I swear this happens every single year. The hoops team gets my excitement levels to new heights before dropping me hard on my face. This year seems to be no different. It starts out with all the perts saying we are going to finish at the bottom of the Big Ten. Then we start the season pretty well, losing a close game to the Zags, but move into the top 25. Not really a surprise if you have followed any of Bo Ryan's teams in the past, but I am feeling great. Then we have a match-up with the Dukies on our home floor. The final score is closer than the game really was as we easily handled one of the best teams in the country. Though the difference between Duke and say Kansas is night and day, the team was rolling, looking like they had a chance at being a top 10 team with only a single bad loss on there resume. Then we lose Jon Leuer, arguable our best player, to a broken wrist. At this point I would be happy just making the tournament. I mean we had a couple of marquee wins (we also kicked the shit out of a very good Purdue team) and it seemed like our season couldn't reach any more high points. Again I was wrong as Leuer replacements step up big time, leading us to a narrow defeat at Purdue and a huge win at home against MSU. We now look like we have a real shot at getting back in the big 11 title race. Things are looking great as rumors of a quick recovery from our best big man are circling the Internet. I think to myself, "if we can get Leuer back, hold court at home, and win the games we should on the road, we are looking at 24-5 finish, a share of the big 11 title, and a possible 3 seed in the big dance". Maybe I am being overly optimistic but the schedule started shaping up in our favor, the guys we had questions about are playing great, and we are winning in convincing fashion game in and game out. Not too mention a team that looks to have the chemistry of Bo's finest, despite not having a clear go-to player. As a close friend told me, "my bucky boner was fully erect". Things couldn't be going any better. Bo is finally going to be mentioned with the elite college coaches in the country. We would be poised for a deep run into the tourney, and all is well in Badgerland. Then it all came crashing down again like it has so many times in recent years. We blow a game to a pretty good Illinois team on our home floor. It wasn't the fact that we lost the game, it was just the fact that it was a game you need to win if you are going to be considered an upper echelon program. You have to hold serve on your home court and we are pretty much the best in the country at doing so. But Illinois made us look terrible. They carved up our vaunted defense. They made us look like a team of role players as their star stepped up and ours kept forcing bad shot after bad shot. It was just another series of events that makes me think, "why do I ever let myself get to excited or to down with these badger teams?" When they are good they are never as good as they seem, and when they are bad they are never as bad as they seem. Just like the time when Devin Harris left early the year before we made an Elite 8 run. Or the year when Brian Butch gets hurt when we have a possible #1 seed. Or the year when Marcus Landry and Greg Stiemsma get ruled ineligible when we are sitting in first place in the big 10 standings. Why would this year be any different? Excuse me if I sound like a whiny bitch. I just needed to vent a bit, because yesterdays game was so painful to watch.
Is the season over, not by any means. We still have an outside shot at finishing a top the big 10, we will probably still enter the tourney with a 4 or 5 seed, which is very good, and if Leuer comes back our team can knock off anyone. What frustrates me is that every time I think we have entered the top echelon of college basketball we have a bad loss that completely lets the air of my tires. I love following the Badgers hoops team more than any other team out there. I have come to terms that they are very rarely going to get the athletes needed to compete with the top five to ten programs in the country year in and year out. However they do so well at getting my hopes up every year, that I am dying for them to take that next step. It may never happen, I may get teased every year like I did from all the good looking girls back in High School and College. I guess I am OK with that, but if that is the case then this will most likely be a yearly post. Fucking deal with it. It could be worse. I could have grown up a Badger fan, but switched my allegiance to the Marquette Golden Eagles or the Milwaukee Panthers after going to school there. Thank god I didn't do that.
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8 comments:
Quit being such a pussy. It was one home loss against a team competing for the Big Ten championship, with our best defensive big man, best rebounder and probably best offensive threat in the training room. Somehow, we managed to win most of our games without him - many of them games people predicted we would lose even WITH him. Keep it in perspective.
They've done better than anybody expected without Leuer. We knew losing Leuer meant shooting from the outside and dribble-driving. Against Michigan last week, we hit shots and blew them out on the road. Against MSU last week, the dribble drives drew fouls and we hit enough shots to blow out MSU on an off-night for them.
Against Ill., the dribble drives resulted in a lot of contact, but zero foul calls and no points. Our guards stopped driving and settled for outside shots. They went cold late in the game and scored only 2 field goals on their last 18 possessions, were still within foul and pray distance in the final minute - and you blame the DEFENSE? I guess if we held Ill to zero, we'd only need to bank in a free throw to win. Great point.
Illinois is a very talented team and they are very much on the rise. I would not be the least bit surprised if they take at least a share of the conference title. For them to score 63, it doesn't exactly indicate a fundamental breakdown in defense. They knew they could get 18 to 24 foot shots with a high screen game. We knew it, too. We like it when people settle for long shots as their whole gameplan. Then they shot about 80% from 18 to up to 25, even 28 feet. Still scored only 63, with every other major conference laughing at that lame, low point production, and you're claiming they carved us up.
