Sunday, April 02, 2000
A happy end to Badger boredom
BY PAUL DAUGHERTY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
INDIANAPOLIS — This was the sort of game cavemen painted on walls. I'm sorry. Bless the Wisconsin Badgers for being scrappy little overachievers. Praise their hard little noses. But get 'em outta here now.
Give them their lovely parting-gift peach baskets. Watching them try to score against Michigan State was like pushing a brick through a keyhole.
Speaking of bricks, the Badgers shot 35 percent. Take away guard Roy Boone's 6-for-9 night, it was 26 percent. After erupting for 17 points in the first half, they exploded for two in the first seven minutes of the second. It was enough to make a man watch the women's game.
Wisconsin lost to Michigan State 53-41. The game effectively ended with 8:40 left, when the Spartans' Morris Peterson drilled a 3-pointer from the key. That made it 37-22. To rally from 15 points down, Wisconsin would have to score 16. Hmmm.
This was not the “good, fundamental basketball” the Badgers claim to play. They defend their wheezy 1940s style by praising its selflessness and discipline. Great, but this ain't the Marine Corps. At some point, this revolutionary notion must take hold:
To win, you have to score points. Thank goodness for Morris Peterson, the only player on either side familiar with that concept. He scored 20. It took Wisconsin almost 28 minutes to score 20.
There has to be a happy medium, in basketball, between flash-and-dash and
bash-and-thrash. They didn't find it in the first national semifinal game Saturday night. CBS knew what it was doing, keeping this game away from prime time.
At this level, it is not too much to expect substance and and style. Only last night, it was.
“We've done a good job winning games,” Spartans point guard Mateen Cleaves said. “Sometimes they're pretty, sometimes they're ugly. Whenever you play Wisconsin, it's ugly.”
At some point, talent has to mean something. Wisconsin got as far as it could on its style. Against the Spartans, it faced a team that could play the Badgers' way, and with better players.
Multiple screens and squadrons of forearms in the lane don't concern a team that has actually practiced in shoulder pads, whose players pump iron in the football team's weight room, as the Spartans have this season.
The Spartans don't like the Badgers' style — “I like to run and shoot, not score 50 (points) a game,” guard Charlie Bell said Friday — but they can play it.
Yet the Spartans led just 19-17 at the half. What's the halftime speech for that: First team to 40 wins?
“They were a little down,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. “It was an incredibly physical first half.”
The Spartans won the first half by pounding the offensive backboards and sighing with relief every time another Badger rocked a shot off the rim; they dominated the second half by forcing a quicker pace.
As Izzo said, “The minute we became non-athletic, it worked to their advantage.”
Thanks to Peterson, Michigan State went on an 11-2 run to start the second half. After that, we were left to wonder if Wisconsin would score again. There were only 14 minutes left.
“We knew we had to keep them off the glass,” Badgers coach Dick Bennett said. “We were unable to do that. We couldn't score inside and they wouldn't give us any looks outside.”
Forward Andy Kowske simplified things. “We were boys against men out there today. Looking at these stats, it's pretty bad.”
Watching it was no picnic, either. Behind me, a Florida fan got on his cell phone with about four minutes left. “Are you watching this mess?” he said. “You should record it. Then anytime you have trouble sleeping, you could put it on.”
Amen, brother.
Associated Press Final Four Coverage: Men's •
Women's
Florida vs. Mich St.: Opposites attract
Florida 71, North Carolina 59
Michigan State 53, Wisconsin 41
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