Wisconsin Basketball: Remembering Frank Kaminsky’s collegiate career

Thank You, Frank.

I told my girlfriend I wasn’t going to get emotional when I write this section. There are no guarantees.

I wanted to add one last slide to touch on what Frank Kaminsky meant to the program in the eyes of a fan. Kaminsky’s playing career resembles a typical Wisconsinite. It’s been noted many times. Frank Kaminsky also helped fuel the greatest consecutive seasons any Badger basketball fan can remember.

My memory of Wisconsin Badger basketball extends very far. I would have to say it was Bo Ryan’s first year. I remember playing in the driveway at my house. I pretended to be Michael Wilkinson, Devin Harris, and I thought Dave Mader was a cool name.

What I quickly got used to was that Bo Ryan didn’t play freshman. It’s funny, though, because that season both Harris and Wilkinson played regular minutes. However, only one of them started. Typical Bo Ryan basketball.

From there, the Wisconsin Badgers were a mainstay in the NCAA Tournament. I was in love with the NCAA Tournament from the first moment my dad let me fill out a bracket. So it was easy to follow the Badgers with a passion when they were always in the NCAA Tournament.

The Badgers would go on their runs of making a few Sweet 16s and then they’d fall in the first or second round. So it didn’t surprise me when Wisconsin made the Sweet 16 in 2011 after not getting out of the first weekend in consecutive years. The Badgers went on to lose to a Butler Bulldog team that would play in the National Championship.

If you told me that the Badgers would eventually make back-to-back Final Fours, I would have laughed. Is much as I loved Bo and the Badgers, I thought he was never going to be able to past the Elite Eight.

I’m going to tell you that for some reason I remember when Frank Kaminsky played in his first season. It may seem crazy, but the guy has a last name you don’t forget. This was especially true since I grew up in a part of the state where Polish last names were popular. It doesn’t have the Ski, but it still sounds the same.

What I that was weird about Frank was that Frank played in almost every game as a freshman. He rarely produced, but Bo still had him out there. He limited his action just like Bo Ryan is known for.

What we saw next was something no had predicted. Frank Kaminsky took a team that was ranked 20th to start the season, rattled off 16 in a row, and took teams by surprise. They were no longer your slow-it-down, score less than 60, hold your opponents to less than 50 and win games. The Badgers were really exciting.

The other thing that shocked us right out of our seat was that their leading scorer was a forward who averaged less than five points per game in his first two seasons. Here’s this Frank Kaminsky, the guy with a Polish-sounding last name, lighting it up for the Badgers.

His coming-out party no doubt was that 43-point performance over North Dakota. From then on, Kaminsky could do no wrong. The skeptical Badger fan thought he was just a fluke at first. He proved that to be the biggest false narrative of Badger basketball.

I’ve already told you what he went onto accomplish. Back-to-back final four trips. All those awards. I know they came up short against Duke in the Championship, but no one will forget that game against Kentucky.

Every Wisconsin Badger fan will remember those two NCAA Tournaments. We were actually able to pick Wisconsin to win it all in our bracket pools and not be laughed at. It was certainly a little strange, though.

Those back-to-back final four runs were as exciting as basketball can get as a fan. I’ve repeated that many times already, but it’s the truth. Those guys could score, they played defense, and they were just flat out entertaining.

Thanks to Frank Kaminsky, Badger fans were just as excited to watch press conferences as they were to tune in for the game. Frank the Tank had the greatest personality. He resembled someone you had a beer with at the bar. Frank was your college buddy and he was your best friend from high school. Even people who weren’t Badger fans rooted for this guy.

What made it so special was that he produced in more ways than anyone could’ve imagined on the court. The guy could drive, post up, run a fast break, dish out an assist, or knock down a three. It even seemed like at times he could do all that in one possession.

He was so entertaining and us Badger fans owe him a lifetime of gratitude. Frank helped lead an average Sweet 16 team to the Final Four. Twice. He put Wisconsin on the map with a Player of the Year award and he played his tail off up until the final seconds of the 2015 National Championship.

Everyone I have ever talked to knows where they were when Wisconsin topped Kentucky. It was seriously one of the greatest nights of my life. The whole state was partying all night long.

Next: Reliving Wisconsin's success of the 2000's

When Frank’s No. 44 takes its rightful place in the Kohl Center rafters, there will probably be a lot of tears. Kaminsky even said so himself. I haven’t cried yet, but the memories are sweet.

Who knows if we’ll ever witness such a transition of a player’s underclassmen to upperclassmen career. Frank Kaminsky changed the way you look at the Wisconsin Badgers’ basketball program. He continued to bring momentum to a state that had already been rolling with sports success.

I’ll conclude this by saying: Thank You, Frank Kaminsky. Because of you, Badger fans got to watch the two greatest seasons the program has ever had.