In the midst of a very rough season — modestly successful, but with a lot of off-court controversies and disruptions — the Wisconsin Badgers basketball family really needed this happy moment on Sunday afternoon in the Kohl Center.
At halftime of Wisconsin’s game against the Ohio State Buckeyes, no one was thinking about Kobe King leaving the team, or strength coach Erik Helland resigning because he worried that someone in or near the program would publicly disclose an inappropriate word he used. No one was thinking about the NCAA unfairly preventing Micah Potter from playing the first 10 games of the season. No one was thinking about the bad performance on Wednesday in Minneapolis against the Golden Gophers of Minnesota.
For one day, Wisconsin fans were able to focus on a special team in the history of Badger basketball and UW sports at large.
The 2000 Wisconsin Final Four team — at the time, the first UW men’s basketball team to make the Final Four in 59 years — was honored at halftime against Ohio State. The Badgers won the national title in 1941, and the 2000 team brought a long Final Four drought to an end. That 2000 Wisconsin team under Dick Bennett set the table for Bo Ryan to come in and lead UW hoops to its best and most successful era. Greg Gard is carrying the torch today, continuing to lead Wisconsin to NCAA Tournament appearances and giving the Badgers an enviable consistency most programs lack.
Here were the attendees for the ceremony:
The 20th anniversary celebrating is underway, and it brought out a huge applause as each player is introduced.
Players in attendance: Erik Faust, Robert Smith, Travon Davis, Dave Mader, Charlie Wills, Roy Boone, Jon Bryant, Mark Vershaw, Andy Kowske, Mike Kelley.
— Bucky's 5th Quarter (@B5Q) February 9, 2020
The 2000 Badgers did not have the high-end talent of the 2014 and 2015 Wisconsin Final Four teams with Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker, but they reached the Final Four just the same. As a No. 8 seed in the West Region, Wisconsin toppled top-seeded Arizona in the round of 32 and then handled LSU (Sweet 16) and Gene Keady’s Purdue team (Elite Eight) to reach college basketball’s promised land. The run came to an end against Big Ten obstacle Michigan State in the Final Four national semifinals in Indianapolis, but the 2000 Badgers still made an important piece of history.
Twenty years later, the blue-collar basketball and the work ethic inspired by Dick Bennett are still evident in today’s Wisconsin teams. Are the rough edges still there? Yes… but the identity of Badger basketball is still very much intact.
The 2000 team in many ways got that party started in Madison. It received due recognition 20 years after forging an unforgettable feat.