There really is no clever cliché that could accurately sum up the last nine months of Badger athletics. Simply put, cardinal and white fans have seen both sides of the sporting spectrum since the 2002-03 Badger athletic season kicked off last August, when 70,000 fans packed into Camp Randall on a sweltering summer evening to see the football team squeak by a pesky Fresno State squad in their non-conference opener.
Since then there have been a handful of wins, quite a few losses and enough memories and drama to last a lifetime.
Big Ten titles and all-conference teams, last-place finishes and record-breaking losses, NCAA appearances and court appointments. Never in modern Wisconsin athletics have the finishes of each team been so spread out on the totem pole of the Big Ten standings, and never has the phrase “wait until next year” been more appropriate for some of the traditionally dominant programs in the UW athletic department.
For the second consecutive season, the Wisconsin football team finished below .500 in the Big Ten and was once again pushed around by the likes of Illinois and Indiana. Or even worse, by their no name quarterbacks Jon Beutjer and Gibran Hamdan.
On-field struggles compounded into off-field troubles, and a program that traditionally sets its sight on a New Year’s day bowl game found itself earning a charity invitation to the Alamo Bowl, where their 31-28 win over Colorado was hardly a consolation to their horrendous year of competition.
After starting the season with a promising 5-0 record in non-conference play, the Badgers fell flat on their face when the Big Ten portion of their schedule commenced. They had more players arrested this year than they did conference wins and seemed to find their way to the courtroom with far greater frequency than they did the end zone.
In the end, the young Badgers probably deserved more than a 2-6 Big Ten record, having taken both Ohio State and Michigan down to the wire, but the disappointing conference campaign certainly leaves a sour image of the 2002 Wisconsin football team.
The tallest monument of the squad stood at 5-foot-8, in the form of walk-on safety Jim Leonhard, whose nation-leading 11 interceptions and daredevil punt returns garnered him All-American honors at season’s end.
Returning 16 starters, Lee Evans and some much needed experience on the defensive side of the ball to the field this fall, the 2003 Badgers are poised, once again, to be sitting in the upper tier of the Big Ten standings. After all, they can only go up from here.
Just next door to Camp Randall, inside the historic walls of the UW Field House, the Wisconsin volleyball team finished the season ranked in the top-25 for the sixth consecutive season under the direction of head coach Pete Waite.
Concluding the season with a 24-9 mark, 14-6 in the Big Ten, the Badgers climbed their way up to No. 18 in the year-end poll, carried by the outstanding efforts of All-Americans Erin Byrd and Morgan Shields before falling to Miami in the NCAA tournament.
Shifting over to the McClimon Soccer Complex, the men’s soccer team closed its season out in mediocre fashion under the new direction of Jeff Rohrman.
All-Big Ten and All-Region selection Nick Van Sicklen guided the Badgers to 9-9 overall record (3-3 in Big Ten) before UW lost to Penn State in the first round of the Big Ten tournament. The sophomore from Madison was Wisconsin’s leading scorer, notching 7 goals and 5 assists and returns to a team next fall with a wealth of incoming regional talent.
The women’s team (13-9-3) tasted a bit more success, advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament before dropping a 2-1 heartbreaker in overtime to the No. 5-ranked Pepperdine Waves.
With only three seniors on last season’s roster, the Badgers expect even bigger things when they open up their 2003 season this August in the California Invitational.
The bright spot of the fall semester in UW sports? Look no further than the University of Wisconsin men’s cross country team. The little publicized and seldom noticed collection of runners experienced more success than any other Wisconsin team in the 2002-03 school year, finishing the year with a second-place finish at the NCAA Championships.
Led by Big Ten Athlete of the Year Matt Tegenkamp, UW was far and away the best team in the conference, winning the Big Ten Championships with its largest margin of victory since 1919.
As the seasons began to change and the temperatures continued to drop, the most anticipated season of UW athletics began to take shape in the Kohl Center, when the Badger men’s basketball team took to the floor in late November.
In just his second year as head coach, Bo Ryan and his underclassmen-dominated squad had a world of expectations on their shoulders coming off last year’s unexpected run to the Big Ten title and second-round appearance in the NCAA tournament.
Neither Ryan, lone senior Kirk Penney nor any of UW’s wide-eyed freshman and sophomores would disappoint.
Dropping just about every significant non-conference game on their schedule, the Badgers had some wrinkles to iron out as conference play commenced. After giving up late leads and losing back-to-back road games at Michigan and Illinois to start the Big Ten season, Wisconsin erupted, winning 11 of their next 14 contests and grabbing their first outright Big Ten title in over 50 years.
