Wisconsin basketball: throwback jerseys bring the heat

The Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball Twitter account teased a new jersey on Wednesday night and on Thursday they delivered. On February 9th against Ohio State, UW will be wearing throwback jerseys to honor the 20th anniversary of Dick Bennett’s 2000 Final Four team.

Based on our scientific Twitter poll it would appear that Wisconsin fans think these jerseys are flames, and I would agree.

The Badgers run to the 2000 Final Four was one of the most unlikely runs of this century. Wisconsin finished the regular season 16-12 overall and 8-8 in conference, good for fifth place in the B1G, and needed the two wins and scrappy loss to MSU in the semifinals of the conference tournament to sneak into the Big Dance as an 8-seed.

From there UW went on a wild ride, beating 9-seed Fresno State 66-56 in the first round, 1-seed (No. 4 in the country) Arizona 66-59 in the second round, 4-seed (and No. 10 in the country) LSU 61-48 in the Sweet 16 and then besting conference foe and 6-seed (No. 25 in the country) Purdue for the second time in two tournaments 64-60 in the Elite 8.

The Badgers faced off against 1-seed, and No. 2 team in the country, Michigan State in the Final Four. Wisconsin had already lost to the Spartans three times that year, but had played them close in the last two losses. The game was a real rock fight. Roy Boone led the Badgers with 18 points and no one else had more than six. Morris Peterson had 20 for the Spartans and he and the rest of the Flintstones won 53-41. MSU would go on and beat Florida to win the national title, the last time a B1G team did that.

UWBadgers.com notes that there will be a celebration at halftime of the 2000 team and that the first 1,000 students in attendance will receive free 2000 Final Four t-shirts.