People were not overly happy with my take that my Wisconsin Badgers fans shouldn’t have stormed the court after beating sixth ranked Purdue.
I’m a man who likes to evaluate things and make a call or have an opinion based off of what I know. That’s why I said it was embarrassing that my Wisconsin people stormed the court. I expect to win, I expect our program to be elite, and even in down years I expect us to hold ourselves to the highest standard possible. Storming the court against Purdue isn’t holding ourselves to the highest standard possible.
Well, my article soon became the talk of the internet, my e-mail was blowing up and I was beginning to question whether or not I’d been too harsh on my own fanbase. To be fair, some of the e-mails were actually pretty interesting and laid out an interesting case for why I might be wrong.
I took some time yesterday to talk on the phone for about half an hour with a person I’d consider a Wisconsin insider when it comes to sports. Had I been wrong? Had I overreacted? Had my take just been too hot? These were the questions I needed answered.
I’ve officially come to the conclusion that I’m not wrong and that people who expect excellence shouldn’t rush the court. Maybe to some it felt like I was rubbing salt in the open wound that is our current basketball season.
I’m glad that so many people got pissed at my take. It shows that Wisconsin fans still have it going on deep down and we’re ready to fight at a moment’s notice. That’s a great sign for the future. This bad season clearly hasn’t caused us to lose our edge.
So, I stand by my original argument. Some of you probably hate me for it or want my degree taken away. That’s fine. I can take the heat, but I won’t stop holding Wisconsin to the highest levels imaginable. I expect nothing less than excellence, and that means court storming should be either a rarity or completely forgotten.
Props to me for always being man enough to keep it real and recognize when I’m right.