a non-factor in the
game. Traevon Jackson had a remarkable
offensive game to score 25 points, but could not will Wisconsin to victory over
the Blue Devils.
From that
point on, the Badgers front line of Kaminsky, Dekker and 6’8” forward Nigel
Hayes would dominate their opponents. UW
would win every game they played except for road losses to a bad Rutgers team
(Kaminsky did not play due to a head injury and Jackson broke his foot and
would miss the next nineteen games.) and a good Maryland bunch. On March 1, the Badgers clinched a share of
the Big 10 championship in their final home game by defeating a very good
Michigan State team, 68-61. On that
Senior Day at the Kohl Center, Kaminsky was magnificent for the Badgers,
scoring 31 points and dominating play on both ends of the court. After the game was concluded, nobody would
leave the arena as Badger fans stayed to watch the presentation of the Big 10
trophy, the Senior videos played on the scoreboard video panels and the team
and Coach Ryan cutting down the nets. (Two
more road wins at Minnesota and Ohio State the following week guaranteed the
Badgers would not share the conference trophy with another team. Maryland would finish second, two games
behind the Badgers.)
I began to
wear the colors on that first day of March.
From that time until now, the day of the NCAA final game, I have sported
Badger Red each and every day. Bo’s Boys
would go on to win the Big 10 Tournament held in Chicago. After their scintillating overtime victory
over Tom Izzo’s Michigan State Spartans in the championship game of that
conference tournament, Wisconsin was awarded a #1 seed for the NCAA Men’s
Tournament.
March
Madness was upon us again. I filled
out my bracket, dutifully plotting the Badgers, Kentucky, Michigan State and
Duke through to the Final 4. I still
wanted the Badgers to have another shot at the Blue Devils. I continued to wear the Badger Red.
Two victories over Coastal Carolina
and Oregon in NCAA games played in Omaha led Bo’s Boys back to Los Angeles for
the Regional Finals. North Carolina fell
to the Big Red in the Sweet 16 game
played at the Staples Center as Sam Dekker led with a double-double of 23
points and 10 rebounds in the 79-72 win.
In the Elite 8 regional final, the Badgers outscored Arizona to win
85-78. Dekker was named the Regional’s
MVP and Nigel Hayes wowed the country with his play and vocal elocution. Frank The Tank was on ESPN’s SportsCenter and interviewed Will
Farrell, the original Frank The Tank. I sported Badger Red each and every day on
the way back to the Final 4.
On to Indy – Frank The Tank is
named Player of the Year – Down goes undefeated Kentucky as Bucky shocks the nation
with their play and toughness. The 71-64
win was formed when Dekker took over late to get Bucky the lead and secured
when Bronson Koenig swished in the clinching free throws. The Badgers will play Duke in the final
game. I won my bracket – I got my wish
for the rematch with the Blue Devils – I wear the Badger Red.
ON
WISCONSIN!!
(This was written after the game.)
Be careful what you wish for!
