By Chris Bennett
Contributor
The typical Wisconsin sports fan is embarrassingly blessed over the course of the last 20 years.
In a closet or dresser drawer there might be a sizable stack of championship T-shirts and sweatshirts that haven’t seen the light of day in quite some time.
The Green Bay Packers have played in three Super Bowls since 1997, won two and been on the doorstep of several more.
The Milwaukee Brewers opened Miller Park in 2001. The ownership of Mark Attanasio finally brought capital and gravitas to a previously moribund franchise. The Brewers made the playoffs in 2008 and 2011.
The University of Wisconsin’s football fortunes changed in the early 1990s with the arrival of then-Chancellor Donna Shalala, who hired former Badgers great Don Richter as athletic director, who hired Barry Alvarez.
Enough said – now get a quarterback and win a national title.
Marquette University men’s basketball program enjoyed a Final Four in 2003 with Dwyane Wade, and made the Elite Eight in 2013.
The list continues, and includes sports that likely do not receive enough attention or credit. UW men’s and women’s hockey both won national titles in the span of the last 20 years.
And let’s not forget UW-Whitewater and its dominance of NCAA Division 3 athletics. The Warhawks have won 14 national titles across five different sports since 2005, including six in football. Whitewater won the football, basketball and baseball Division 3 NCAA titles in the 2013-14 school year.
Heck, just a couple weeks ago, UW-Stevens Point continued the D3 success with a men’s basketball national championship.
We’re spoiled.
We, as Wisconsin sports fans, are spoiled by winning. It is not a bad thing. It is, in fact, the natural end of getting everything you want.
But let’s be cautious as we consider the UW men’s basketball team, which advanced to its second Final Four in as many years March 28 with an 85-78 victory against Arizona in the West Regional final in Los Angeles.
The Badgers, seeded No. 1 in the West Regional, play unbeaten Kentucky Saturday in Indianapolis in the national semifinals. The winner plays either Michigan State or Duke Monday for the NCAA Division 1 men’s basketball national championship.
There is a time in the not-too-distant past when even mentioning such a possibility would bring about nothing but ridicule, and even the most “Varsity”-loving Wisconsin fan you know would have walked away thinking they were the butt of a cruel joke.
I remember, in the early 1990s, my roommate at UW-Whitewater laid a few bucks with the campus bookie on a Badgers basketball game.
UW played Indiana on the road, and was getting double-digits in points. My roommate figured Bucky had to be due.
My roommate bet big on Wisconsin. Wisconsin lost and he lost, and I had to listen to him whine for the next week.
I looked it up. UW lost 66-41 to Indiana March 12, 1992 at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Ind. Most on our floor – First Floor Wellers – told him he was a dope for taking Wisconsin on the road at Indiana. We’re talking about Indiana under Bob Knight, by the way, and Wisconsin under Steve Yoder.
My roommate laid the bet in the midst of a 41-year span in which Wisconsin had eight winning seasons. Bucky actually made the National Invitational Tournament in 1989 and 1991, but it’s the NIT. Any coach who brags about making the NIT is likely also looking for work.
Wisconsin’s 1993 appearance in the NCAA Tournament by the Michael Finley and Tracy Webster-led squad marked Bucky’s first time at the Big Dance since 1946.
Let’s put that in perspective. I’m 41. Imagine a drought nearly as long as I am alive.
Blue-chip center Rashard Griffith came after that season, and the program appeared to capture a buzz. The resurgence continued under Dick Bennett, who took over in 1995. Wisconsin went 11-7 in the Big Ten in 1997; the program’s first winning record in conference play in 23 years.
Aside from success in the early years of the 20th century and a national title in 1941, Wisconsin has enjoyed little success from its men’s basketball program. And you never know how long the current trend will continue.
Frank Kaminsky and his goofy zest for life are gone after this year. Hopefully Sam Dekker’s gone as well – please, leave when your NBA draft stock is high. Go make your money.
We might never again see a character like Nigel Hayes flirting with stenographers old enough to be his mother. Bronson Koenig, Traevon Jackson, Duje Dukan, Josh Gasser – they’re young men living in a dream, and we get to watch.
Keep a few things in mind when you watch the games this weekend. Wisconsin is proof excellence can be obtained when one decides excellence is worth obtaining, identifies the sacrifices, and makes them.
And relish the success. Brad Soderberg followed Dick Bennett, and Stan Van Gundy coached UW for a forgettable year in the mid-1990s. It’s easy to forget – everything else has been so very, very worth remembering.
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