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Despite the Wisconsin basketball team’s 20-7 record, marquee victories over Duke, Purdue and Michigan State and a No. 17 ranking in the AP poll, the Internet minions following the Badgers have been dissatisfied this season.
So who is the most common target of those brave, anonymous posters who grace the comment sections of The Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin State Journal newspapers and relentlessly attack Badgerblitz.com’s and Badgernation.com’s message boards? Who has left them so despondent in a season where the Badgers were predicted by most media members to miss out on the NCAA Tournament?
Starting junior forward Tim Jarmusz.
Though it may be unwise to shine a light on those who hide behind a vapid username, here is a sample of the message board fodder after Wisconsin beat Northwestern 70-63 last Sunday.
‘Have all five tools’ wrote on JSOnline’s Badger Blog: “Simply put, if Jarmusz is getting destroyed on defense he has no reason to play. He flat out gets in the way on offense. I wonder if he has ever held the ball longer than three seconds on the offensive end. He gets it, panics, passes and runs away.”
‘Badger 8843’ wrote on Badgernation.com: “We all know TJ brings nothing good to the table no need to keep talking about it, JL better start for him soon and have the three-guard lineup, I’m sick of seeing TJ out there and making one three out of every 10 attempts, getting really old to watch.”
‘MDBadger’ wrote on Madison.com, “Jarmusz is horrid. He offers nothing. How is he a glue guy? I don’t see him diving on the floorm [sic] rebounding or playing any defense. He was abused all game long and most games this season.”
When asked about Jarmusz Tuesday, associate head coach Greg Gard flared up at the mere mention of anonymous message boards.
“There is nothing on there but garbage anyway,” Gard said. “Hopefully [the players] don’t even know they exist. Just steer clear of that garbage… it’s anonymous and there is no accountability with any of it. It is just garbage on there any way.
“It is always easy to sit behind a computer screen and hide behind that.”
Senior guard Jason Bohannon added the team knows the only opinions that matter come from teammates and the coaching staff.
While players are not explicitly told to avoid message boards, he believes most instinctively do.
“Looking at those message boards, maybe you lose your confidence a little bit or something like that,” Bohannon said.
For his part, Jarmusz claimed to have no idea what was written about him online.
The message boards’ case
When tamed down, the argument made by anonymous posters can generally be posed as such: Jarmusz has become a liability on the offensive end, and his defense is not strong enough to merit a starting role on the team.
For the season, Jarmusz is averaging 2.7 points per game, shooting 30 percent from the field and pulling down 3.4 rebounds per game — stats he is well aware of without anyone else pointing them out.
“It is tough,” he said of his season shooting woes. “No one wants to be in a slump like this. You just have to keep shooting, gain your confidence back, and hopefully shots will start falling.”
The response
Though Jarmusz’s shooting struggles are impossible to deny, Gard smirked at the notion that he hasn’t played a valuable role this season.
Besides being virtually turnover free, Jarmusz has contributed to a defense holding opponents to a Big Ten best 57.1 points per game.
“Usually it is the people who haven’t played [basketball] who don’t understand,” Gard said.
“It is not one individual player, and that is where people who don’t understand the game don’t see that stuff. It is not one-on-one. It is our group of five out there collectively, that is always the strength of our defense… anyone can get beat one on one out on an island, so you need five guys to play together.”
For the rest of the season, the cycle is likely to repeat itself.
Jarmusz will finish a game with poor shooting, Internet hounds will attack and the team will continue to ignore it — usually en route to a victory no less.
According to Bohannon, Jarmusz has kept a strong attitude despite all the criticisms and struggles.
“The main thing is that he continues to help this be a winning team,” Gard said. He has done that. Obviously he wouldn’t be on the floor if we didn’t think he was making a positive contribution.”
IP hash: 3efafed7
Well let’s get the ball rolling here… His pathetic attempt at offense is mentioned in the stats above. 3.4 rebounds is useless for a guy who isn’t scoring. And how many times did he get burned in 1-on-1 defense in the Northwestern game the other day? The only reason Leuer had to make the amazing block at the end of the game was because Jarmusz got beat like a drum. In fact he got beat so bad from the top of the key to the rim that he was a couple steps behind the NU player when Leuer was making the block. This kid is a joke. Period.
IP hash: 33065b7f
Jarmusz may “contribute” defensively, but if that’s all he does, then he simply shouldn’t be on the floor. Taylor is better offensively and it’s simply hard to quantify how good Jarmusz does defensively because it’s a “team” effort. And as far as turnovers, Jarmusz hardly has any because he gets rid of the ball almost immediately, never trying to make a move to the basket or do anything that would directly help Wisconsin score points. Not to sound too harsh, but I have to agree with the Internet critics. For a player that was supposed to be a good shooter and contribute offensively this year, he’s been a huge disappointment. As a coach, you have to defend your players, but you know they’re thinking the same thing.
