The number one single today in 1965:
The number one album today in 1976 was Peter Frampton’s “Frampton Comes Alive,” the best selling live album in rock music history:
The number one album today in 1993 was Depeche Mode’s “Songs of Faith and Devotion”:
Birthdays start with one-hit wonder Sheb Wooley:
Option 1 in the continuing battle of the Republican Party and the media is the approach of Rich Galen:
Rand Paul’s official campaign began with a speech on Tuesday.
By yesterday he had been in arguments with two reporters.
First he went at it with the Today show’s Savannah Guthrie. Guthrie, according to National Journal.
“You once said Iran was not a threat,” Guthrie said to Paul. “Now you say it is. You once proposed ending foreign aid to Israel. You now support it, at least for the time being. And you once offered to drastically cut defense spending but now you want to increase it by 60 percent.”
At that time Paul tried to interrupt and said,
“Before we go through a litany of things you say I’ve changed on, why don’t you ask me a question: ‘Have I changed my opinion?’”
After Guthrie tried again, Paul said:
“Listen, you’ve editorialized. Let me answer a question. You ask a question, and you say, ‘Have your views changed?’ instead of editorializing and saying my views have changed.”
That is a difference without a distinction, if you ask me, which Rand Paul did not.
Later in the day, he got cranky again, this time with an AP reporter who asked him about his position(s) on abortion.
According to The Hill newspaper, “AP reporter Philip Elliott’s interview with Paul became heated after Elliott pressed the presidential candidate to say whether victims of rape should be able to get abortions.”
Paul told Elliott:
“I gave you about a five-minute answer. Put in my five-minute answer … The thing is about abortion – and about a lot of things – is that I think people get tied up in all these details of, sort of, you’re this or this or that, or you’re hard and fast (on) one thing or the other.”Not bad for the first 24 hours of the campaign.
Some Republicans have made a living arguing with reporters. During the 2012 cycle, Newt Gingrich would wait for a moderator to ask a “gotcha” question so he could launch into a tirade.
The GOP audiences stomped and cheered but Rand Paul is no Newt Gingrich when it comes to baiting reporters.
There used to be a saying in politics, “Never argue with the guy who buys his ink by the barrel.”
Given the number of on-line outlets, former Governor Tom Ridge has updated that to:
“Never argue with the guy who buys his bandwidth by the gigabyte.”My background is as a press secretary. When I was doing that I wasn’t the “Communications Director” with a staff of thousands. When I was Dan Quayle’s Senate press secretary I was it. Same thing when I was press secretary to Newt with he was Republican Whip. My successors were also one-man shows.
Having been press secretary to Quayle and Gingrich and having run GOPAC you might think that reporters would have crossed the street rather than have to say “hello” to me in Washington.
That has never been the case because I have lived by three rules:
First, “Don’t sell out your boss to curry favor with the press.” They will treat you like cops treat a stool pigeon. They’ll use you until you have nothing for them, then they’ll lose your number.
Second, “You don’t have to know everything about everything.” Some of the smartest responses I’ve ever given to reporters have been the ones where I said “I don’t know,” rather than trying to pretend I was on the inside of everything.
Third, “Don’t lie.” You don’t have to tell a reporter everything you know; and you can be slippery with an answer, but if you lie you will, sooner or later, get caught and your credibility will be shot.
Part of being a good press secretary is to brief your boss on what questions might be asked, and how you recommend they be answered.
Even the best press secretary won’t catch them all, but by having your boss prepared, over time, reporters will come to appreciate the effort.
To battle reporters all day every day is exhausting for the candidate and for the staff and, because they buy their bandwidth by the gigabyte, if they can’t make your boss look bad in an article, they can do it in a blog. If not in a blog then in a Tweet.
Dealing with reporters is just another skill candidates have to develop.
Approach number two comes from Jon Gabriel:
This new generation of GOP hopefuls understands what only Newt Gingrich knew in 2012. If you want a chance at the White House, you need to beat the other candidates and you need to beat the press.
Mitt Romney, decent fellow that he is, tacitly accepted the press’ claims of objectivity, even if he didn’t believe it in his heart. Romney grinned and nodded at reporters from CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC, even though their initials could have been DNC.
