Winning isn't everything
How I fell in love with Big 10 basketball and you should too
The game that made me fall in love with college basketball forever was played in the sauna-hot old Wisconsin Badger Field House on a frigid February night in 1987.
The mostly hapless Badgers pushed the Bobby Knight led Hoosiers to the brink – three overtimes with a chance to clinch the game with a pair of free throws – before a raucous and sweaty crowd stomping red paint chipped ancient wooden bleachers underfoot for a delirious 55 minutes of Big 10 basketball.
Steve Alford set the all-time Indiana scoring record in that game, despite being lambasted courtside by a Knight furious that his star guard was an abysmal 4 of 19 shooting and missed game winning shots at the end of regulation and the first overtime.
Dick Vitale and ESPN were in town for a rare prime-time game for a Wisconsin team battling to stay out of the cellar with an equally awful Northwestern. The next day’s Capital Times had no fewer than four bylined stories by three reporters spread over two pages to document the event.
I was 16, a big Badger fan, and didn’t care that the hometown team was 1-11 in conference heading into the showdown with Indiana, ranked #2 in the country and in first place in the Big 10.
The game was vintage 1980s Big 10 basketball – no three-point line, lots of big bodies banging, floor burns, hard fouls, fast breaks and lead changes. A miasma of cigar smoke and stale popcorn odor created a haze hanging over the court in the old stone barn.
With 24 seconds left in the third overtime and the Badgers clinging to a one-point lead, Wisconsin guard Shelton Smith bricked two free throws. As mentioned, there was no three-point line at the time, so sinking the pair likely would have secured the win. Instead, the Hoosiers hustled down the court, Joe Hillman takes an ill-advised long distance two from the left corner, but 6’10 Indiana center Dean Garrett hauls in the air ball and gently lays the ball through the cylinder to crush Badger upset dreams.
Being a Badger backer, I was heartbroken. But the competition was so intense, the atmosphere so charged, the energy and effort expended by the players so impressive that a college basketball junkie was born that day.
I share the anecdote to explain why I get so frustrated with fellow fans talking about their apathy and disinterest with this season’s Hawkeye hoops team. It’s not that I don’t rationally understand the reasons; it’s that I know there is beauty even in struggle and losses, from the sheer spirit of competition. I know this sounds corny, because it is corny! I also know that even in its imperfect modern state, Big 10 basketball still delivers such moments with regularity.
Red-hot Nebraska finding a way to trip up seemingly invincible Purdue leading to a Lincoln court storming – only to be dismantled themselves in front of a tiny-but-vocal blizzard-crossed crowd in Iowa City days later is another example.
If you pay attention and love basketball, it is hard to not be entertained by the roller coaster ride that is a Big 10 season. For the second year in a row, Iowa has dug out of an ugly 0-3 conference hole and finds itself back in the thick of the race for a mid-pack finish and possible NCAA tournament berth.
How can you not be entertained?
I continue to fear these Hawkeyes have a limited ceiling – they lack the “go-to” surefire star that has anchored past iterations. Nevertheless, they are a team that is always looking to outscore and out-gun their opponent, something they did with alacrity in Minneapolis Monday. Yes, good defensive teams can disrupt that by controlling clock and grinding Iowa down in the half court, but when the Hawks are cooking, it’s one of the prettiest showcases in all of college basketball.
The astute former Illinois star Stephen Bardo – who certainly has no latent love for the Hawkeyes as a former member of the Flyin’ Illini – noted Monday that Iowa is the “most connected” team in the Big 10 and may be the best example in the conference of a team where guys “play for each other.”
Forgive me if it rankles that a former Hawk-hater talks nicer about my favorite team than many of its own fans. However, don’t worry, the bandwagon has plenty of room when you decide to hop back on!
Brecht’s Beat is a proud member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Please check out the work of my colleagues and consider subscribing. Also, the collaborative partners with the Iowa Capital Dispatch, which provides hard-hitting news along with selected commentary by members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Please consider making a donation to support its work, too.
“apathy and disinterest with this season’s Hawkeye hoops team”---I think you should add “men’s” to that statement and then you’d be on track to explain it. Honestly, that’s the case with basketball overall---I’d just rather watch 3 of the big 10 women’s teams than any of the men’s ones, and I’m even watching LSU and South Carolina games now (in the hope that their new superteams get beat). They all just play a much more strategic and appealing style than the men’s teams.