The Wisconsin Sports Rant

What happened today was unacceptable. Fuck 30 wins. Fuck the #1 ranking. This team is a miserable, terrible and disgusting failure. They didn’t win the Big Ten regular season title. They didn’t win the Big Ten Conference Tournament Title. They didn’t make it out of the first weekend of the NCAA tournament while playing in their own backyard. And all this has come as a number two seed in the tournament. This is the biggest waste of talent since the Finley/Griffith team, which, I might add, has the same lack of titles on their resume. There will be fans and players who will take pride in this season. I do not. If an 8th seed can make the Final Four (2000), a 6th seed make the Elite Eight (2005), why does a 2nd seed with supposedly amazing depth and talent get bounced in the second round? There is absolutely no excuse. And another thing, Coach Ryan…if Brian Butch is available, and you are playing for your tournament lives, what the fuck is he doing sitting on the bench? That is another wonderful example of a waste of talent. If he couldn’t go, then he shouldn’t have been cleared to play. Period. Why the heck is Bohannon not shooting the three earlier? Why is Tucker still shooting threes when you just relinquished the lead? And where the hell did the defense go? I can go on and on, but I have to stop before I fling this computer into the wall. This Badger team has let an entire legion of students, alumni, and general fans down. They should feel awful, ashamed, and embarrassed. This was their chance, and they completely and utterly blew it as only one of my teams can.

This blog is going on hiatus for a while. Sure, I can keep bitching about the Bucks, or be excited about the Brewers while they are mathematically in it, but I just don’t care right now. That post from a few weeks back after Michigan State beat Wisconsin in which I said that that was the most disappointed I have ever been after a Badger game is now inaccurate. THIS is the most disappointed, and I’ll bet that goes for most Badger fans out there. The severely anticlimactic 2007 NCAA tournament will forever live in my mind as a complete and unmitigated disaster. A hearty BOOOOO as I sign off for a while, and as I do, I leave you all with one final thought:

Sports are nothng but disappointment after disappointment. Fuck ‘em.

I can’t believe I almost had to write an addendum for my previous post. I don’t need to go over what ocurred today at the United Center. If you read this blog, you no doubt were right there with me in the land of nausea until the middle of the 2nd half. I was cursing Kammron Taylor like nobody’s business, and then, all of a sudden, it’s like he flipped his ‘on’, no, his ‘turbo’ switch and went absolutely nuts. He scored 24 points in like 10 minutes, and that after starting out 0-8. I was shocked both by the way we were getting schooled, and by the way things turned around so quickly. There are huge negatives to address from this performance, but there is also much to be taken from the positives. The biggest being that historically, highly seeded teams that struggle in their opening game tend to bounce back in a big way for the rest of the tournament. Wisconsin took the hardest haymaker TAMCC (who played an absolutely amazing game - my hat’s off to them) could dole out. That was one of the better 15 seeds I have ever seen play. Still, Wisconsin came out completely cold. They couldn’t hit a thing. Yet for all the panic many fans were feeling (myself included), the players did what they had to do — not back down, and just keep shooting. Tucker helped pull them back into it along with Bohannon. But it was Taylor who won this game. I have to hand it to him, I have never seen a player go from absolute goat to absolutely unstoppable like that in a college hoops game before. I just hope he can play that way for a full 40 minutes, because the games get tougher from here. UNLV should not be taken lightly. Lon Kruger has had that team playing good ball all year long. Brian Butch may return for the Badgers, which would be highly welcome, and also highly amazing. I just thank goodness that Wisconsin did not inscribe itself in the book of all-time upsets today, and hope that that first half will be the nadir of their tournament.