Right-leaning partisans watched moderator George Stephanopoulos concoct the fictional “War on Women” and moderator Candy Crowley actively support Obama during live debates. Many of us spent 2012 yelling at our TVs and laptop screens, “the press isn’t neutral. They’re on the other side!”
Coming of age during the Obama years, the 2016 candidates know all too well that the press is as much of an opponent as the rival campaigns. Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Scott Walker all know that the mainstream media despises them. This new breed acts accordingly by questioning the press and their flawed premises.
After Planned Parenthood spent all yesterday attacking Sen. Paul, two reporters coincidentally asked him if he would accept any exemptions on abortion. Come on, senator: is there no limit to your cruel oppression of women? Paul knew the fix was in and responded accordingly.
“Here’s the deal — we always seem to have the debate waaaaay over here on what are the exact details of exemptions, or when it starts,” Paul said, moving his hand to one side. “Why don’t we ask the DNC: Is it okay to kill a seven-pound baby in the uterus? You go back and you ask Debbie Wasserman-Schultz if she’s okay with killing a seven-pound baby that is not born yet. Ask her when life begins, and you ask Debbie when it’s okay to protect life. When you get an answer from Debbie, get back to me.”
Paul knows that Democrats rarely get questions about whether they support partial-birth abortion, if gender selection is acceptable, or if parental consent should be required. The press naturally doesn’t want to put their candidates on the hot seat, so why ask them hot-button questions? Instead, just let the Republicans sweat and damage their chances among low-info voters. To his credit, Paul didn’t play along with this old game; he questioned the premise and threw it back in the reporters’ faces.
Instead of waiting for her newsroom allies, Wasserman-Schultz released a huffy statement. “Here’s an answer,” the DNC Chair wrote. “I support letting women and their doctors make this decision without government getting involved. Period. End of story.”
She forgot to mention that Obamacare ensures government is intimately involved with this life-or-death decision, but I appreciate the clarity. To use Paul’s phrasing, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and the Democratic National Committee are okay with killing a seven-pound baby in the uterus. She doesn’t care when life begins and has no intention of protecting the life of any baby in the womb, even if it’s a minute from being delivered. The baby can be killed anytime and for any reason. Period. End of story.
I hope the other GOP candidates are taking notes. They need to stop trying to placate the reporters who hate them and go on offense for a change. Like Gingrich and Paul, use a little verbal jujitsu to trip up the Democrat-Media Complex. Beltway liberals are wildly out-of-touch with the average voter’s values and concerns. Use that to our advantage.
In two minutes, I came up with several questions to ask of Hillary Clinton and her supporters. It’s only fair that moderate voters know her answers:
- “Do you believe that Officer Darren Wilson racially profiled Mike Brown? Explain.”
- “Will you have a gender-neutral bathroom in the White House? Why isn’t there one now?”
- “What made you finally agree with Dick Cheney that same-sex marriage should be legalized?”
- “How much should taxes be increased to combat climate change? Did your record-setting number of State Department trips contribute to the problem?”
- “Should we increase immigration while African-American unemployment is at record highs?”
Have at it, press corps; prove your neutrality. And Republicans, prove that you’ll be able to handle the hostile press if and when you get to the Oval Office.
One of the comments on Gabriel’s piece mentions option 2.5:
But when dealing with adversarial media, you should never agree to an interview without your own camera recording the whole thing and reserving the right to publish it in its entirety.
I first heard of this strategy on the Wall Street Journal op-ed page in the 1980s and used it in my own take-down of one of their attack reporters in a front page hit piece in 1992. (Keep hitting “Next” for the transcript and a link to the audio recording.)
It doesn’t reach the low-information people, but forever discredits the “attack reporter” and the outlet which employs him or her. Further, it alerts others potential victims to do the same.
It is also intensely entertaining.
I’d like to see a candidate, ideally all of them, make regular postings on YouTube with “What I said” versus “What you saw”.
Of course, it’s never been clear to me that a candidate’s going to war with the news media helps that candidate’s standing with undecided, independent voters.
