Two weeks ago, after Wisconsin defeated Maryland in the Big Ten tournament’s first round, Greg Gard sat at the podium and voiced cautious optimism about the team’s future. Despite a challenging last six weeks of the regular season, Gard had seen enough in the preceding days to say that the squad was “trending back in the right direction and really starting to click” after a commanding 87-56 victory over the Terrapins.
When Wisconsin won two more games to go to the conference championship game (a 93-87 loss to Illinois) and defeat national title challenger Purdue, it felt that way. Northwestern was headed to the NCAA Tournament. It was hoped that Wisconsin, which was rated sixth in the AP Top 25 and had a 16-4 overall record, would be able to maintain its success after securing a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Rather, Wisconsin laid an egg so large that it would have made an ostrich jealous. In the NCAA Tournament’s opening round, Wisconsin was defeated 72-61 by James Madison, ranked No. 12. Not only was Wisconsin’s defeat disappointing, though that would have been sufficient. It was the Badgers’ apparent lack of readiness for the occasion. They gave lost a lead within the first 14 seconds of play, committed a season-high 19 mistakes total, and made just 8 of 18 layup tries as they were overwhelmed by the Dukes’ defensive pressure.
Even if 35 games before it, Wisconsin’s program has shown to be good enough over the last few decades to be evaluated only on its performance in the NCAA Tournament. It is difficult to consider Wisconsin’s season a success because of this. The 22-14 Badgers accomplished some incredible feats, like making it to the conference tournament championship game and only losing twice in a 2 1/2-month span at the midseason. But when it counted most, they likewise stammered and faltered.
