If you have followed the Wisconsin Badgers all season long, you knew Monday night’s game against the Iowa Hawkeyes in Iowa City was a huge moment for this team. Wisconsin had just been embarrassed by Purdue. The game was a disaster, and we made sure to say that.
Here is an excerpt from that story on Friday night:
The news is very bad for the Wisconsin Badgers not because they lost to the Purdue Boilermakers on Friday night in West Lafayette. Had Wisconsin played a 58-57 game and failed to make the last shot, the Badgers would have played a game largely in line with what we have seen the past few weeks. The limitations of the team would have persisted, but so would the strengths. We know Wisconsin has a relatively low ceiling, but the encouraging part of the past few weeks is that the Badgers had raised their floor.
*snip*
Friday against Purdue, the Badgers looked a lot like the weak team which had no clue on the road against ordinary opponents such as New Mexico, Richmond, and North Carolina State. Getting thrashed by Michigan State wasn’t an indication of erosion. Getting drubbed in a 19-point loss to a 10-9 Purdue team — in a game the Badgers once trailed by 28 — offers no guarantees, but it DOES carry the possibility that this team is in trouble heading to Iowa City for a game against the Iowa Hawkeyes on Monday.
We discussed the need for Wisconsin to fight and scratch and claw, to play with desperation and not get bullied in this Iowa game.
The Badgers definitely did that. They were tougher on the glass. They made this a physical game, the kind of game Iowa doesn’t like and, frankly, has never liked under Fran McCaffery. Iowa shot poorly because the Badgers got in the Hawkeyes’ chests and faces. Wisconsin played the tough defense we expected against Purdue, and which we generally expect every night UW takes the floor. It was precisely that 58-57 kind of game late in regulation, and Wisconsin came a little bit short.
Yet, Wisconsin didn’t need the moral victory here. It needed to WIN… and just before the game, it was announced that Kobe King would not play for personal and non-health-related reasons.
Tyler Wahl and the other players asked to play more minutes in King’s absence did a good job. This team played hard for Greg Gard. It showed so many of the good traits we hoped for and expected… but it wasn’t enough. More precisely, it wasn’t enough because King wasn’t there, and THAT is going to be the story which overshadows everything else.
The cruel irony of this loss is that Wisconsin did so many good things and yet suffered a loss in a game it had to win, which makes all the good things UW did very worthless. A team improved by miles from Friday against Purdue and yet watched its NCAA Tournament resume get worse, with Michigan State looming this Saturday.
That is the upside-down and very dark reality associated with the word “irony.” It is very cruel indeed.