If you haven’t heard already, Butler set a new National Championship Game record by shooting just 18.8 percent from the field on Monday night. That’s right, Butler made just 12 of their 64 shots, including just 3 of 31 (9.7 percent!) from two-point range.
You would expect, after that performance, that all of those critics of Wisconsin who used a poor shooting night as proof of fluky success to come out of the woodwork and shout to the heavens that Butler simply didn’t belong, that their (2nd straight) Final Four run was the product of lucky shots and fortunate bounces rather than simply out of grit, determination, and solid basketball.
I spent all night looking for these critics and yet they were nowhere to be found.
Yes, the same writers who bashed the Badgers after a 36-33 loss to Penn State in the Big Ten Tournament and then again after a poor shooting night in the Sweet 16 loss to Butler were not ripping on the Bulldogs for being a party crasher, destined to fall once their good fortune passed. Instead, they were crying the tears, calling out the excuses, and playing the “what if” game in order to somehow use a similar poor shooting night as evidence that Butler not only belonged, but was in fact the better team.
Seriously, why the double standard?
As soon as Wisconsin was eliminated from the tournament by this same Butler team, more than a few “national college basketball writers” used a 30.2 percent effort from the field as foolproof evidence of the Badgers’ destiny for failure.
UW was too dependent on the three-pointer, too dependent on their stars, and unable to win away from home where they tended to struggle from the field.
Never mind the fact this same Badger team squeaked out a victory against a hot Iowa team in Iowa City despite shooting 18 percent in the first half and 35 percent overall.
Never mind the fact this same Badger team beat Michigan while being out-shot by nearly 13 percent.
Never mind the fact the Badgers had shot nearly 46 percent during the first two rounds of the tournament, playing 1,663 miles away from the Kohl Center in Tucson, Arizona.
Just a bad shooting night? No, for the Badgers it had to be something that was destined to happen.
As for Butler: What a shame.
What is it about this Badger program that has media types getting on their every slip?
As much as I would like to have a better explanation, the best I can think of is that Wisconsin basketball is boring.
Not boring in the sense that these “college basketball writers” have been talking about. No, the Badgers are just fundamentally sound and their lack of mistakes gives off the impression of a boring offense. Actually watch a few games and this notion of “Wisconsin basketball” being some sort of boring, stall-oriented system will wash away.
But Wisconsin basketball is boring for these writers. It is boring because there is nothing to write about. No NCAA investigation, no players being suspended, no coaching controversy, no star taking up all the attention, nothing to give a national writer anything resembling a good story.
So in an attempt to meet their quotas, this group of media types has to reapply the word boredom, a word that certain applies to their own perceptions of the Wisconsin program as it pertains to the ease of their own jobs.
The off-the-court tranquility is translated into a “boring offense”, its existence dependent on the shaky existence of a lucky shooting run. Once the bounces stopped going UW’s way, they were destined to lose.
Now don’t get me wrong, Wisconsin and Butler both finished off their seasons with poor performances. Wisconsin’s mistakes were plentiful in New Orleans, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t belong nor does it mean they never had a shot at the Final Four. Certainly it doesn’t mean that the program should completely re-haul its offensive and defensive philosophies simply because the shots weren’t falling one night.
The same goes for Butler. They are no longer Cinderella they have proven they belong. Butler is no longer one of the best mid-major programs, they are one of the best programs, period. Just because the shots weren’t falling on Monday night doesn’t mean they didn’t earn their spot in the final.
Wisconsin’s 13 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances speak for themselves, as do Butler’s back-to-back title games.
Each had a bad night at a bad time. That’s all there is to write about.
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