The number 15 British song today in 1966 was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards:
The number one single today in 1966:
The number one single today in 1977:
UW–Madison alumnus Jason Gay of the Wisconsin State Journal:
Arghhhhhhhhh. So this is the hazard, right? If you are going to become attached to a team, you have to accept that with the good stuff comes the heartache, and there’s always more heartache than good stuff. Always. Especially during something like March Madness, in which 64 teams (OK, 68, technically) get thrown together and 63 of them (OK, 67, technically) end up abruptly bounced—goodbye, farewell, you’re done, kaput. They end this three-week tournament with a montage and the soaring high fructose of “One Shining Moment.” But disappointment is the standard party-bag gift.
The Wisconsin Badgers lost the NCAA men’s basketball championship on Monday night. If you follow this column you have probably noted that it has been slightly enthusiastic about the Badgers in recent weeks. OK: It has been embarrassingly enthusiastic about the Badgers. But so what? Wisconsin is where I went to school. It is where I met my closest friends, where I first read William Faulkner, where I first ate an entire pizza by myself before noon. I’m attached to Madison for life. If I had gone to the Sorbonne, and the Sorbonne had made the Final Four, I would have gone bonkers for the Sorbonne. (I have the Sorbonne in my 2016 office pool.)
By Monday morning, I was convinced it was really going to happen for the Badgers. On Saturday, Wisconsin had ended Kentucky’s 38-0 season and the whole thing just started to feel inevitable. It had to happen. A year ago, Wisconsin had reached the Final Four and lost to Kentucky on a late shot in the semis. Playing Duke in the final was almost cinematic. Duke! Fearsome, celebrated, complicated-to-love Duke. This would be bigger than the Badgers. For one night only, Wisconsin would be America’s Team.
The problem is, Duke is, you know, Duke. Disciplined, well-assembled, well-coached. They call Coach K Coach K for a reason. They make an opponent work. Nothing is for free. More than midway through Monday’s title game at Lucas Oil Stadium, Wisconsin could not have asked for a more delicious scenario—the Badgers were rolling, up nine points, and Blue Devils center Jahlil Okafor was parked on the bench in foul trouble. This was the dream. Anybody would have taken this. The crowd was roughly 75% Badger fans, many of whom had roared into Indy that morning, and the room began to feel like a party on the verge. If I had been back at my old Madison apartment on North Hancock Street, my roommates would have begun to talk about walking down to State Street. This was really going to happen.
And then Duke got smarter, stronger, faster, more relentless—freshmen guards Tyus Jones and Grayson Allen proved essentially unstoppable—and Wisconsin began to fade. The Badgers looked tired. There were a lot of miles on the starters, especially emotionally. (Duke had cruised past Michigan State in the semis; Wisconsin’s stunner of Kentucky had been treated like a moon landing.) With Duke pulling away late, the Badgers needed a little more, and a little more didn’t arrive.
When it was over, you could see all that irresistible life drain out of the Badgers, who had been a delight all tournament—loose, quick-witted, a self-deprecating sitcom cast. The postgame locker room was a mournful hush. This outfit had accomplished so much—Big Ten title, first Wisconsin No. 1 seed, back-to-back trips to Final Fours. But this was now a breakup. There were departing Badgers, historic players, who would never wear red again. “Right now it’s hard to swallow,” said fifth-year senior guard Josh Gasser, surrounded by microphones, eyes red, processing the end of it all right there, in real time.
They’d imagined a different finish. “These guys are my family—I mean that literally; I don’t mean that hypothetically,” Frank Kaminsky, the senior center, said at a postgame news conference. An awkward freshman who had risen to become the national player of the year, Kaminsky had often thrown the Badgers upon his lanky back, and Indianapolis represented the end of his brilliant run, too. “It’s just going to be hard to say goodbye.”
“What [Frank] did in his years at Wisconsin will be remembered for a long time,” said Badgers coach Bo Ryan.
This is what it means to get here, of course. In the aftermath, there was talk about what Duke did and what Wisconsin didn’t and Ryan growled a bit about the late flurry of foul calls—that’s the kind of thing that never lands right—but this was the second-guessing that happens when the road reaches this far. The history was now history. Badgers had reached the Final Four once more, and once more had come heartbreakingly close. This was always the hazard. It was also totally worth it. Now if you don’t mind I need to hug Bucky Badger, and go talk to a beer.
