The Wisconsin Badgers basketball team held its first public practice in Indiana on Friday ahead of Saturday’s big Final Four game.
The Badgers have been playing basketball since 1898, and in the program’s first 116 years Wisconsin made the Final Four four times — two in the past two years.
It’s clear this is the Golden Age of Badgers basketball.
As Wisconsin held its open practice there were plenty of fans in attendance just to watch the Badgers bounce basketballs, practice jump shots and go through a few drills.
The fans are glad to be in Indianapolis, and all these players in this Badgers Golden Age are thrilled to etch their names in history for this storied program.
“I came in as a freshman, and one of the things the four of us talked about was making an impact on this program and kind of leaving a mark, and thus far you know we’ve done a great job. We have two Final Fours, Big Ten tournament championship and a regular season championship, so hopefully we wanted to kind of change the culture, get back to winning trophies and bigger accomplishments, so hopefully we’ve set the standard now,” forward Duje Dukan said.
“It’s awesome. It’s a blessing, obviously. I’m just glad I can be along for the ride and do anything I could to help us get here,” sophomore guard Bronson Koenig said.
“These are years I’ll remember. These past two years, especially. You know, when I’m older I’m going to be thinking about the guys and the places we were able to go and the memories we made, and this stuff is really cool,” junior forward Sam Dekker said.
