It's Senior Night at the Kohl Center and fittingly, the senior class can tie the school mark of 99 wins set by last year's graduating class.
With a road game looming at Northwestern Saturday and at least two more postseason chances at a victory, it's likely this year's quartet of seniors will set the school record for the most wins by a senior class.
Sound familiar?
This year's football seniors set the same mark in November with 40 wins over their four-year career.
As a fellow senior whose only athletic ability is to write about all these victories, I have seen a ton of success in my four years as a student at UW.
But how many conference titles have I seen in football or men's basketball? Zero. How many BCS bowl games or Final Four appearances have I seen? Zero. Yet, assuming the men's basketball team gets two more wins this season, both senior classes will leave as the winningest classes in their respective sports.
I'm not taking anything away from the significance of those records. Having been around for all 138 wins, I certainly appreciate the success of two of UW's most successful programs, but there is still a sense of frustration that one Elite Eight appearance and back-to-back Capital One Bowl victories are all we seniors have to show for it. At least give us a conference title.
That brings us back to tonight, where the Badgers are in the thick of the Big Ten title chase. It's senior night for Tanner Bronson, Brian Butch, Michael Flowers and Greg Stiemsma - the last time they will ever play in the Kohl Center. It's also the last time the seniors in the student section will cheer on the Badgers as students in the Kohl Center, and we all want the same thing: the Big Ten Championship.
Bronson and Butch have tasted at least a little bit of Big Ten glory. Both are fifth-year seniors and were a part of the 2003-'04 team that won the Big Ten Tournament. They weren't playing however, as Bronson was a team manager and Butch was redshirting. That team also finished second to Illinois in the regular season, so it wasn't quite the same accomplishment that this year's team can achieve.
Win two games and win the Big Ten title outright. Win two games and become the winningest class in Wisconsin history. It could be a historic week at Wisconsin.
It could also be the week that the senior students at Wisconsin have been waiting four years for. Three times in those four years the UW football team was one win away from the Rose Bowl, but losses at Iowa in 2004, at Michigan in 2006 and at Illinois in 2007 proved to be ones that kept the Badgers out of Pasadena.
Last year the men's basketball team was a couple of Kammron Taylor free throws at Ohio State away from a chance to play for a share of the Big Ten title against Michigan State. In 2005 Ryan's squad nearly upset North Carolina, but fell just short of the Final Four.
So close, yet so far. So many wins, yet so little to show for it.
That's the legacy of this year's student senior class that has invested year-in and year-out in the Wisconsin Badgers, but that can change this week. The Badgers could have a Big Ten title by Saturday, and who knows? This Bo Ryan team might have the best chance to make a Final Four run of any of his previous squads. They play as a team and they play arguably the best defense in the country.
We seniors have two months left at Wisconsin, and we're tired of being so close. We're ready to win a championship.
Get it done, seniors.
E-mail Adam at hoge@wisc.edu if you want to help him will the seniors to a Big Ten championship.