A comment sums up my feelings Monday night:
I will say this as a Badger, I am facing the cold hard facts that this was a probably a chance in a lifetime for a Championship. If you look back on the past 30 years, Championships have only come to the elite basketball programs. With one and dones, schools like Wisconsin will not get lucky enough to have multiple players develop into NBA caliber players. I have never wanted to call Wisconsin a second tier school, but in basketball and in football, I don’t see them getting the top recruits. When Duke has 8 all Americans on its team, it really becomes tough to compete. It’s not a level playing field and I can understand Bo’s frustration.
… Buzzfeed finishes that thought:
Jonathan Daniel / Getty ImagesA regular season school record for wins. Big Ten champions. Big Ten Tournament Champions. It was already one of the greatest seasons in UW history.
2. Because Wisconsin entered the tournament as a No. 1 seed for the first time ever.
Sports IllustratedAnd by the end of the tournament, Wisconsin had definitely proven that they deserved it.
3. Because this is how Wisconsin center Frank Kaminsky celebrated that No. 1 seed.
BuzzFeedNote the eye contact. It really brings a whole new level to the ball-rubbing.
4. Because only one win into the tournament, sophomore forward Nigel Hayes noticed the press stenographer. And then he tested her spelling.
Charlie Neibergall / AP“Well, the wonderful young lady over there, I think her job title is a stenographer, yes, OK. And she does an amazing job of typing words, sometimes if words are not in her dictionary, maybe if I say soliloquy right now, she may have to work a little bit harder to type that word, or quandary, zephyr, xylophone, things like that, that make her job really interesting.”
5. Because right before the Sweet 16, Nigel Hayes accidentally called a woman in the press room “beautiful” into the microphone.
I guess he didn’t realize how powerful microphones are.
6. And it led to this epic facepalm.
YouTubeSam Dekker and Frank Kaminsky cannot contain themselves. Who can blame them?
7. Because after Sam Dekker went off for 23 points against UNC in the Sweet 16, the impossible became possible.
Mark J. Terrill / AP“Make ‘em believe.”
8. Because two days later, Frank Kaminsky exploded for 28 points against Arizona, and led Wisconsin back to the Final Four. For the second year in a row!
Mark J. Terrill / APWhen you’re that tall, you only need to go a quarter of the way up the ladder.
9. Because even Aaron Rodgers couldn’t resist joining in on the fun!
Mark J. Terrill / APHeroes of Wisconsin, unite!
10. Because back in Madison, State Street went hard!
State Street is ALIVE. #FINALFOUR
— UWMadison (@UW-Madison)
You think they might be a little excited?
11. Because no one was prepared for what happened next.
USA Today SportsThe biggest stage. The undefeated Kentucky Wildcats. Lucas Oil Stadium. The Final Four. NBD, right?
12. Because THEY DID WHAT???
David J. Phillip / AP13. SERIOUSLY! WHAT?!
Darron Cummings / AP14. *runs around screaming and high-fiving and hugging*
Andy Lyons / Getty ImagesIf you want to be a Badger, just come along with me…to the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAME!
15. Because after beating the unbeatable, the Badgers had some friends waiting for them back at their hotel.
So, this must be what it’s like to be a rockstar? #Badgers #OnWisconsin
— BadgerMBB (@Wisconsin Basketball)
It’s a Wisconsin thing.
16. Because before the biggest game of their careers in front of the bright lights of the sports media, the Badgers stayed true to themselves.
17. And of course, Nigel Hayes arrived in style.
Its @tmj4 photog Jim Angeli’s video of @NIGEL_HAYES riding to presser. We’ll show you hilarity at 10:20 #Badgers
— lanceallan (@Lance Allan)
Classic Nigel.
18. Because Wisconsin’s own Frank Kaminsky was this year’s NCAA Player of the Year.
Kiichiro Sato / APCould coach Bo Ryan smile any harder?
19. Because no matter the final score, the Badgers made Wisconsin proud in the National Championship.
David J. Phillip / APYou wanted a game? You got one!
20. Because no other team gave their fans this many amazing memories.
David J. Phillip / AP21. And no other fanbase was more proud of their team.
