We want more Isaac!
Seated front row before the flickering b&w Philco, the Head Groundskeeper whooped and hollered when UW Badger basketball coach Greg Gard’s kid drained that 3-pointer Wednesday. Guessing you could hear Madison cheering all the way to Rockford.
The game was already well in hand; the Badgers were blowing out the Maryland crab cake eaters when fans at the Kohl Center began chanting “We want Isaac.” Coach’s kid is always the last sub off the bench, lucky to get 30 seconds on the floor — and then only when his team has a mathematically insurmountable lead with 29 seconds left on the game clock.
As if to whet Badger expectations, Isaac Gard’s first try from distance clanked off the backboard. (Insert moaning sound here.) Back on offense, the young man had the ball in his hands, glanced at the basket 20 feet and 9 inches away, appeared as if he would pass off to a teammate. Coach dad is standing only a few feet behind on the sidelines. Gotta think Coach dad is shouting, Shoot it kid, you can make it! Maybe that’s what the young man heard inside his head. Isaac let it fly. (We can’t throw it that far.) The ball touched nothing but nylon and there was joy in Mudville! 🏀
Sorting through the videos, we found one of our famously dour coach trying not to betray a father’s pride. On seniors’ night, no less. The kid’s last game in Madison. No one celebrated more than Isaac’s high-paid name, image, and likeness teammates.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Politics was over-loading our circuits. Needed a feel-good — like Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles “Silly Love Songs.” Nothing wrong with that, I’d like to say.