Varsity is the free Official Digital Magazine of Wisconsin Athletics, covering Badgers football, basketball, hockey and more each week.
Issue link: http://catalog.e-digitaleditions.com/i/246778
A THE VOICE BY MATT LEPAY // VOICE OF THE BADGERS In world of college hoops, nobody's perfect couple of weeks ago, Ohio State was the third-ranked basketball team in the nation. It now has a four-game losing streak. Last week Wisconsin was the third-ranked team in the nation. Then the Badgers dropped two in a row. Last Tuesday, Indiana defeated Wisconsin. The crowd rushed the floor. A few days later, the Hoosiers lost at home to Northwestern. The crowd rushed to the exits. This week Villanova is rated fourth in the country. On Monday night, the Wildcats lost to Creighton ― by 28 ― at home. Also on Monday, Virginia thumped North Carolina by 15. The Tar Heels are 1-4 in ACC play, while Tony Bennett's team is 5-1. When we last paid much attention to the Cavaliers, they managed all of 38 points in a loss to Wisconsin. Such is the world of college basketball. Here we go again. As of this writing, Arizona, Syracuse and Wichita State remain unbeaten. While we can all try to guess which team has the best chance to stay that way, reality suggests that at some point, every team will have a rugged stretch. In the course of a long season, players get sick, and players get hurt. A hot shooter suddenly goes cold. A good defender suddenly is a half-step slower than normal. It is what makes the game both fun and maddening to watch. For the first time this season, the Badgers have had to deal with 18 // VARSITY January 23, 2014 a couple of losses, with yet another road trip looming. On many occasions, UW coach Bo Ryan has talked about how much he values the conference regular season. How a team handles the ups and downs of an 18-game schedule. In his perfect world, there would be a full round-robin schedule, but at least 18 games gives everyone a good sample size of your team's quality. Especially in the Big Ten, which once again is proving to be a very deep conference. IN THE COURSE OF A LONG SEASON, PLAYERS GET SICK, AND PLAYERS GET HURT. A HOT SHOOTER SUDDENLY GOES COLD. A GOOD DEFENDER SUDDENLY IS A HALF-STEP SLOWER THAN NORMAL. IT IS WHAT MAKES THE GAME BOTH FUN AND MADDENING TO WATCH. Is there a truly great team in the league, or anywhere in college basketball? Maybe not, but there are a lot of very good ones, and it is making for an interesting winter, as it seems every night there is a result that has fans talking. • • • • So who to root for in the Super Bowl? With so much Badgers flavor, I suppose it is a win-win. Montee Ball with Denver. Russell Wilson, O'Brien Schofield, Chris Maragos and offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell with Seattle. Not bad representation for the Wisconsin football program, eh? While Ball and Wilson get the bulk of the attention, remember that Schofield turned into a very good player, earning All-Big Ten honors and the team's co-MVP award (along with Garrett Graham) in 2009. "OB" and some dude named J.J. Watt made for a fairly decent tandem. Like Schofield, Maragos was one of the Badgers' captains in 2009, and won the program's Tom Wiesner Award, named after the former UW football player who was a tremendous friend to the program. For me, the first memory that jumps out about Maragos is a leaping end zone interception he made against Fresno State. It helped the Badgers to an overtime victory. That 2009 team went on to defeat Miami in the Champs Sports Bowl, and to a large extent set the stage for the Badgers' run to three straight conference titles. Then there is Bevell. The former quarterback who has the most famous run in Badgers history ― his TD dash in the 1994 Rose Bowl ― is now one of the NFL's hot coordinators. Perhaps a head coaching opportunity will be in his future. But for now, I hope these Badgers can embrace the moment. I am sure they will. I also am sure that Badgers fans everywhere are proud of their accomplishments. Broncos or Seahawks? It is a tough call. But we will be parked in front of our TVs to watch how some Badgers will influence the biggest game of them all.