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Earning It The Old Fashioned Way While Still A Novelty:
The Wisconsin Badgers are 31-3 on the season. They won the regular season conference championship. They won the Big Ten tournament championship. All of which earned them a number 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
But they did not get that way through the instant recruiting of the top McDonalds’ All-Americans. They had a core group who prioritized academics and continued to grow physical and academic maturity each season. At least two, Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker could have become impatient with this process and become millionaires via the NBA draft last year. But they came back for all the right reasons – a degree and a championship – presumably in that order. It would be nice to provide the ultimate prize for that – a National Championship.
They are not the only team with these characteristics, or with the items mentioned below. But Wisconsin is not a perennial like Duke. Wisconsin even playing for a national championship would be a novelty factor that is off the charts, as would the ratings against say, Kentucky.
Playing the game the way it should be played:
The Badgers are methodical. They are mature. They do not lose their mind in difficult circumstances. To the contrary, they are mentally stronger than many of their opponents.
Saliently, they are so fundamentally sound they do not beat themselves. The Badgers did not have a single turnover until 5:28 left in the semifinal game of the Big Ten Tournament against Purdue. By then they had a 15 point lead, and lost their edge. Shame, Shame - run the bleachers. They ended the game with just two turnovers in a 20-point blowout against a very good Purdue team. They were down to Michigan State by 11 points at a critical stage in the second half in the championship game. Yet Michigan State made critical turnovers down the stretch that Wisconsin did not make, and the Badgers found a way to win despite being outplayed.
Low turnover ratios are merely the offspring of discipline, unselfishness, and playing with a sense of togetherness and well-coached offensive schemes that includes precise floor spacing, passing perfection, and recognition and response to defensive schemes.
Senior Rewards:
Frank Kaminsky is the best poster child for everything good about college athletics. He is a freakishly nimble athlete, with outside touch and inside moves, who happens to be a 7-footer. In other words, he defies the myths. Let America see him shine. He is also the College Player of the Year in the minds of several experts. He would trade the accolades for a championship. It would be nice to see him get his wish.
Traevon Jackson, dubbed by his teammates as a great teammate and leader, played virtually injury free for his first three years. He was as much a stalwart for this team as anyone over that span. But a foot injury sidelined him for several games late in the season. He could return for the first game of the NCAA tournament. A reward for him too would be well deserved fate.
Only hoops aficionados say Bo Ryan is one of the best coaches in college basketball. Ryan has led the Badgers to more Sweet 16 appearances since 2003 than everyone except Duke, Kansas and Michigan State. And for those with amnesia, his team made the Final Four just last year. Yet few can form their lips to say he’s among the elite coaches in America.
The excuse that “he’s never won the big ones” would be extinguished. No excuses for an objective mind would remain.
And Ryan’s program has been without major scandal. They can speak of high graduation rates without the one-and-done stigma among historic purists of the college game. So for the Badgers to win the crown would be validation that playing the “right way” is indeed the way to winning it all. Other teams may even mimic them instead of the one-and-doners.
Cross Cultural Economics
Wisconsin is one of the few elite level teams where the majority of the star players and bench players are white. Yet I suspect too many people suffer with an undiagnosed implicit bias that somehow they are less athletic because of it. I hope America gets to see these very talented players defy those myths.
And then there are the economic benefits of growing an audience across cultural boundaries. The majority of America is white – for now. So are the majority of advertisers, business interests connected with the game. I would like to think for the majority of those college constituencies, those racial dynamics do not matter. But it would not surprise me, and I could understand why there may be a heightened sense of self-interest for some if Wisconsin made that magical run to the championship, much like when Larry Bird was playing for it against Michigan State and Magic Johnson.
No one should be surprised if the March Madness media frenzy has a little extra pop if Wisconsin makes that run. Higher TV ratings and higher advertising rates would not be far behind. Capturing the “imagination” of the overall public would not be surprising either. And any time the viewers can grow beyond traditional boundaries, it’s a good thing.
Something good is coming out of Wisconsin this month, and I’m not talking about cheese.
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