Under Radar Wisconsin

It has to gall them, but Wisconsin players just shrug when faced with the question of why the Badgers always seem to be underrated.

Don’t know, don’t care, they say. They know how good they are and they know how good they have been, and if those who vote in national weekly college basketball polls can’t figure it out, or those who guess who will win the Big Ten, or those who make matchups in the NCAA tournament don’t offer love and kisses, then they are so living in the past.

It seems to happen every year where college hoops watchers just don’t recognize what the Badgers do. They win is what they do best. But the rap is that maybe they are living in the past, grounded in an old-time, slow style of play, locked into coach Bo Ryan’s precision approach. Wisconsin’s main problem is image, not results. The Badgers are neither ostentatious nor high scoring.

There is a general feeling amongst observers that Wisconsin is boring to watch, that Wisconsin’s games with scores in the 50s and 60s are a throwback to a time nobody wants to re-visit. But Wisconsin would rather win 60-57 looking ugly than lose 96-93 looking pretty. The Badgers are not competing for a title in a beauty contest, but are competing for a title in the Big Ten, a conference often referred to as a take-no-prisoners league, a big boy’s league.

Don’t think the players miss all of the comments suggesting they are relics from the 1930s, or that they couldn’t get a fast-break going if they were lead-footed on the accelerator in an Indy car.

“We try not to worry too much about that,” said senior guard Jordan Taylor, who is a contender for the honor of best point guard in the league. “We’re more atheltic than people give us credit for.”

Certainly the 6-foot-1, 195-pound Taylor is. He averaged 11 points and 7 assists a game for last year’s 25-9 Badger squad that reached the Sweet 16. “We just go out and play hard every day. Maybe we aren’t flashy enough for some people, but it’s been working so far.”

Yes indeed, things have been working quite nicely since Ryan drifted over to the big campus in 2001 from Division III Wisconsin-Platteville where he engineered four national titles, before a two-year stopover at Milwaukee. Ryan has led the Badgers to 10 straight NCAA D-I appearances, with a couple of 30-win seasons sprinkled in. The grey-haired guru preaches defense, taking care of the ball, and patiently waiting for good shots.

“They might not like us,” Taylor said of Wisconsin’s slower tempo, “but they respect us.”

Any opponent that didn’t respect Wisconsin would have to be nuts. Not only doesn’t Wisconsin run, but it prevents other teams from doing it either.  Everyone knows substance is more important than style and keeping eyes on the prize–a W–each time they suit up is what the Badgers are focused on much more than what anyone says about them.

After a decade, though, people are catching on and despite the loss of some key players to graduation, the Badgers are ranked around No. 15 in the country by those who form such ratings.

“Winning is never boring,” junior forward Mike Bruesewitz said. “Winning has never been boring. It doesn’t matter what the first polls say when they come out. You’ve still got to go out there and win games.”

Which, of course, Wisconsin did from day one last weekend, burying Kennesaw State, 85-31. Not a typical foe–it was the first time the teams met– and not a typical win given the high score and Wisconsin’s barrage of three-pointers, but a win that made the Badgers 1-0 in the new season. And that’s all they care about in Madison.