When future Badgers and roommates-to-be Abigail Miller and Megan Baker first made plans to meet on University of Wisconsin-Madison’s campus Sunday, they did not anticipate joining a crowd of thousands in welcoming home the Wisconsin men’s basketball team.
Like their fellow attendees, however, the girls quickly changed plans to accommodate a visit to the Kohl Center following the Badgers’ advancement to the Final Four Saturday night.
Among a sea of red and white, Miller and Baker awaited the team’s arrival as the UW-Madison marching band played popular Wisconsin cheers, crowd favorites the two admitted they have yet to learn.
The event drew in dedicated Badger fans such as December 2013 graduate Daniel Mann who said he has been diligent about keeping up with Wisconsin basketball.
“My heart was beating so fast that I wouldn’t need to work out ever again,” Mann said about watching the game, adding jokingly, “I’m from Minnesota so we don’t get much winning teams very often and just to have some team in a championship game is very exciting.”
While fellow spectator Kaylynn Johnson does not consider herself a basketball fanatic, she said she shared in the excitement of the game and urged her friends to join her at the Kohl Center.
“I don’t know much about basketball, but even I was nervous. I think [at] Wisconsin everybody’s a family, everyone’s a team,” Johnson said, gesturing across the aisle. “I don’t know anybody over on that side, but I feel like we all come together and we’re all just one big Badger family.”
Support for the Badgers has been pouring in from all areas of the state, as pointed out by UW-Madison freshman Pamela Voegeli, who watched last night’s game at her home in Beloit, Wis.
“My whole hometown today, that’s all anybody was talking about,” Voegeli said. “I went to church, I went to a couple restaurants and … all they were talking about was the Badgers and how good they did and how good they will do.”
As the Badgers took the stage alongside head coach Bo Ryan, the crowd erupted in applause followed by more cheers as players spoke of the game ahead.
“We won some hardware, we finally got it, but, you know, our slogan is kind of ‘Why not us?’” redshirt junior guard Josh Gasser said. “Why can’t we finish this thing off, why can’t we win two more games?”
Ryan expressed gratitude toward the fans as he displayed part of the net he cut from a basket last night.
“I just wish we could take this and put it into about 100,000 pieces and give [a piece to] every fan, everybody that supported us, the people like you that helped make all this possible,” Ryan said.
