Gary Seymour, sports@wolfrivermedia.com
Pleasure can be spoiled by describing it, but what the University of Wisconsin basketball team has put together over the past two months is notable, a sequence of windfalls like discovering a $10 bill in an old pair of suit pants and later finding a couple of 20s in the jacket.
The smile hasn’t worn off from one surprise when the Badgers hit you with a bigger one.
Going nowhere at 9-9 and 1-4 in the Big Ten, Wisconsin reeled off 11 wins in 12 games to guarantee an 18th straight berth at the NCAA Tournament.
There, the No. 7-seed Badgers beat Pittsburgh 47-43 in the first round of the East Regional, and then knocked off No. 2-seed Xavier 66-63 at the buzzer, putting them in the Sweet Sixteen for the fourth time in the last five years and setting the stage for Friday’s clash with Notre Dame.
The showdown with the Fighting Irish is intriguing. Lady Luck has flirted heavily with both teams throughout the first two rounds, and on Friday night the coquettish little vixen finally will be in the same room with the other two. Something has to give. Both Notre Dame and Wisconsin won their last games in spectacular, destiny-friendly fashion, and both teams have a knack for the dramatic.
For the Badgers to be considered one of the best teams in the nation at this stage of the season is remarkable enough, given that not long ago they weren’t even considered the best college team in Wisconsin.
An embarrassing defeat at the hands of Western Illinois preceded losses to intrastate rivals Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Marquette, and by the time the Badgers escaped Wisconsin-Green Bay with a 5-point win, none of their fans had any reasonable expectations for the postseason.
After all, the two best players from last year’s title-game team – Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker – were gone, and the program was enduring the turmoil of head coach Bo Ryan’s quitting in December. A season of modest accomplishments was the anticipated outcome.
Then, one of Kaminsky’s protégés, 6-9 forward Ethan Happ, began playing like his former mentor, and guys like Bronson Koenig, Nigel Hayes and Vitto Brown were making plays. At some point, under interim coach Greg Gard, it all coalesced. Wisconsin started looking like last year’s Badgers.
They demonstrated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament that regardless of who graduated and who’s coaching, they can still score 47 points in a postseason game and win.
They showed in the Xavier game that they are still rubbing elbows with fate. Koenig sandwiched two of his six 3-point field goals around a clutch defensive play by guard Zak Showalter, who drew a charge that gave Wisconsin possession with 4 seconds left and the game tied.
Notre Dame is a slight favorite Friday, but make no mistake; there are no Goliath’s in the field. Anyone can beat anyone – ask Michigan State, the No. 2 seed chased out by No. 15 Middle Tennessee.
It was a winning season for the Badgers irrespective of what Friday brings. The job done by Gard jumping on board in midstream was laudable, a seizing of opportunity reminiscent of Steve Fisher’s fairy tale finish in 1989.
After the ‘89 regular season and before the start of the NCAA tournament, Michigan coach Bill Frieder accepted a job at Arizona State, to begin the next year. Frieder told Michigan athletic director Bo Schembechler not to worry, that he would still coach the Wolverines in the NCAA Tournament. Schembechler told Frieder he wasn’t worried. He also told him he didn’t work there anymore, firing Frieder and turning the coaching reins for the tournament over to Fisher, the assistant head coach. Michigan won the national championship. Fisher kept the job at Michigan for another eight years.
The anticipation of how Gard and the Badgers’ odyssey will continue is the stuff that makes March mad. What is certain is that grateful Wisconsin fans are getting an eyeful of tournament suspense that a few months ago no one could have seen coming.