Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Best of the decade: How I voted

Here's how I voted:

Best play of the decade
Football (Oct. 15, 2005) Jonathan Casillas blocks a punt that Ben Strickland recovers for a touchdown with 30 seconds left to complete a 10-point comeback in the final three minutes and give UW a 38-34 win at Minnesota.

Maybe the most excited I've ever been at a Badger sporting event. Those of us who were in that dump of a dome will never forget it.

Close #2: Men’s Hockey (March 26, 2006) Jack Skille scores the game-winning goal in the third overtime against Cornell to advance to the Frozen Four. My brother and I were there, what a tremendous game. The aftermath of this one was a little different than the Casillas-Strickland game, since they'd been playing for about six hours, we were dead tired, and had a long drive home ahead of us. Andy and I waited in line at a concession stand behind Darrell Bevell during one overtiem intermission, he had just been named the Vikings' offensive coordinator, good guy.

But it's hard to argue with Michael Flowers' shot to beat Texas (watched it in my bedroom) or the Scott Starks Purdue play (watched it somewhere in Central Washington at in-laws' house).

Best Student-Athlete of the Decade
I chose Devin Harris. Chris Solinsky, Joe Thomas, Dany Heatley and Alando Tucker are my runners-up. Jimmy Leonhard, too.

Best Team of the Decade
2005-06 men's hockey. Why them and not any of the women's national champions, who were more dominant? Because there are a lot more teams playing Division 1 men's hockey, tougher to reach the top of the mountain.

Who did you vote for?

3 comments:

Toohey said...

1. Badgers victory over Texas. I thought you'd pick the Gopher game but that was a close second for me.

2. I went with Jim Leonhard. He was a walk on to start, no? All the others were great, but I just couldn't help vote for Jimmy.

3. I think I picked the Capitol One Bowl team. But looking it up now, I was mistaken. I thought that was the team that beat Auburn. I changed my vote to Hockey. Can't argue with a DI National Championship.

frye said...

I voted for the Purdue play. The game was over if not for the miracle of that play. Purdue could have knelt down to run off the time after that soon-to-be first down.

The Minn play was unreal but the Badgers still had an opportunity to win without the punt block.

The Texas play gets consideration due to the amazing play and high basketball IQ of one player.

Ryan said...

I voted for Freddie Owens game-winning 3 against Tulsa in round 2 of the NCAA tourny. The blocked punt, Purdue fumble and Flowers 3 were all amazing and unbelievable in their own right, but in none of those games were the Badgers down as much as they were against Tulsa, 13 with 4:20 to go. Plus this game had bigger circumstances: win or go home and Owens wasn't even supposed to play in that game because of a sprained ankle he suffered in the first round against Weber State.

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