Andy Manis / APLet’s go, Badgers! *clap clap* *clap clap clap*
22. Because while players come and go, Wisconsin still has Bo Ryan.
Michael Conroy / AP23. And Bo’s many, many amazing faces.
Michael Conroy / AP
David J. Phillip / AP
Mark J. Terrill / AP
On Wisconsin!
Andy Manis / APU-rah-rah.
Today in 1967, John Lennon took his Rolls–Royce to J.P. Fallon Ltd. in Surrey, England, to see if it could paint the car in psychedelic colors. The result three months later:
The number one single today in 1973:
Possibly lost in the hoopla (get it?) over the Badgers in the national men’s basketball championship game is the fact that Wisconsin’s spring election is today.
Statewide, there are two votes — one for the Supreme Court and one about the Supreme Court. The former is Justice Ann Walsh Bradley’s attempt to succeed Shirley Abrahamson as the next chief justice. (Bradley has been on the court since 1995.)
Normally Supreme Court races should attract little attention, except in our hyperpoliticized times, where the court system is just, to borrow von Clausewitz’s description of war, politics by other means. So when Bradley makes a statement like Act 10 being a “textbook case of unconstitutionality” when it obviously wasn’t, you should ask why she should be on the Supreme Court.
Similarly, when Bradley is willing to let a convicted double murderer go free because of one word, you should question how tough on crime she is, particularly because of the recidivism rate of criminals.
Tied to the Supremes is the referendum allowing justices to choose the chief justice, instead of giving the title to the longest serving justice. If you think about it, it demonstrates the perfect liberal mindset that reared its ugly head during Act 10 — that people should get things merely for showing up (i.e. getting the chief justice title by being on the court the longest) instead of having to earn it (majority vote of the court). That makes a Yes vote on the referendum obvious.
Several school districts have referenda today for building projects or to allow spending beyond revenue caps. There is one referendum about creating a school district, in Caledonia, out of the Racine Unified School District. I don’t live there, but if I did I would certainly vote for the referendum. From what I read, Racine Unified has many of the problems of the worst school district in the state, Milwaukee Public Schools, many of which are the result of excessive size.
Today in 1956, the CBS Radio Network premiered Alan Freed’s “Rock and Roll Dance Party.”
The number one single today in 1958:
Today in 1962, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards met someone who called himself Elmo Lewis. His real name was Brian Jones.
First, our national anthem, including Wisconsin’s Vitto Brown:
Saturday’s NCAA national semifinal …
… was to the Badgers what this was to the nation …
… because while beating undefeated Kentucky was huge, it’s not the last game. Tonight is, against Duke.
As you can see, the Badgers have been letting the attention get to them:
The Sporting News recounts Sunday’s press conference:
During media availability on Sunday afternoon at Lucas Oil Stadium, Nigel Hayes, Sam Dekker, Josh Gasser, Frank Kaminsky and Bronson Koenig sat on the stage constantly scanning the crowd of reporters below. Every minute or so, two of the players would lean back in their chairs, cover their mouths with a hand or part of their jerseys and giggle like schoolgirls.
The entire 40-minute media session was punctuated with giggles from the players, Bo Ryan and the media, but perhaps no one moment was funnier than when sophomore forward Hayes responded to one of the only questions he was asked with this honesty:
“I don’t really know how to answer questions. I just thought I was brought here to say some words and you might laugh,” he said with a megawatt grin. (His words to stump the stenographer on Sunday were “logorrhea” and “succedaneum,” in case you’re wondering.)
Most coaches wouldn’t tolerate any funny business, but Ryan — who the players endearingly refer to as “Pops” — embraces his team’s looseness and camaraderie. He lets them goof around while he fields questions from the press and even joins in on occasion. For good reason too — Ryan couldn’t manufacture the team’s playful approach if he tried. And many coaches have.
Back to the question at hand: what’s so funny?
Turns out, each time the Badgers address the media, they’re playing a game. The game doesn’t have a name but the premise is simple. Each player scans the crowd searching for people who look like either famous people or someone who the players all know. When a player identifies a doppelgänger, he alerts his teammates and so begins a ripple of chortles across the stage.
