Althouse: "Bitter ending for Montee Ball, who's bottled up by Stanford after break..."

January 2, 2013

"Bitter ending for Montee Ball, who's bottled up by Stanford after break..."

"'Now I’m done,' he said in a somber UW locker room, 'so this stings a little bit more but I’m really looking forward to seeing this team be here next year.'"

20 comments:

MadisonMan said...: Everything was bottled up after the break, not just Ball, but the Badgers and the Cardinals.

I thought UW played pretty well -- the score was closer than I was expecting. Pity that Barry didn't get his $50K bonus.; 1/2/13, 8:28 AM
Humperdink said...: The Badgers never recovered from the OT loss to the hated Nittany Lions.; 1/2/13, 8:35 AM
kjbe said...: I agree with Ball's later quote, "The game was in our hands.” They played a great 2nd quarter and if they could have replicated some of that in the 2nd half, the game would have been theirs. Oh, well, the outcome was about what I expected, not what I hoped, but what I expected. Now it's time to welcome in an new era...and pitchers and catchers report in 41 days. So there's that.; 1/2/13, 8:55 AM
john said...: Humperdink - Wisconsin lost 6 games this year. Why did they only never recover from one of them?; 1/2/13, 9:20 AM
Joe Schmoe said...: Hope you enjoyed your trips to Southern Cal, Badgers. Looks like Ohio State will be owning the Big 10 for the foreseeable future.; 1/2/13, 9:22 AM
Anthony said...: Didn't appear as if Bielema left him much to work with; what'd they end up throwing, four passes? *sarcasm* Not that hard to defned when 9 times out of 10 it will be a jet sweep or Ball up the middle.

But good effort on the defense. If they hadn't spotted Stanford 14 points right off the bat, I think it may have been different.; 1/2/13, 9:27 AM
Humperdink said...: @John. Heartbreaking OT loss. Last regular season game prior to the Rose Bowl (my opinion).

As an aside, Pa's Governor Corbett is suing the NCAA over the sanctions levied against PSU. This will be interesting.; 1/2/13, 9:43 AM
Known Unknown said...: Wisconsin played well considering they played a near top-10 team.

Wisconsin isn't even a top-25 team.; 1/2/13, 9:49 AM
AllenS said...: The coach, whatshisname, looked rusty, out of place, confused...; 1/2/13, 10:00 AM
glenn said...: This doesn't seem fair to me. Those Stanford guys have their academics to fall back on.; 1/2/13, 10:12 AM
Rusty said...: EMD said...
Wisconsin played well considering they played a near top-10 team.

Wisconsin isn't even a top-25 team.

What about NIU and Florida State?
What's NIU ranked at?; 1/2/13, 10:22 AM
Humperdink said...: NIU was ranked 15 (a joke).; 1/2/13, 10:36 AM
Known Unknown said...: What about NIU and Florida State?
What's NIU ranked at?

Irrelevant to the Wisconsin discussion, really.; 1/2/13, 11:32 AM
Known Unknown said...: I'd be more concerned about how terrible Michigan played, if you are a fan of fellow B1G teams.

Purdue didn't belong in a bowl game, and that clearly showed.

Northwestern finally won one.; 1/2/13, 11:34 AM
Mark said...: My thoughts on watching both the Pack lose to the Vikes, and the Badgers lose, were that there needs to be a way to alert the coaches at the game that their strategy is off and needs to be corrected. Everyone at home watching on TV is yelling and rightly critisizing the play calling. "What?! Montee Ball up the middle one more time? Sure, that'll work."

There should be a Twitter account to be used during the games, and fans can text in what everyone sees except the coaches. Someone monitors the account and when a course of action is trending, the coach is alerted - and he takes that advice. (I'm not enough of a nerd to make it work, but I suppose someone could make millions on this idea.); 1/2/13, 11:55 AM
Petunia said...: Considering the Badgers really shouldn't have been there at all, it was a pretty good game. It will be interesting to see how the new coach does. But I think with Urban Meyer at OSU, it might be awhile before the Badgers go to Pasadena again.; 1/2/13, 12:10 PM
TosaGuy said...: Glad Alverez lost, too bad the players had to lose too.; 1/2/13, 1:38 PM
traditionalguy said...: Montee has been a great RB. Maybe he will get to re-join J J Watt on the Houston Texans.

Seeing Michigan State almost lose to TCU made me sad for the Professor...but then the Spartans won!

Fla State and Clemson did well New Years day, which doesn't bode well for Georgia Tech next year.; 1/2/13, 3:06 PM
Crunchy Frog said...: Montee has been a great RB. Maybe he will get to re-join J J Watt on the Houston Texans.

Two words: Arian Foster. Houston is not going to waste a first-round pick on a backup RB. He'd be a better fit in Green Bay.; 1/2/13, 3:48 PM
SunnyJ said...: Please remember Montee Ball did not use the word, "bitter", the sportswriter did. "Bitter" is for guys that are not in the game and have nothing to lose anyway. Montee Ball is a competitive champion. He'll get ready for the next challenge, learn from this and move on. He doesn't have to be a 1st round choice. Certainly Russell Wilson wasn't. Who really thought JJ Watt might get MVP..a defensive player? Who, really thought that...no one, ever.

Pissing and moaning is for fans and "wannabe's"...that's their job, and they are damn good at it. See comments here and elsewhere. So be it. Be my guest...piss up a rope.

Getting to observe the national outpouring of congrats and caring for the Badger team on social media told the real story. It was a great game to watch. They were a 6 we were a ? And it went down to the wire..hopeful to the end.

In other news, Hilary disappeared for 3 weeks, has TBI/Concuss, we have 16 trillion in debt and just passed billions more and some dirty reps porked up the Sandy bill with billions for other projects....chew on that.; 1/2/13, 9:06 PM