I've never been Blue like this before

Well that was incredibly depressing.

If a sporting outcome can devastate you, and I mean really devastate you, this was it. Our Badgers, who were the #1 team in America 4 weeks ago, who had an inside track for a #1 seed just two weeks ago, who captivated a state and won 30 games, laid a massive egg, or crapped a massive bed, or blew a massive big one, or whatever you want to say in their 2007 entry into March Madness. A team with a first team all-american, a first rate coach, with a deep bench, playing in familiar surroundings, in front of thousands of fans, trailed 25-7 to some team that was not in existence when Ty Calderwood was bricking 3's for the Badgers against Missouri State.

If you thought this was going to be a "we're really proud of you guys, thanks for the memories" post, you thought wrong. What memories? missing the front end against OSU, getting crushed in the second half against OSU? fighting back against UNLV only to forget how to run an offense? The second biggest letdown in the history of Wisconsin sport, only to the shoebox challenged 2000 football team- who can be terribly proud of this?

No, this team should have been better, should have danced longer.

Yes, they were missing a 3rd player- but why couldn't anyone else step up? Why couldn't Joe Krabbenhoft hit a wide open shot? Wasn't he the next Mike Miller? Whatever happened to Marcus Landry's offensive game? Is Greg Steimsma serious? Why does Jason Chappell even bother showing up? Does Michael Flowers know that he can be a great defensive player and contribute on the other end as well? Does Kam Taylor purposely get a wake-up call one hour later than the team so he's ready to go by the second half? Does Bo Ryan know how to coach his team against a zone?

The funny thing is, save for the Kam Taylor question, we had all of these when this team took on Mercer last fall. Every single one of these question marks surrounded this team all year. And they never responded to this. No, we should not have been surprised by their early out in the NCAA tourney. Teams with too many holes cannot survive March. Heck, there are many times where good teams can't survive March, either. That is the beauty of the NCAA tournament- it's only predictable in that it's completely unpredictable. Did anyone see the 2005 team coming within 2 minutes of the Final 4? Did anyone see the 2000 team even making it to Albuquerque, much less, Indiana? Did anyone think 2 weeks ago that this team would struggle to make it to the second round? March giveths and March takeths away.

I don't want this post to seem mean-spirited, that's not the point. This team was a great team, they had a great regular season, they killed Pitt and won at Marquette, they beat Oden in a thriller, won at Champaign, beat the Dawgs in Athens, went 13-3 in the Big 10 and soared to heights that no UW team has dreamed of. They blessed us with an amazing player; an amazing competitor who didn't have all of the talent in the world, but found a way to put the ball in the hoop night after night.

However, the memory I will forever carry with me in regards to this team is disappointment, of hurt, of feelings of what could have been had this team actually maxed it's potential. This team could have cut the nets down in Atlanta, but instead they fell 5 wins short- just like 15 other teams that lost this weekend.

Yet after all the fun we had, after all the nails we bit off, beers we drank, tye-died shirts we donned, lucky hats we rubbed, buckets we cheered, and foes we saw them slay, my forever lasting memory of this dream season of Wisconsin hoops will be of a sunny march afternoon in Chicago, walking back towards the car, disappointment in my heart, tears in my eyes.

Go Badgers and ON WISCONSIN!

Grateful Red

I know yesterday's loss will likely sting for some time, leaving us with plenty of what if's, such as...

1. Brian Butch stayed healthy all season long.

2. The team made free throws in clutch situations.

3. Our bigs could hit mid-range J's and post up and finish (see Mike "the Milkman" Wilkinson).

4. Stiemsma learned how to play position defense on the block.

5. Michael Flowers progressed on the offensive end of the floor, and Kam Taylor provided more consistent scoring.

6. Joe Krabbenhoff could finish open layups.

I could continue, but would instead like to highlight a few positives, acknowledging the losses of Tucker, Taylor, and yes Chappel.

1. 30 wins, the most in school history.

2. 10 straight NCAA appearances.

3. School-record 13 BT wins, including 5-3 road record.

4. 1st First Team All-American since 1950.

5. The development of JBoh and Trevon Hughes.

6. Tucker's departure as the program's leading scorer and arguably its best player.

7. Undefeated home record.

I'll follow up soon with my analysis of prospects for the 2007-2008 season. Rest assured that football season is only a little more than 5 months away.