PHOTOS: Duke’s Final Four uniforms throughout the years
“Vitto (Brown) started this lookalike game we do where we crowd-search to find someone who looks like someone we know or someone on our team, because Bronson (Koenig) and myself, we get asked over 101 questions per interview so we really just need to pass the time,” Hayes said with a touch of sarcasm.
Dekker said the team found “Steve Aoki” and “Ray Lewis” twins in the horde on Sunday, and added that “every bald guy is automatically Jeff Potrykus.” Potrykus is the Badgers’ beat writer for the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, and Dekker said he’s aware of his legend status in the game.
It’s hard to determine who exactly is the ringleader of the bunch. Koenig takes credit for being the self-described “funniest guy on the team” — an assessment Hayes agreed with, saying that he and Brown are “1A and 1B” when it comes to team jokester. Some may think it’s Hayes’ title for his well-documented trolling of the tournament stenographers, but Koenig says “(the team), we all think he’s corny.”
And then there’s Frank Kaminsky.
Kaminsky is the star of the show on the court, and off of it, too, due to his unabashed self-awareness. What you see is what you get with “Frank the Tank.”
“He’s one to not be afraid to show his true emotions, true colors,” Dekker explained. “I think that’s what makes him such a good player. He’s learned to be himself and not care what people think about him. You see him dancing. You see him yelling. You see him giving attitude to the media because he acts like he hates it, like it’s the worst thing ever. But that’s truly how he is behind closed doors.
“If he masks his personality, it’s going to change him as a player and as a person so I’m happy that he’s cool with being himself and not caring what the national perception of him is. I’m really proud of him for that.”
If nothing else, the national perception of Kaminsky is that he’s captivating both in terms of skillset and wit. He cemented that status on Sunday afternoon when responding to a question about whether he considered himself “the man.”
The Sporting News Player of the Year paused for a moment, looked over his right shoulder at Gasser, tilted his head and asked “am I?” There was a dramatic pause before he began his answer. Kaminsky was working the crowd for his shining moment.
“I don’t know. I wasn’t prepared for a question of this magnitude,” he grinned. Another pause. “So do you want like an intellectual answer, or…?”
Honesty. Humility. Humor. That’s what we’ll remember about these Badgers, no matter how this wild journey to the title ends. Let the mic drop.
One media type called the Badgers possibly the most media-friendly college team of all time. Another suggested that Hayes did so well at news conferences that he might be hired as a college football coach.
The Badgers will or will not win tonight (and that’s why you pay the big bucks for the brilliant insight found in this blog), but they won’t fall flat on their faces. Evan Flood explains why:
After (1) Wisconsin (36-3) did the unthinkable and beat (1) Kentucky (38-1), ending the Wildcats’ perfect season, senior guard Josh Gasser quickly reminded the rest of his teammates that the win was just another step towards their ultimate goal — and nothing more.
While the victory over Kentucky might have been the biggest in program history, the Badgers had no time to actually enjoy the moment.
“We have another game, it’s not over,” Gasser said. “We have nothing to celebrate. It’s a huge accomplishment to make it to the National Championship, but that wasn’t our goal. We celebrated for a good five or six seconds, but we’ve got to move on.
“It might have been the biggest win in school history and it will last for two days.”
Here’s a list of the last 12 National Champions in College Basketball; UConn (3), Louisville, Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina (2), Kansas, Florida (2), Syracuse.
Needless to say, Wisconsin doesn’t exactly fit in with the elite group of programs they’re trying to join in Monday’s National Championship Game versus (1) Duke (34-4). In fact, 18 of the last 19 national titles have gone to true blue blood programs, with only Maryland in 2002 able to force their way into the discussion of college basketball’s elite.
(1) Wisconsin (36-3) will always be remembered as the team that beat Goliath and previously unbeaten (1) Kentucky (38-1). That will never be taken away from them.
But that’s not what they’re here for.
Seeking the program’s first national title since 1941, the Badgers find themselves one game away from forever etched in history as one of the great teams in college basketball.
“All season we’ve had the idea of winning a national championship in our minds,” senior Duje Dukan said.
Kentucky is Wisconsin’s Russia and Duke their Finland.
Having knocked off the best team in college basketball, 71-64 in Saturday’s national semifinal, the team with nine McDonald’s All-Americans that many pegged unbeatable, the Badgers now have the task of coming down from certainly one of the more memorable victories in NCAA Tournament history.
