Despite the Wisconsin basketball team’s 20-7 record, marquee victories over Duke, Purdue and Michigan State and a No. 17 ranking in the AP poll, the Internet minions following the Badgers have been dissatisfied this season.

So who is the most common target of those brave, anonymous posters who grace the comment sections of The Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin State Journal newspapers and relentlessly attack Badgerblitz.com’s and Badgernation.com’s message boards? Who has left them so despondent in a season where the Badgers were predicted by most media members to miss out on the NCAA Tournament?

Starting junior forward Tim Jarmusz.

Though it may be unwise to shine a light on those who hide behind a vapid username, here is a sample of the message board fodder after Wisconsin beat Northwestern 70-63 last Sunday.

‘Have all five tools’ wrote on JSOnline’s Badger Blog: “Simply put, if Jarmusz is getting destroyed on defense he has no reason to play. He flat out gets in the way on offense. I wonder if he has ever held the ball longer than three seconds on the offensive end. He gets it, panics, passes and runs away.”

‘Badger 8843’ wrote on Badgernation.com: “We all know TJ brings nothing good to the table no need to keep talking about it, JL better start for him soon and have the three-guard lineup, I’m sick of seeing TJ out there and making one three out of every 10 attempts, getting really old to watch.”

‘MDBadger’ wrote on Madison.com, “Jarmusz is horrid. He offers nothing. How is he a glue guy? I don’t see him diving on the floorm [sic] rebounding or playing any defense. He was abused all game long and most games this season.”

When asked about Jarmusz Tuesday, associate head coach Greg Gard flared up at the mere mention of anonymous message boards.

“There is nothing on there but garbage anyway,” Gard said. “Hopefully [the players] don’t even know they exist. Just steer clear of that garbage… it’s anonymous and there is no accountability with any of it. It is just garbage on there any way.

“It is always easy to sit behind a computer screen and hide behind that.”

Senior guard Jason Bohannon added the team knows the only opinions that matter come from teammates and the coaching staff.

While players are not explicitly told to avoid message boards, he believes most instinctively do.

“Looking at those message boards, maybe you lose your confidence a little bit or something like that,” Bohannon said.

For his part, Jarmusz claimed to have no idea what was written about him online.

The message boards’ case

When tamed down, the argument made by anonymous posters can generally be posed as such: Jarmusz has become a liability on the offensive end, and his defense is not strong enough to merit a starting role on the team.

For the season, Jarmusz is averaging 2.7 points per game, shooting 30 percent from the field and pulling down 3.4 rebounds per game — stats he is well aware of without anyone else pointing them out.

“It is tough,” he said of his season shooting woes. “No one wants to be in a slump like this. You just have to keep shooting, gain your confidence back, and hopefully shots will start falling.”

The response

Though Jarmusz’s shooting struggles are impossible to deny, Gard smirked at the notion that he hasn’t played a valuable role this season.

Besides being virtually turnover free, Jarmusz has contributed to a defense holding opponents to a Big Ten best 57.1 points per game.

“Usually it is the people who haven’t played [basketball] who don’t understand,” Gard said.

“It is not one individual player, and that is where people who don’t understand the game don’t see that stuff. It is not one-on-one. It is our group of five out there collectively, that is always the strength of our defense… anyone can get beat one on one out on an island, so you need five guys to play together.”

For the rest of the season, the cycle is likely to repeat itself.

Jarmusz will finish a game with poor shooting, Internet hounds will attack and the team will continue to ignore it — usually en route to a victory no less.

According to Bohannon, Jarmusz has kept a strong attitude despite all the criticisms and struggles.

“The main thing is that he continues to help this be a winning team,” Gard said. He has done that. Obviously he wouldn’t be on the floor if we didn’t think he was making a positive contribution.”