The only thing it has to fear is it itself. That is what a late-and-great president might have said about Wisconsin, which is No. 1 in the Big Ten and No. 2 in the nation.
Franklin Roosevelt, of course, is the president we paraphrase there and, in his first inaugural address, he was speaking of matters far more important than the search for a conference title. But his famed aphorism, slightly altered, is surely applicable to these Badgers, who are equipped well enough after beating Purdue 69-64 Wednesday night to run the table and finish their league season undefeated.
That is a rare feat in the Big Ten, a feat not accomplished since Indiana’s national champions managed it in 1976. But already, even in just this third week of January, their credentials are gaudy enough that their Feb. 25 rematch with Ohio State in Columbus looms as the only true threat to them equaling the Hoosiers. That and a strain of that common disease called complacency, which withers the will and blurs the focus even as it expands hat sizes.
It is a danger to any ambitious team’s ambitions, a virus that can burrow deeper with every victory achieved, with every accolade received. It is human nature to respond to all of that, to take a deep breath and enjoy the warm breath of success wafting over you.
Rarely are those temptations easily resisted, a point proven again on Wednesday night even as Wisconsin roused itself in the middle of the second half, opened up a 12-point lead and then held on to escape with a hard-fought triumph over the Boilermakers.
It was home in its Kohl Center, where it had lost to just one Big Ten team in Bo Ryan’s five-plus seasons as its coach (Illinois, twice).
It was up against a group that had lost all three of its road games this season and 27 straight road games stretching back to February 2004. Yet here it nearly suffered a most-ignominious defeat and much of the reason for that was its own early lethargy.
This was surprising for a team as experienced as these Badgers, who also possess an estimable leader in senior forward Alando Tucker. But it was clear that they came out for this one blase and the results were as predictable as they were inevitable.
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Their usually crisp swing offense swung on a rusty hinge. Their movement was stagnant, if mobile at all. They were inefficient, they lacked patience and they went for more than six minutes before making their first field goal.
They missed 12 of their first 16 shots, they never unfurled a telling run and exited the first half down one. Their languor and ineptness, not surprisingly, made the crowd a non-factor, and together all of that infused the Boilermakers with hope and opportunity.
That is what Purdue went after with a passion and its response overshadowed this game’s sidebar, which featured its senior forward Carl Landry going up against younger brother and Badgers forward Marcus.
The latter ended with four points and five rebounds and was barely a blip in his team’s victory. But the elder was huge for the Boilermakers, scoring 16 points and serving as one of their catalysts.
Another sidebar was swingman Gordon Watt, who led them with 18 points on 7-of-14 shooting, and a third was guard David Teague, who ended with 11 and hounded Tucker hard. He was the primary reason the Badgers star was just 4 of 15 even while scoring 14, which left his team to be saved by unlikely heroes Michael Flowers and Jason Chappell.
It was Chappell’s three-pointer with 13:34 remaining that gave the Badgers their first lead of the second half, a lead they never would lose and would nurse to the end.
“We didn’t do anything different (in the second half),” Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. “We used typical things we’ve used over the years. . . . But if you’re not knocking down outside shots, you better find another way. That’s where you have to give these guys all the credit in the world. They found another way.”
That was true enough, but still Ryan could not echo Purdue coach Matt Painter.
On this night only he could say, “I’m proud of our guys, our effort, the way they competed.”
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