In the spring, a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.
So we are told, anyway. Obviously, the great Alfred, Lord Tennyson never filled out an NCAA bracket sheet.
Most often in this locale, the arrival of spring means that ice fishers have to wait til next year before cooling their bones again and waiting for that momentous nibble, and that the Green Bay Packers report to camp in a couple of months.
The summer and spring typically do not engender a lot of excitement in the pro sports realm, largely because the last time Milwaukee won an NBA title, Richard Nixon was president, and the last time Milwaukee won a World Series, Nixon was making coffee runs for President Eisenhower.
With the University of Wisconsin piledriving through the West Regional en route to a second straight Final Four appearance, it is virtually impossible for a basketball fan — for a Wisconsin fan of any sport — not to be jacked up for Saturday’s semifinal showdown with undefeated Kentucky.
Can Wisconsin upend mighty Kentucky?
If you watched Kentucky’s regional final game, you know that the question being asked today could very easily have been one of whether Wisconsin could knock off Notre Dame. The Irish outplayed the Wildcats for about 39 minutes before falling by two points.
The cause for high optimism around Wisconsin is fueled by the idea that Notre Dame got rattled down the stretch with the upset in its grasp, and that in a like scenario the Badgers might better keep their act together. So far, Wisconsin has been unshakable. In their two most recent wins, the Badgers were able to turn up the wick when their backs were to the wall, storming back to knock off North Carolina and then sinking Arizona in a hail of second-half 3-pointers.
Wisconsin is a very well-coached team with one great player, 7-foot center Frank Kaminsky, another teetering on the brink of greatness, Sam Dekker, and a cast of role players who execute with precision and play with no fear. The Badgers’ seamless meld of team play makes them a joy to watch.
Kentucky’s glut of talent is legendary, although throughout the seasonlong hype of Kentucky’s greatness, there has been no breathless, premature coronation that has accompanied a few other undefeated regular seasons. No one, as far as I have read, has declared the undefeated Wildcats the Best College Basketball Team of All Time.
No fewer than three football teams had been annointed the Best-Ever before the season was finished: Florida State in 1993, Southern California in 2005 and the New England Patriots in 2007. All three of those teams were crowned by one media outlet or another as the best college/pro team ever to put on their pants one leg at a time — and all three of those teams were beaten in their last or next-to-last games.
Precedent in the massive-upset category isn’t limited to football. Houston was a lock to rout North Carolina State in the 1983 NCAA basketball final, and Georgetown was a sure thing to shut down Villanova’s improbable playoff run in ‘85. Both of those big favorites fell hard.
Speaking of upsets, one of Wisconsin’s three losses this season was to Rutgers. Yes, that Rutgers — 2-and-16, last place in the Big Ten Rutgers. In the case of basketball oddities, this is Exhibit A.
Another oddity is this: The last time a team went undefeated in Division I basketball was 1976, which was also the last time two Big Ten teams played in the title game. The Badgers will have a lot to say about a ‘76 redux, one way or another.
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