This Wisconsin basketball class dealt with losses that no other group in Badger history has had to face. The most significant ones did not come on the hardwood. Overcoming adversity defined their crowning achievement as they became improbable champions. Their highest moments as a class began with unimaginable lows.
The 2019-20 season started with incomprehensible real-life tragedy. In late May of 2019, a car accident involving Wisconsin basketball assistant coach Howard Moore and his family resulted in the deaths of his wife, Jennifer, and their daughter, Jaidyn. Moore and his son, Jerrell, survived as Moore was placed on administrative leave to take care of his health.
That summer, the Wisconsin basketball program had to prepare for a season amidst the shock. Wearing, believing, and hearing the message “Do Moore, Be Moore, 4 Moore,” represented the why behind the what as the regular season began in November.
On the court, the year didn’t start off the way the class of 2021 had envisioned. A majority of this Badger class began their careers with a 2017-18 season where they missed the postseason and a 2018-19 campaign where Wisconsin was dominated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament by Oregon. Losing Ethan Happ meant the Badgers had to replace their leading scorer and rebounder as they looked to redefine their identity with this senior class at the heart of it.
Wisconsin limped out to a 5-5 start, with back-to-back neutral site losses to Richmond and New Mexico respectively. Fast forward to February 5th, and Wisconsin was sitting at 6-6 in the Big Ten after an 18-point road loss to Minnesota.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Wisconsin captured lightning in a bottle. The Badgers ripped off eight Big Ten wins in a row, finishing with a gusty road win at Assembly Hall. The result? One of the most improbable Big Ten regular season championships of all time. It was the rare month in sports where every break goes your way. The Badgers could do no wrong in February of 2020.
Just a few hours after Wisconsin clinched a share of the 2019-20 Big Ten regular season title, hundreds of Badger fans gathered outside the Kohl Center to welcome the team home. As the team bus rolled into the front of the arena, Wisconsin waited to get off before somebody got on. That someone was Jerrell Moore, who had survived the accident just months before.
It was a championship that went far beyond a ring.
Moore than a game#4Moore pic.twitter.com/3Pk2VUWr0K
— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) March 8, 2020
Then, just a few days later, the season was over seemingly overnight. COVID-19 cancelled the NCAA Tournament and the Big Ten Tournament as the Badgers, along with the rest of the nation, were left wondering what could have been. Wisconsin had the rare feeling of ending their season with a win, it just wasn’t the win they had thought it could be.
With the 2020-2021 campaign came entirely foreign challenges. Daily COVID-19 testing, an empty Kohl Center, and nothing close to a normal social life were the rules of the game in college basketball. The expectations were high but the circumstances were unique.
After falling short against the Big Ten’s best teams, Wisconsin headed into the NCAA Tournament as a 9 seed with few expectations. Friday night’s first-round win over North Carolina was the senior class at their best, led by Brad Davison and D’Mitrik Trice. In Davison’s first tournament win of his career, he dropped 29 points with dazzling shooting.
This afternoon presented a very different test in a Baylor team who had been among the nation’s best all year long. The Badgers could have called it quits down by 18 with 18 minutes left against the number one seed. That was not the legacy of this senior class.
Wisconsin fought as best they could against a Baylor team playing some of their basketball of the season. After cutting the lead to single digits, the class of the Bears showed as Wisconsin’s seniors finally bowed out with a 76-63 second round loss.
The on-court results maybe have been a mixed bag, but there is only one way this class should be remembered.
There were events in the careers of Brad Davison, Nate Reuvers, Micah Potter, Aleem Ford, Walt McGrory, Trevor Anderson, and D’Mitrik Trice that no group should have to go through. This year did not go according to schedule in a variety of ways. The ending wasn’t storybook.
With all of that said, you can never take away a championship. While every ring has a special, unique story behind it, the 2019-20 Big Ten championship just meant more. Working from a team that did not make the NCAA Tournament when this group were freshman to a championship team sums up the work that these Badgers put in.
They have left this program better than they found it and will forever remain Big Ten champions.