Nothing But Iron: Orange Juiced January 28, 2005 by Steven R. Lagman, M.D., C.A.S.W. I don’t have time to weave this together, so I give you my thoughts on the Wisconsin-Illinois game in raw form, as they occur to me. Like I have gotten over Illinois’ win, you will get over this column’s lack of refinement. I liked that the Badgers looked like they belonged in a game of this magnitude. There was a time, in my recollectable lifetime, when playing against highly-skilled teams was an painful formality. The actual presence or absence of the Badgers was rarely a significant factor in the outcome of the contest. There was a time when streaks were counted on the finger of one hand. Yes, the latest streak of 38 home victories is now a part of history, but the era remains. I liked the Kohl Center crowd. Not in the way I liked my wife when I first met her, but in the way I liked my younger brother when I was nine and he was five–he’s wasn’t perfect, but he was good enough. The crowd was as loud as I have ever heard it, especially in the student section. At times, if I closed my eyes, I imagined I was in the Field House. Even we (stand-up) old people, with a little goading from the college kids, contributed. It was loud enough, most of the time, that I was able to ignore scores of people in my own and adjacent sections who succumbed so thoroughly to the forces of gravity that it made them inexplicably mute. If only they knew how preposterously lazy they looked. Maybe it’s time to break out the Lazy Cam on the scoreboard’s big screen. One of my friends felt a tap on his shoulder. It was the old lady implanted in the seat behind him. "You know I can’t see when you stand up," she scolded. He told her he was excited. I suggested he respond with this: "You know, the game is televised." Call me insensitive, but I say, in a game like this, contribute to the cause, tolerate those who choose to do so, or give your ticket to someone else. Here’s an idea: Rip out all the seats and throw them in the middle of Dayton Street. There were far too many Illini fans, including some in luxury boxes and many in premium courtside sections. I was appalled by that. How can such a sell out be justified? I realize that some people probably have ties to the Illinois–readers LD and WD would be excused under this criterion, but I bet most sought, in lieu of actually caring about the home team, to take advantage of exorbitant Orange-market prices. If these seat-holders needed the money that badly, they probably should not own courtside season tickets. I hope the fans around them, the ones who cared enough to try to make a difference, chastise these traitors relentlessly, assuming they bother to show up for any of the remaining games. I feel almost as much animosity and embarrassment for fans who throw cups of beer at players as I do toward those who sold good tickets to Illinois fans. Where is your pride? Like I was saying, I really liked the crowd. Best of all, I was pleased to see that few fans left early, and almost everyone clapped at the end of the game. The next day there was nothing but positive commentary. No second guessing this coach or that player, just the acknowledgments: quality opponent, great effort, exciting game. Stupid comment by sports expert at halftime: Wisconsin is the most over-rated program in the conference. Huh? Let’s look at the data. National ranking: a modest 19. Big 10 standing: 3rd. Wins: 13. Losses: 4. Conference record: 4-2. Beat at home: Alabama, Michigan State, Maryland. Beat on the road: Michigan. Big Ten finish last three seasons: 1,1,2. Though there have been overrated UW teams, like the then No. 5-ranked football team, I fail to see how the designation applies to this particular basketball team. Could it be that Dick Gottlieb (close to his real name) is one of the most overrated sports experts in the country? Corollary to above stupid comment: Brian Butch is one of the most over-rated players in the country. Huh? This is Brian’s first year of college play. He is still learning. He acknowledged his deficiencies by choosing to red shirt last year. He has been injured. He does not get many minutes. Yes, he was a McDonald’s All American, but he earned that by being one of the best high school players in the country. This is his college career. Nobody, including Brian, is making claims that he is the greatest thing since bottomless peach baskets. I hear and see only this: he is a team player who works extremely hard, gets on the floor and has a passion for the game. What could be overrated about that, Dick? After the game a radio caller questioned Ryan’s substitution patterns late in the second half. I did not. Those who actually play basketball know that, at any level, including my own (half a notch less-sophisticated than sixth-grade Y league), the most energy-demanding task is that of guarding a good offensive player. The defender must be in constant motion, battling for position, chasing over and under screens, challenging shots, cutting the drive. To me the challenge of keeping up with any of the Illini players would be unfathomable. That is why our guys went to the bench; they needed rest. The missed shots, including a few easy ones, near the end were symptomatic of the Badgers’ exhaustion. When James Augustine blew past Badgers for consecutive dunks, I knew it was the end. Favorite sequence: Dee Brown steals. Ray Nixon chases hard and blocks Brown’s lay-up off the glass. Kammron Taylor gathers in the rebound and passes ahead to Alando Tucker for the lay-up on the other end. At that point I thought we had them. Crippling sequence: 6-10 Jack Ingram nails consecutive threes, the second of which was well contested by Mike Wilkinson. In summary, this game was not about the refs or the fans or anything the Badgers forgot to do, it was about Illinois being excellent. This is as close to a team devoid of weakness as any I have personally seen play. After that performance, I find it hard to picture the Illini losing to anyone, let alone the Badgers in Champaign on Feb 12. Granted, on another night, in another gym, any team could take on an alien personality in a way that is always perplexing, but it is hard to see that possibility in the Illini. They are ridiculously multidimensional, as individuals and together. They shoot. They drive. They make free throws. They play defense as if they had no offense threat at all. Worst of all, they share. Therein lies the source of their invincibility. Feel free to keep that to yourself. For additional commentary click on Reader Mail. ___________ Nothing But Iron is an amateur sports column–probably one of the most overrated sports columns on the World Wide Web. The author apologizes, albeit insincerely, for being critical of people who get paid enough to deliver professional sports commentary that ought to be a lot better than it is. ©2005 DrTM Enterprises. All rights reserved.