Stop Hating on the Wisconsin Basketball Play

Last night, the Wisconsin men’s basketball team won a game by running the old “draw a charge on the baseline defender” play, in a tie game against Western Kentucky with two seconds remaining.

That prompted much outcry on this here internet. An SB Nation writer called it “the most bogus charge call you will see this year.” A Barstool writer said it was “one of the worst calls in college basketball.” There were plenty of exclamations that we had never seen a bogus play like this before.

To which I say, deal with it. This was a legitimate charge call. I don’t see where he touched the sideline, as has been claimed. He was there in time, with the defender being allowed a step before hitting the screen. Here they are discussing the play.

Would the anger be the same if it wasn’t Wisconsin, and if Brad Davison didn’t look like the love child of Mike Trout and Ollie from Hoosiers? In February, VCU won a game when actually trailing with 0.4 seconds left after a made three-pointer by George Washington, and pulled this off. I don’t remember that being the worst ever. I know our institutional memory is poor, and everything is the worst ever within 24 hours and forgotten, but so, so many college basketball games are decided by subjective calls, and this is not a new play. It’s one of the counters and risks to putting a guy on the ball when the passer can run the baseline.

So deal with it, haters. Wisconsin will be enjoying that sweet 5-7 record after a home win over Western Kentucky.