Perspective is always a good thing. Human beings constantly need to be reminded of how bad a situation or reality once was, in order to appreciate how good life is today. We also need to be reminded how good a situation might have been in the past, in order to grasp and understand how awful the present moment is.
I could be referring to anything under the sun in the vast realm of human experience, but in this case, I am referring to the condition of basketball programs.
The place Rutgers University occupies today is the place Wisconsin basketball occupied in late February of 1994.
This is not a complicated parallel, but it is definitely worth bringing up in a Wisconsin season which has been difficult, bumpy, controversial, and yet still somehow moderately successful — not a grand and sweeping success, but quietly productive in spite of so many instances of misfortune.
Think about this: Even in Wisconsin’s worst moments this season, even when everything seemed to be headed off the rails, the Badgers held firm and stayed together. They will carry double-digit losses into the NCAA Tournament… but they will BE in the NCAA Tournament, which is a minor miracle.
Micah Potter missed 10 games. Kobe King left the team before February. Brad Davison was suspended for a home game against Michigan State. The team lost to Richmond and New Mexico. It lost at home to Illinois.
If you had told a Wisconsin fan before the season that those five things would happen, what kind of reaction would you have received? Either laughter — NO WAY THAT WOULD HAPPEN! — or fear — HOLY SH**! WE’RE GONNA MISS THE NCAA TOURNAMENT.
And yet… those five things DID happen, but Wisconsin will make the NCAA Tournament anyway. In a rough season; in a frustrating season; in an annoying and uneven season, Wisconsin will still play in March Madness.
You know your program is good when a difficult season still leads to an NCAA berth.
In February of 1994, Wisconsin produced a season not terribly different from this one in terms of wins and losses. The Badgers, then coached by Stu Jackson before he moved to the NBA, lost 10 games before the NCAA Tournament. They finished 8-10 in an 18-game Big Ten schedule. Yet, they made the Big Dance as a 9 seed.
That season, however, was not treated as a failure or a cause for grumbling. Why? Wisconsin made the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 47 years, since 1947. That 1994 season was rocky and inelegant and anything but easy. Yet, it was — in comparative terms — a soaring masterpiece, given the barrenness of the previous 47 years of Wisconsin basketball.
It has taken two and a half decades of consistent quality for Wisconsin basketball to arrive at a point where that same kind of season — with double-digit losses and something close to a break-even record in Big Ten play (this year’s team is a few games above .500 right now) — is met with dissatisfaction. Back in 1994, though, this was manna from hoops heaven.
So it is with Rutgers in 2020.
Everything the Scarlet Knights are going through today reminds me of Wisconsin in 1994. Rutgers has won only one true road game. The Scarlet Knights are very inconsistent and are actually losing steam late in the season. Yet, Rutgers is about to make its first NCAA Tournament since 1991. Who cares how bumpy the ride is? This is a seminal moment for the program and a complete triumph. It doesn’t represent the summit of the program’s goals, or where it wants to go in the next two decades, but it is a soaring achievement just the same…
… a lot like Wisconsin in 1994.
Perspective is always needed. Be thankful for what the past 26 years have done to change standards and expectations in Madison.
If this season is rough (and it has in fact been rough), Badger fans can know that even better days lie ahead. That isn’t a bad place to be.