Last night saw the airing of the final episodes of ESPN’s The Last Dance, a 10-part documentary series about Michael Jordan’s career…
Last night saw the airing of the final episodes of ESPN’s The Last Dance, a 10-part documentary series about Michael Jordan‘s career and the 1998 Chicago Bulls.
This documentary has sparked conversation around the sporting world about what teams we would like to see a similar piece made about, and who we wish was followed everywhere by cameras during their run of success, or lack thereof.
So, because not much else is going on in the sporting world, which Wisconsin sports team would we like to see a Last Dance-type documentary made about?
The first team that comes to mind is the 2014-15 Badger basketball team during what was literally Bo Ryan‘s last dance as a head coach.
I don’t want to down that route, though, as that seems like the obvious answer and wouldn’t be as captivating as the option I am about to bring up.
That option is Gary Andersen and the 2014 Wisconsin football team.
And I would want this team to be the selection for two reasons.
First, chaos and drama often make the best documentary television and this team had it all.
An opening week loss to No. 13 LSU, a Week 5 loss to unranked Northwestern, seven straight victories including a 59-24 throttling of Nebraska during which Melvin Gordon broke the single-game NCAA rushing yard record, the infamous 59-0 Big Ten Championship defeat to Cardale Jones and Ohio State, Andersen leaving the program to coach at Oregon State four days later and, finally a bowl victory against No. 19 Auburn.
This team had ups, it definitely had downs, and it was capped off in the end with an impressive Outback Bowl victory after the head coach reportedly left because the school had high admission standards for their athletes. The rollercoaster of record-breaking performances in both directions–Gordon’s rushing yard record and the 59-0 loss in the conference championship–would make for captivating television, especially if there had been cameras following the team behind the scenes.
The second reason this would be the pick for which team to feature are the big-name players that were on the team and the intrigue that would come with watching them play and prepare from a different perspective.
Gordon, Corey Clement, Michael Caputo, Joe Schobert and a quarterback room of Joel Stave, Tanner McEvoy and four-star recruit Bart Houston would have made for a great dynamic to watch. No, they obviously don’t come close to the intrigue of the 1990s Chicago Bulls. But in recent program history I can’t think of a better option that this team.
And to cap it all off, as was seen in The Last Dance, the season ends on a high note but a controversial one, as I wonder what the Andersen situation was like behind the scenes and out of the public eye.
A few honorable mentions to throw out as other Wisconsin sports teams that would make for an interesting Last Dance documentary: Russell Wilson and the 2011 football team, the 2014-15 basketball team and the basketball team from this past season–even though the NCAA tournament was never played.