There has been a disturbing trend associated with the teams covered by this blog over the last 5 years. Ever since the Milwaukee Bucks took a nosedive for the ages in 2002, there have been far too many seasons that petered out long before they officially ended. Some examples to go with those miracle 2002 Bucks:

• 2004 Wisconsin Badgers football – Started 9-0 finsished 9-3, getting absolutely slaughtered by Michigan State and Iowa
• 2005 Wisconsin Badgers football – Aside from the amazing win against Auburn in the Capital One Bowl, this team puttered to the end with two straight Big Ten losses.
• 2002 Green Bay Packers – At 12-3 with a chance to lock up home field advantage, they were smoked by the Jets, then embarrassed by the Atlanta Falcons at home.
• 2003 Green Bay Packers – 4^th and 26. Need I say more?
• 2004 Milwaukee Bucks – Needing only one win in the last three games to secure both a winning record and at least one home court series in the playoffs, the Bucks blew all of them and had to face the Detroit Pistons. That ended badly, as one might expect.
• 2006 Wisconsin Badgers basketball – If you made the ‘L’s at the end of the year ‘K’s instead and hung them on the outfield wall at Miller Park, you probably would have thought you were watching Roger Clemens pitch.
• 2006 Marquette Men’s Hoops – After a pretty excellent season, the last two losses were their first round games in the Big East and NCAA tournaments. Granted, they were really young, so this was not the worst thing in the world, but it was frustrating nonetheless.
• Any Milwaukee Brewers team from the last 5 years

And now we can add to the list the 2007 Marquette Men’s Hoops team. What a pathetic performance last night. No scoring for nearly the first 10 minutes?? Only 5 two-point baskets all night? That is truly awful. I cannot believe they only lost by 12. Ever since the season’s high point (when they were 8-2 in conference), they have absolutely plummeted. The loss last night may have been partly due to not having Jerel McNeal available, but the overall trend since that apex is endemic to the whole team. Dominic James completely forgot how to shoot. Wesley Matthews has been totally absent. Dan Fitzgerald gets in foul trouble too easily, is too slow to guard his match-up much of the time, and then is inconsistent from the three point line. Overall, this team just stopped being good. That’s about as clearly as I can put it. They played a single good game during that time, and it was probably because they were honoring the ’77 team and were all high on adrenaline. The only positive for Marquette is that they graduate no one, and if they can play an entire season the way they were playing when they beat Pittsburgh (in either game), then perhaps they can rebound next year. Still, the way they finished out their 2006-2007 season can be classified as nothing short of disappointing and embarrassing. Boo.

Note: I hope and pray that I will NOT have to add the 2007 Wisconsin Badgers to this list.

Note #2:  Prayer not answered.  As usual.

As if it should come as some big surprise, the Bucks dismissed Terry Stotts Wednesday, as well they should have. Look…no one likes to see a stand up guy lose his job. But in the NBA, it’s winning that matters, and not much else. The Bucks simply haven’t done enough of that this year. Like I mentioned in my previous Bucks post, injuries can only shoulder so much of the blame. Losing close games over and over, having your big draft pick start to look somewhat “busty”, and a complete disdain for defense were just some of the contributing factors to the move. The sad thing for Stotts is he is unlikely to get another NBA head coaching job for a long time, if ever. He has presided over two massive debacles in the last 10 years. Then again, maybe that’s saying something. As for the team, I believe this year will now only get uglier, if that is possible. The players will most likely start looking forward to the end of the season, by which point the fans will have already switched into Brewers mode. Perhaps the Bucks can channel a little more of that lottery luck that netted them the Australian matador.  However, this time they will have their pick of some real talent. You know, like Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, or anyone on Florida.

Forget the hour I spent working on this morning’s post. It is utterly meaningless. Just as when Wisconsin became AP #1 on February 19th, they took their success and flushed it completely down the toilet. With the one-of-a-kind opportunity to secure a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament, the Badgers played their worst game of the year. EXCELLENT timing! I am calling out this team right now. If they want to be one of those wonderful trivia questions about 2 seeds being beat by 15 seeds, then by all means, turn in a performance like today. They were sloppy with the ball. They had absolutely NO offensive strategy for attacking the 2-3 zone. They made NO adjustments to try to combat that defense at halftime. They looked like a complete mess. Their 3 point shooting was horrid. Tucker did nothing. Jason Bohannon, who I am totally ok with jacking up three pointers, decided not to shoot! I just don’t understand how a team like this comes out on national television with the committee and everyone else watching, and embarrass themselves in this fashion. They should be ashamed. They should be angry. It was almost like watching their first round exit from last year’s tournament when Arizona laughed them out of the arena.