IP hash: 1673b4c2
whoever wrote this article…it’s not just internet commentators that know his weaknesses. it’s opposing coaches as well…which tells you there might be something to this argument. when the guys taking away from other players offense on his own team…maybe that means he is a good defensive player.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/seth_davis/02/22/hoop.thoughts/1.html
IP hash: 92c05fb5
he gets beat to the baseline consistently. A zone defense would cover his weaknesses but we all know how Bo feels about that…
IP hash: 917c944d
You are quoting people from an online blog?
This is a joke of an article.
IP hash: e7922681
Everybody hating so hard on a kid who is a STUDENT ATHLETE that represents his school well is an idiot. Jarmusz plays his heart out, and is most definitely a better basketball player than all these old herbs on a lame message board.
IP hash: de650eaf
No one’s hating on him as a person, it’s play on the court. This is a Division 1 sport. When you are going to school on an athletic scholarship, you are expected to play well. He came to Wisconsin to help them win and if he’s not getting the job done, he deserves to be criticized.
IP hash: cb4de777
so you would have let allen evridge continue to start for the badgers last year just because he was “playing his heart out”???
IP hash: cb4de777
Shurna had his way with Jarmusz. Evans and Breusewitz both controlled him when they were in the game.
IP hash: 37f99249
No they didn’t. Nobody controlled him. Everybody that guarded him got beat.
IP hash: d8a2051c
Player #24 is actually the worst defensive Badger (of the Top 9 who play) also. Anyone actually breaking down tape of this team can see that. He probably is the worst offensive contributor (per minutes played) in UW history. It’s almost inarguable. Again, not his fault at all. Swell kid I’m sure. Coaches are the guilty party.
I’m sure Coach Gard will vehemently defend Greg Gard Jr.’s inherent right to be a starting basketball player on a Div. 1 team also. He better hope he’s the Head Coach of the team. And I sure hope it’s at UW-Whitewater, and not UW-Madison.
Funny article though. Keep up the good work, BH!
IP hash: f754cade
“Player #24 is actually the worst defensive Badger (of the Top 9 who play) also. Anyone actually breaking down tape of this team can see that. He probably is the worst offensive contributor (per minutes played) in UW history. It�s almost inarguable.”
You make ridiculously harsh criticisms and portray them as facts.
Jarmusz has played excellent defense throughout the course of the year. One bad game against an effective scorer and the haters ignore the other 26 because the last game fits in their narrow view of TJ’s overall ability.
He was very efficient offensively last year, but has admittedly struggled this season. What’s the best solution to minimize the negative effect on offensive efficiency? Limit possessions used by taking care of the ball and not taking shots.
And I’d wager a good deal of money that you’ve never broken down tape of this team (and rewinding the DVR to re-watch 1 or 2 of TJ’s lapses does not count).
“FIRE JARMUSZ” is such a scared and cowardly bandwagon to jump on. The idiot lynchmob is out and wants blood.
IP hash: 9a907e88
Ok. To start off, I have played basketball and coached it Mr. Gard and although TJ does some things well he is not a D1 basketball player. Even ex coaches and players announcing the game say that the opposing coach wants to take advantage of Tj’s slow foot speed on defense. HE IS A LIABILTY!HE SHOULD NOT BE A STARTER ON THIS TEAM OR UW- GREEN BAY. The sad part is that fans will have to go through this next year as well. Is he blackmailing the coaching staff??? Myself and people that I talk with that range from season ticket holders to ex officals are miffed why he plays.
IP hash: ce7a4370
It’s not that he’s a “good” defender. It’s that he’s on of the squads top 5 defenders, and we all know how much Bo values defense. I think that point gets skipped. Unfortunealy, the guys right behind him on the bench are not good defenders YET (Evans, Bruiser, and even Leuer).
IP hash: 995a4c57
Just because Bo or Greg thinks something is true, does not make it “right”. What an incredibly arrogant statement… They are not infallible in their decisions (including playing Timmy as much as they do). There are a lot of great coaches in the country that know just as much about teh game as Gard and Bo that would not even consider playing him 1 minute, much less 25.
And let’s get a couple things straight… he is not a good passer, does NOT rotate the ball quickly on offense, and is an average overall defender (in my opinion). Leuer and Evans are both more valuable on defense because they provide a physical/length dimension that Timmy simply can not coem close to matching.
I’m sure Tim is a great kid and you can see the effort… on this level that is not enough. I wish everybody could cut it and teh world was full of puppy dogs and ice cream for all, but that is not reality. And let’s not limit this topic to “internet boards”… there is often an audible negative opinion on Tim’s play at the Kohl Center. For example, the crowd actually CHEERED when he was taken out at a game earlier this season… never heard that before from a very forgiving Badger crowd.