Calls or no calls, Badgers quickly must find whatever’s missing

The second weekend of March is upon us, which means the peak of conference tournament play in college basketball and Selection Sunday for the NCAA tournament.

March Madness won’t be taken for granted again after it disappeared so suddenly a year ago. For sports nuts in this area, there may be no better way to pass the time when there’s little else to do as winter transitions to spring.

The Madness was sorely missed last March.

My chances of winning any NCAA tournament bracket pools and contests are probably slim to none this year. With all of the high school basketball video I’ve watched this winter, I could barely get myself to watch any college basketball. I can honestly say if a game didn’t involve the Wisconsin Badgers, I didn’t watch more than five minutes without changing the channel or walking away.

All I hear is Gonzaga looks really good and Duke and North Carolina might not make the tournament. What’s that all about?

Madness is a pretty good description for Wisconsin’s regular season which, to say the least, has been disappointing. Once ranked in the top five, the Badgers head into the Big Ten tournament at 16-11 overall and just 10-10 in conference play. Granted the conference was really, really good this year. But as senior-dominated as Wisconsin is and as explosive as every one of those seniors has been at times in their UW careers, this team should’ve been better.

There might be no team in the country more in a need of a restart or motivational kick in the rear this week to make something out of this weird season.

Speaking of explosive, the big storyline out of Madison this week was typically mild-mannered head coach Greg Gard holding nothing back in defense of senior guard Brad Davison following a controversial hook-and-hold flagrant foul call in the final minute that helped Iowa lock up a 77-73 win over the Badgers. At first glance, as Davison and Iowa’s Keegan Murray got tangled up as Davison tried to catch a pass cutting to the basket, it looked like an obvious foul on Murray. The slow motion replay convinced the officials otherwise as they called a double foul with Davison’s foul being deemed flagrant for hooking Murray with his left arm.

Davison, as basketball fans know, has had his share of run-ins with officials in his four-year stint with the Badgers. Early on, he had an amazing knack for drawing offensive fouls. That knack was deemed to be too good by some. The hookand- hold foul is one he’s been called for a few times in the last two years. He’s also become a permanent villain for a belowthe- belt cheap shot he put on then-Marquette standout Joey Hauser in December of 2018. He’ll never live that one down and rightly so.

In his post-game comments Sunday, Gard went off on everybody from the NCAA, Big Ten officials, opposing teams, the conference itself and ESPN for singling out Davison and putting him under a microscope on every call he’s involved in. I will say the guy rarely gets a charge call anymore and Iowa’s monster of a man Luka Garza drew two offensive fouls against UW in the first half with, shall we say, exaggerated action.

Truthfully, the call in question on Sunday wasn’t as egregious as I first thought. In real time, it looks like a simple entanglement between the two players where the call almost automatically goes against the defender. In slo-mo, you could argue Davison purposely hooks Murray at the last instant.

If Gard wanted to blast Sunday’s offi cials, he should’ve taken stronger offense to a slight back tap that was called on Tyler Wahl with 46 seconds to go and led to the tying free throw and, seconds later, an utterly ridiculous fifth foul on D’Mitrik Trice that ended his day and gave Iowa’s Jordan Bohannon three free throws. He made all three to put the Hawkeyes ahead for good. Earlier in the game, Trevor Anderson took an elbow to the head that didn’t even draw a replay review. The last minute of the game took 20 minutes because of replay reviews.

Both touch calls late were made by Bo Boroski, who has drawn the ire of Badgers’ fans this year. Wisconsin is 14-3 in games not involving Boroski this year and 2-8 when he is calling the game, including seven straight losses. Some were blowouts where Daffy Duck could’ve been reffing and it wouldn’t have mattered. But the last three against Michigan, Illinois and Iowa went right down to the wire and make you wonder.

Gard certainly heard from the Big Ten’s police this week and maybe there will be penalties, maybe not. Maybe Davison will get a call when it matters at some point, maybe not.

Ultimately, the Badgers just have to play better at tournament time to salvage something out of this season. Maybe Gard’s tirade can be the fuel that lights the fire. Something has been missing since the Badgers got a big Christmas Day win at Michigan State. Shots aren’t falling, the key defensive stops don’t seem to happen like they used to, Aleem Ford and Nate Reuvers disappear for long stretches, the Badgers can’t start a game with a lead and they can’t win close games at home, which has almost never happened in the last 20 years.

The 2000 Final Four team under Dick Bennett was only .500 in Big Ten play and suddenly got on a memorable run. This team is capable, but it has to find whatever’s missing in a hurry because succeeding as a six-seed in the Big Ten tournament and as an even lower seed in the NCAAs, if they don’t make a Big Ten run this weekend, isn’t going to be easy.

Matt Frey is the Sports Editor at The Star News.

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