The Wisconsin Badgers have had many better teams than this 2020 group. This Wisconsin team probably won’t make the Final Four, or even the Elite Eight. When thinking of the very best individual basketball moments in UW history, the school’s back-to-back Final Fours, the 2015 win over Kentucky, and its 1941 national championship rate as bigger, more seismic, more significant occasions.
Yet, when looking at Wisconsin basketball in a broader context, how many months were more inspiring or heartwarming than the month of February in 2020, a month the Badgers just completed with their impressive win in Ann Arbor against the Michigan Wolverines?
No, this month probably won’t translate to a Final Four or another kind of accomplishment which attains instant immortality. Viewed through that lens, February of 2020 doesn’t seem all that special. This month took a team from the NCAA Tournament bubble to perhaps a No. 5 seed in the Big Dance, the same No. 5 seed last season’s team had before getting bounced in the first round by Oregon. If viewed solely through the prism of Final Fours and championships, February of 2020 won’t move the needle very much when considering the greatest months of basketball in Wisconsin Badger history.
However, one doesn’t have to view EVERYTHING through the prism of the Final Four. One can take a different view.
Wisconsin’s defining characteristic since the program began to rise at the start of this century is its consistency. Yes, the Badgers’ work ethic is the most defining treat of each UW team. No one outworks Wisconsin on the court. Speaking not of individual teams or players, though, the program is amazingly consistent.
Missing the NCAA Tournament — which this program did every year from 1948 through 1993 — is now considered a crisis when it occurs… and it’s not wrong to wonder what the heck is going on, either. That’s a reasonable reaction when UW fails to make the NCAAs, as was the case in 2018. That is the ONLY SEASON SINCE 1999 in which the Badgers haven’t made the NCAA Tournament. Stop and appreciate how much has completely changed since the mid-1990s.
When one appreciates how important consistency truly is to the Wisconsin basketball brand and identity, Final Four aspirations — while good and necessary — take a back seat to the bigger picture. Being a great team in a few select seasons is something UW should aspire to. The Badgers fulfilled those aspirations in the majestic 2014 and 2015 campaigns. Yet, it matters quite a lot for Wisconsin hoops to be good ALL the time. Great occasionally, yes, but good EVERY year. That’s important.
Finding the perfect mix of players, the ultimate alchemy which leads to a No. 1 seed? By all means pursue that. Once in a while, it might actually emerge with Sam Dekkers and Frank Kaminskys and other gifted players.
Most years, though? Just be good. Be solid. Be a problem for the rest of the Big Ten. Keep the tradition going. Maintain the culture. Preserve this treasured identity which gives Wisconsin the staying power 96 percent of other programs lack. This is a badge of honor for UW, to always be good even if the Badgers aren’t always great.
Within this prism, we can then appreciate how special this month of February was. Wisconsin started the month in real danger of missing the NCAA Tournament. On the morning of February 1, 2020, the Badgers were shorthanded against Michigan State. Even if they had played hard in that game, they might have lost, and if they lost, they might have begun to lose faith.
It all could have unraveled. It all could have come apart. Better, more talented teams have fragmented over less. This team had to deal with so much crap — Micah Potter being screwed by the NCAA, Kobe King leaving, strength and conditioning coach Erik Helland resigning — that if it had collapsed, everyone would have understood why. People in Wisconsin would have been unhappy, but they all could have recognized why this season crashed and burned… IF that had been allowed to happen.
This team, in February of 2020, not only refused to allow a collapse to happen. It became a pretty damn good team, moving several seed lines up the leaderboard and becoming a true Sweet 16 threat.
Michigan State on February 1. Michigan on February 27. Stop and marvel at the immense distance this team has traveled in one month. Absorb how much this team grew, how well Greg Gard coached, how fully Aleem Ford and Brevin Pritzl and D’Mitrik Trice and Micah Potter developed their games.
Stop and appreciate how high the ceiling for this team has been raised. Stop and contemplate how much this team has soared past its perceived limitations. Stop and reflect on the terrible loss at Minnesota, the only bad game this team played in February, and note how fully this team learned from that bad night in Minneapolis.
February of 2020 didn’t create a Final Four team — at least, not likely. It did, however, embody the culture and pride of a program which refuses to be mediocre.
Wisconsin is officially #Good in yet another season. That matters. That matters quite a lot.