No More Comebacks For The Badgers » Brats & Beer

They say if you live by the sword you’ll eventually die by the sword, and it has turned out to be true in the case of the Badger men’s basketball team.

For too many games, especially late in the season, Wisconsin made an art out of falling behind early then coming back strong to win. Friday’s matchup with A&M Corpus Christi was no better example when the Badgers managed to erase an 18-point deficit, but today they could not overcome their early mistakes against UNLV and got ejected from the NCAA tournament.

It’s a real shame too because they had such a great season; this should have been an Elite Eight team for sure. Maybe even a Final Four contender. But when you spot your opponent a dozen points in the first half, you make it awfully difficult on yourselves, even with Alondo Tucker on your team.

I doubt that the Badgers will be able to repeat the kind of success they had this year with Tucker, Kam Taylor (who played his heart out in a spectacular second half), and Jason Chappell (who I don’t think got enough credit for the work he did on defense) all leaving, but there’s still enough of a core squad coming back that that they should continue to be near the top of the Big 10 for a good long while. Bo Ryan has done an exceptional job putting Wisconsin basketball on the national map, and that tradition should continue for many years to come.

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