For all the heights the Badgers have achieved, they didn’t win the Big Ten regular season title (which they have done before), and they didn’t win the Big Ten tournament title (which they have done before). So honestly, the win total is gaudy and nice, and the split second they were ranked #1 was thrilling, but if they don’t go very deep in this tournament, how can you be content with this season? Guys….you had a great year. You played some terrific basketball, and you made a lot of fans very happy. But no one is going to be happy if you perform like this again.

Zgoldberg, commenting on the last post (mostly because I have been slack and haven’t made a Badger post yet this weekend), writes:

Just want to go on the record saying UW beats OSU and still gets dicked out of a 1 seed because the game will finish too late for the selection committee to factor it in. That is all.

I am interested to see if this will prove true.  I think beating both Michigan State and Illinois by double digits should have already put them squarely in the #1 seed status.  However, knowing how the NCAA tournament selection committee works and favors the old standbys, Zgold may be correct.  The one thing I would say is that if the committee decides that it can’t give both OSU and Wisconsin #1 seeds, then perhaps they will build a contingency into their selection based on the outcome of the game.  It is true that in 2004 they completely screwed Wisconsin after the Badgers won the tournament.  It seemed that the outcome had no bearing on the seed, and I think that was the case.  However, I also think that because of that debacle, the committee is more sensitive to the Big Ten championship game than it used to be.  That being said, if they do build in the contingency, perhaps it says that the winner gets a #1 while the loser gets a #2.  I think that it would be more likely, however, that the contingency would specify that if OSU wins, Wisconsin falls to a #2, and if Wisconsin wins, OSU merely falls to a lower #1 seed.  So, Wisconsin very well could get “dicked”, but I do believe that if they can get the win, they should get a #1 seed.  Whether that will happen is much more fuzzy.  UCLA should have already cost themselves a #1 with their early exit from the Pac 10 tourney.  Assuming that Kansas and OSU have clinched #1 seeds, that leaves two to dole out between three teams - Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Florida.  I realize Florida appears to have rediscovered its groove during the SEC tournament, but that league has proven to be an absolute joke.  North Carolina definitely looks like they have returned to form as well, but losing to NC State could prove costly.  So while I believe a Badger win should give them a #1 seed, there is the possibility that Wisconsin will be the odd man out.  Heck, maybe even assuming Kansas is a lock is wrong.  Maybe all five teams vying for the top 4 seeds need to win today to get those seeds.  Yet, as I stated earlier, the committee always seems to be a bit biased, and Wisconsin just doesn’t have that historical program sexiness that the Kansas’s, Floridas, and UNCs have.  Still, a win means that they would have taken two out of three from Ohio State, would hold the crown of Big Ten champion, and would finish 30-4.  If those aren’t #1 seed credentials, I don’t know what are.

Marquette lost the game against Pittsburgh in the Quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament due to two reasons. The first, which was in their power to control, was the turnovers. Dan Fitzgerald stepping out of bounds before hitting a three? Poor passes all over the place. Yeah, that was their own fault. The second reason was not in their control…the officiating. Call me a homer, a whiner, whatever. Look at the free throw disparity. Marquette got called for everything that was questionable. Every loose ball or rebound that was a foul, was on Marquette. The refs bailed Pitt out numerous times under the basket.  Even worse, Pitt was given free reign on the defensive end. When this happens, it is a snowball effect: Refs let Pitt get away with hacks, hand checks, etc., so they play tighter defense since they know they won’t get called. It cascades until you see them applying “pressure” that gets more suffocating as they continue to test the limits of what will be called against them. When nothing is, they can play as tight as they want. Likewise, when you are called for everything, you can’t afford to play tight defense unless you want everyone sitting on the bench. Pitt was in the single bonus with 11 plus minutes left in the first half, and the double bonus at the 6:40 mark. It was ridiculous. Now if you went to look at the free throw statistics as I mentioned, you would have found that Pitt went 27-41 (65.9%) while Marquette went 17-19 (89.5%). They hit 8 more free throws than MU even got to take! Appalling. But hey…Marquette was the 6 seed playing in only their second Big East tourney. Why give them the breaks, right?