“After [the 1980 US hockey team] beat Russia, we had to beat Finland,” Wisconsin Women’s Hockey Coach and former Olympic Gold Medalist Mark Johnson told Bo Ryan.
“Most people think that Russia was the gold medal game,” Ryan continued. “I think it was Finland, wasn’t it? I’ve been reminded on a few text messages that Finland is Duke, both really good teams.”
If Wisconsin goes on to win the national championship, it will have been by way of the most difficult road possible and the toughest run since the tournament expanded to 68 teams.
In the Sweet 16, the Badgers beat North Carolina 79-72 in the Sweet 16, their first-ever win over the Tar Heels in program history. Wisconsin then topped Arizona in the Elite Eight 85-78 for the second-consecutive season. Saturday’s win over Kentucky was the program’s second win against a No. 1 seed in the past two seasons and first over the Wildcats in over 30 years.
In the third Associated Press Poll, each of Wisconsin’s last four opponents, which includes Duke, were ranked in the top six along with the Badgers.
“To be able to beat North Carolina, Arizona, Kentucky and now have a chance at Duke, that is pretty remarkable for a school that is not considered a powerhouse,” Gasser said.
Since Ryan’s arrival in 2001, Wisconsin has been the exception to the rule in college basketball.
Winning without a high influx of elite high school recruits, the Badgers get things done and their own way. Beating a team with nine McDonald’s All-Americans in Kentucky, Wisconsin will have to do the same again with Duke, who also has nine McDonald’s All-Americans.
Wisconsin has just one former five-star recruit and have had just two total in Ryan’s 14-year tenure.
The Badgers do have something no team in the country has, however.
“We have seven Wisconsin all-stars, and they (Duke) have none,” Gasser joked.
But Wisconsin, especially Ryan, has never been concerned with the national perception of his program.
“I don’t know about perception,” said Ryan. “I do know these guys have established themselves as being a pretty good group of young men that have come together.
“Whatever this team accomplishes Monday night, one way or the other, it’s still who they are. They proudly have represented the University of Wisconsin, the Big Ten.
“I’m never really concerned if there are people that perceive us a certain way because we are who we are. We play the way we play. We’re sure happy with it. So we can live with that.”
While his players will play in their first-ever National Championship Game, this is not Ryan’s first rodeo. The 67-year-old won four national titles at Division 3 Wisconsin Platteville.
While Ryan will underplay the national perception of his program, he won’t understate what a championship would mean to the state of Wisconsin, who has waited 74 years for another opportunity like the one they earned Monday night.
“They (Badgers) know that they have a chance to make a mark in history,” he said. “They understand that. They’ve already done some of that. But when you’re an athlete and you’re competing, there’s unfinished business here.
“It’s just like in ’91 when that Platteville won the national championship. The first thing I did is I looked at the crowd because I wanted to see how happy everybody else was, to see how happy the players were. This team affects a lot of people and their emotions.
“For the state of Wisconsin, for them to get a national championship, yeah, I think that would have a lasting impression.”
You might say.
The Badgers are playing Duke, which beat Wisconsin early in the season. Wisconsin has changed a few things, and Duke probably has as well.
There are a lot of Duke haters, for reasons I don’t get other than Duke’s perpetual success under coach Mike Krzyzewski, who got his 1,000th win earlier this season. Duke’s players play well (although they seemed nonchalant on defense the last time I watched them, but tell that to Michigan State), graduate, and are generally good representatives of their university.
The difficult thing for both teams is that they had only Sunday to prepare, as opposed to having an entire week to get ready for the semifinal. So Wisconsin has had little time to prepare for Duke’s Jahlil Okafor, but Duke has had little time to prepare for Wisconsin’s Frank Kaminsky, winner of numerous national player-of-the-year awards, or Sam Dekker, both of whom present major matchup problems, as the teams that have lost to UW can attest.
It should be a great game. On Wisconsin.
Today in 1956, Elvis Presley signed a seven-year contract with Paramount Studios.
The movies won no Academy Awards, but sold a lot of tickets and a lot of records.
The number one album today in 1968 was the soundtrack to “The Graduate”:
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 