If you need your team to be ranked in the top 10 even though they are imperfect and lose a few games just like everybody else, stick with Duke. You'll be much happier. Dukie V. will hold your hand through the tough losses, and explain why the don't matter.
I'm sorry, UW's offense got 3 FGs on their last 18 possessions. Shoot a meager 30% and you win the fucking game. Any team goes that cold - and they did have some open looks that missed badly - you lose.
- missed 2-pointer
- missed 2 FTs
- missed 2-pointer, offensive rebound, made 2-pointer
- missed 2-pointer
- missed 3-pointer, offensive rebound, missed 3-pointer
- missed 3-pointer
- made 3-pointer (JBo)
- missed 2-pointer
- missed 2-pointer
- missed 2-pointer
- missed 2-pointer
- missed 3-pointer
- missed 3-pointer
- missed 3-pointer
- missed 3-pointer
- missed 3-pointer, offensive rebound, made 3-pointer (Wilson)
- missed 3-pointer
- missed 3-pointer
Tk,
You make valid points, the defense made enough plays to win, we lost to a very talented Illinois team, in a close game. It was an over reaction. I just need to not let my enthusiasm blind me because the Badgers are still very vulnerable in a very deep big ten. Especially with our reliance on the jump shot. When they fall we look really good, when they don't we can get beat by anyone. They are still a very good team and I still have high hopes, I just really wanted a big ten title this year when we were picked 7th. Everything was setting up for that to happen, and all they needed to do was win the games they were supposed to. They should have have won that game at home and I don't think that can be argued. That is why it was frustrating to watch. It would take a miracle for that to happen now.
Not sure how my liking Duke has anything to do with the game or my post. I guess unless you are trying to imply that I only like winners. Just a quick question for you TK, when did you start liking the Bears? I am guessing it was right before that 85' super bowl appearance? Just because the team I like to watch has actually sustained some success and your team sucks a fat, type 2, Jay Cutler Cock, doesn't make hopping on the bandwagon any less faggy.
My point about Duke, or the Yankees, or whatever other front-runner's cock you're slobbing on these days, is that it's really fucking easy to be a fan of a team that usually wins and usually gets a ton of free cock-strokes from the media every time you turn on the tv or radio. Being a Badgers fan requires a real commitment, and you may not be cut out for it. That's all I'm saying.
By the way, I was a Bears fan ever since they visited Platteville for a joint scrimmage camp with the Chiefs in 1983. Also, you knew that.
My older cousins - Bears fans - took me to see that scrimmage. The Bears went 8-8 that year, so yeah, I jumped on their average bandwagon if you want to ignore the facts: (1) I was 9 years old at the time, how many teams can you really be a fan of before that age? (2) I liked them because my older cousins liked them and every Packers fan I knew was a douchebag asshole. (3) I liked them because Walter Payton is my favorite player ever and I met him in 1983 at age 9. (4) Geographically, their home games were played closer to where I lived than any other team, including the Packers. (5) 26 years later, they are still my only NFL team, despite the fact that they have been pretty bad about 90% of the time in the past 25 years.
When Coach K finally dies of a faggot attack, Duke might fall from the national elite. (See Nebraska football.) If that happens, you will realize that you really don't give a fuck about something prissy little private school in hillbilly country 1,000 miles away. That's true bandwagoning, brother.
On the other hand, I've stuck by the Bears through the Peter Tom Willis era. Your attacking a true, lifelong Bears fan only shows your pathetic Duke-suckiness and lack of understanding of what it is to be a true fan of a team.
TK'S Criteria to be a "true fan"
- Must have lived within close proximity of team, or been to practice as child.
- Must not get any unfair national media coverage unless deserving.
- Must not have any national announcers that give your team praise if they are not deserving.
- Must have a shitty coach, or a revolving door at coach, so not to many "bandwagoners" will ever hop on board.
- Must have a great player that you like first there for making it only logical that you root for team as well.
- Most importantly you must like that team and only that team until the day you die.
Going by that criteria, the only team that I can be a true fan for is Marshall Cardinals. I admit you have won the argument of being the better fan than me. Let me ask you this, were you watching Brewer games and going to them before they got back to National prominence? How many Bucks games have you watched since Big Dog let us down with that basline jumper miss? I dont remember you having season hockey tickets before the won there last national championship. The fact of the matter is TK you can talk all this shit about being the best fan in the world but the fact of the matter remains 9 out of 10 people dont care to follow losers year in and year out. I guess that makes you a super fan and everyone else a cock slobbering bandwagon jumper as you so elogantly put. Which is fine, but dont think I will forget if you ever root stop paying attention to one of your so called teams when they are not winning.
I should not have dared to question the Badgers after losing at home when they were favored by 9 points. It was a bad loss that cost them a realistic shot at the Big 10 title. I was venting on that fact alone, since they were playing so great until that game. With or without Leuer they still were nearly a double digit favorite at home and that is a bad loss in my opinion. But then again, I am only about half the fan you are so my opinion should not mean that much.
Jeeze. Hug it out Broskis. You are family. Nothing like a Badger loss to get you too chest lumping like Elephant Walruses.
We take our Badger hoops seriously Geigs.
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