If you were told at the end of the 2006 Green Bay Packers’ season that it would mark the end of an era, you would have prepared yourself for Aaron Rodgers in the 5 step drop next year.  Yet it was Ahman Green, the Packers’ most prolific running back of all time, that will no longer don the green and gold.  Today’s news completely caught me off guard. Perhaps it is because I have not been able to follow the Wisconsin sports scene as intensely over the last week, or perhaps it was truly a shock to all of Packer country.  Either way, it is a big blow to the Packers.  Ahman may not be as durable or possess the same skills he had even 3 years ago, but he showed in 2006 that he could still play.  I am not convinced the Vernand Morency is the long term answer for the Packers as their featured back, but it looks like that may be where we are going.  Of course, as Green ended up in Houston, Samkon Gado should be available…

 CORRECTION: Green is actually 46 yards shy of being the most prolific rusher in Packer history.

My goodness…is it even possible to lose twice in a season when your star player scores 50 or more points?  If you play for the hapless (and hopeless) Milwaukee Bucks, then the answer is yes.  What an amazing way to lose.  Not only did they Bucks blow an 18 point fourth quarter lead, but in doing so, they wasted Michael Redd’s 52 point effort.  Of course, it didn’t help that they let Ben Gordon score 48, some of them completely uncontested.  The Bucks are an unmitigated disaster and as I have posted previously in this blog, Terry Stotts should be fired post-haste.  18 points in the fourth quarter???   How many times are you going to let the coach stand there in press conferences and say that his team played really well…just not quite well enough to finish.  To me that is basically like admitting that you are not doing the job you are being paid handsomely to do.  The bottom line is that the Bucks have had all sorts of excuses as to why they were losing, but when your best player scores 52, you have an 18 point lead in the final period, and you still come out with the ‘L’, there is simply no excuse at all.

Wow. As quickly as Wisconsin lost their number 1 ranking last week, Kammron Taylor shed his clutchlessness in 8 seconds of basketball Saturday. Yes, I will fully admit that I called out Taylor last week for his utter lack of clutch basketball that contributed to the loss at Ohio State. Even up until he hit the game winning three pointer yesterday, he continued to miss shots that he had been hitting earlier this season. Then, with one play, he snatched victory from what appeared to be another narrow defeat, and righted the Badgers’ momentum just when they needed it. As Neitzel’s long jumper with 91 seconds left swished through the hoop, that feeling of doubt crept into my (as well as probably many fans’) head. And when Taylor missed the jumper the next time down the court, returning the ball back to the Spartans who already had the 50-49 lead, I was sure it was not to be the Badgers’ day…again. Yet what could only be descibed as a Hollywood ending on Senior Day, the more unlikely senior was the one who sealed the win. Alando Tucker finished his Kohl Center career with a phenomenal performance, and rightly received the player of the game award for his 26 points, but the epitome of the storybook ending was the dagger thrown by Taylor into the hearts of Spartan fans everywhere. This was a game Wisconsin just had to have, on several levels, and in the end, they succeeded. With so many losses by other top 8 teams over the last week, including UCLA’s yesterday, a number 1 seed really is, once again, the Badgers’ to lose. I truly believe that as long as they make the Big Ten championship game, they will be a number 1; and if they play and beat Ohio State in that game, may even get that coveted Midwest regional number 1. So, I congratulate all the seniors on the Badgers, and give a large tip of my hat to Kammaron Taylor, who I had been lambasting only moments before his winner. In sports, sometimes one’s recompense comes that quickly.