Daily Fix: Why Can’t We Do This?

UW-Madison Outlasts UW-Milwaukee 74-68

Trailing by 20 in the first half to the 24th-ranked UW-Madison Badgers of the bloated Big Ten, the UW-Milwaukee Panthers had every reason to run for the bus and roll over for the football factory’s hoops team in the second half. They were on the road in Madison, a city so liberal it makes me look like Bill O’Reilly; it’s finals week; their leading scorer, senior wing Joah Tucker was saddled with four fouls; and the beer would be flowing back in Cream City regardless of whether they made a go of this one or not.

Much to my surprise — remember, I’ve spent the first month or so of the season watching MAC squads run for the bus against BCS opponents — the Panthers battled back behind a barrage of triples from Boo Davis (23 points, 7-of-14 3PT), superb interior play from All-Horizon League forward Andre Tigert (14 points, 12 caroms) and tough D to tie it up with 16:00 to play and even take the lead in the second half. While they didn’t win, the Panthers made sure that the boys from the Big Ten left this one knowing that they had been in a real dogfight. That certainly isn’t a feeling the vast majority of BCS league teams have had after squaring off with MAC teams this season. Which begs the question why.

Is the quality of play that much worse in the MAC? Do MAC coaches not have any “win one for The Gipper” halftime speeches? Or, are MAC players just pussies, who lack the intestinal fortitude to go head-to-head with power conference teams? Ohio’s miserable second half performance against a very beatable Bearcats squad yesterday certainly makes it seem like, well, each and every one of those things is true.

We have nine more games against football factories this season, with four of them eminently winnable. But I’m not settling for those four wins. What I want is five or six wins and nine down to the wire scraps. Anything less and we ought to give our second Big Dance bid to the Southland, Northeast, or some other league where the squads don’t shirk from the challenge of hooping it up with college hoops high rollers.

Related Posts:

• No Related Posts