Playing at home against Illinois in the regular season finale for the conference championship, a confident and focused Devin Harris, with ice water in his veins, sunk a free throw with just .4 seconds left in the game to lift the Badgers to a 60-59 victory over the Illini.
After being bounced out in the second round in the Big Ten tournament, Wisconsin was given the fifth seed in the Midwest bracket of the NCAA tournament and was sent off to Spokane, Wash.
After handling the No.12-seed Weber State in the opening round of the tournament, the Badgers moved on to face Cinderella-wannabe Tulsa in the next round of play.
Trailing by 13 points with 4:20 left in the game, the stage was set for one of the most memorable moments in Badger NCAA tournament history.
Behind Mike Wilkinson and Harris, UW clawed its way back to a 58-60 deficit with 12 seconds left on the clock, putting the Badgers in position for the most improbable comeback of the tournament.
Driving the lane in the final seconds of the game, Harris found a wide-open Freddie Owens in the corner who buried a 3-pointer with :01 second left, sending the jubilant Badgers to the Sweet 16.
Playing in front of a Wisconsin-dominated crowd at the Metrodome in nearby Minneapolis, the Badgers pushed the No. 1-ranked Kentucky Wildcats to their limit for the first 39 minutes of the game before falling 63-57 in their most valiant effort of the season.
The team set a school record for wins in a season, said “good-bye, mate” to one of the more storied players in program history and will return to campus next fall with a lineup laden with experience and capable of hurdling even larger obstacles than the 2002-03 Badgers.
The women’s basketball team could be found on the opposite end of the Big Ten standings, finishing the season with a 7-20 mark.
After nine seasons with the reins of the team in her hands, head coach Jane Albright announced her resignation midway through the season, and uninspired play brought the Badgers to a first-round exit in the Big Ten tournament.
As for the first year of the Mike Eaves era, the men’s hockey season was probably one to forget. Playing with an entourage of underclassmen and minimal senior leadership, the inexperienced Badgers were without a doubt the worst team in the WCHA for the better part of the season, getting hammered in shot margin and boasting the worst power-play scoring in the nation.
Off-ice controversy once again found the headlines and Wisconsin limped to an overall record of 13-23-4 — one of the worst marks in school history.
While junior Rene Borque notched 19 goals and 8 assists, only two other Badgers posted double-digits in goals, and only three players total finished the year with more than 20 points.
Returning the better part of their roster for the 2003-04 campaign, the Badgers, who showed signs of life in the final month of the season, can only look up from the basement of the WCHA conference.
The women’s hockey team graduated its first senior class in the program’s four-year history, finishing the year ranked fifth in the nation while beating Ohio State in the third-place game of the Final Five. Sis Paulsen led the Badgers in scoring with 31 points, and head coach Mark Johnson was chosen as one of eight finalists for national coach of the year.
Despite a 1-7 Big Ten record on the wrestling mat, Wisconsin sent four wrestlers to the NCAA tournament, where senior Tony Black, in his first and only trip to the tournament, garnered All-American honors.
The men and women’s tennis teams both finished the season with sub-par marks, falling out of the Big Ten tournament in the first and second rounds, respectively, while Linde Mues and Shana McElroy were named to the all-Big Ten team for the women.
The No. 3-ranked men’s crew team, looking ahead to its final five races of the year, just took home their 8th straight Jablonic Cup while the women finished fifth in the Big Ten Rowing Championships.
The lightweight women’s team, ranked No. 3 in the nation, already has its eyes set on the end of the month’s national championship in Camden, N.J.
The softball team, 19-26 (7-13), finished up their 2003 season last Sunday with a 3-2, 12-inning thriller over Minnesota, the second longest game in school history.
Struggling to find their rhythm all season long, the Badgers failed to cross the threshold of a .500 record and finished the year near the bottom of the conference.
Senior Andrea Kirchberg finished the year with a 1.52 ERA and 278 strikeouts, having pitched 235 of the Badgers 320 innings of the season.
And muddled in with the successes and shortcomings of the 2002-03 seasons was the retirement announcement of UW athletic director Pat Richter, after serving 14 years in Madison.
The former UW athlete and All-American played an instrumental role in revitalizing the Wisconsin athletic department throughout the 1990s, and his hard work and charismatic demeanor will certainly be missed when he officially leaves the Badger community next spring. Head football coach Barry Alvarez will succeed him as athletic director.
And so that’s it for the 2002-03 athletic season.
A handful of wins, quite a few losses and enough memories and drama to last a lifetime.
And while everyone is so eager to look ahead to next year, it was only appropriate to take a look back.
