Steve G and John Nach have had some intersting comments about Wisconsin's
style of play.  Let me endorse Nash's comments, recogniziting that I've only
seen the Badgers play a couple of times this season.  Still, his remarks
accord very well with the comments of palyers I've spoken to.  The almost
universal remark is a question -- Why has a team as talented as Wisconsin
played the way they do?  The consistent late hits, high elbows, chippy play
seem so unnecessary.  Worse is their general reaction to frustration -- more
of the same, to the point of bordering on an absence of class.  More
intersting has been a tendency by Wisconsin to fail to play like a team in
difficult situations, attempting instead to have individuals take control.
Again, the lack of discipline shows.  in the end, this is a team game, and
that very idea places a premium on discipline.
 
It's all well and good to call Sauer a "hands-off coach" -- but that seems
to me to miss the point.  A coach has some basic responsibility to insure
that the much discussed problems of brawling at the NCAA tournament or in
the bars, or hazing freshmen does not happen.  The signals sent here by the
coach seemed weak in the extreme.  What I've seen over the years is a pattern
that can not be dismissed by saying the seniors had a rough time in the
first tournament and have been struggling against it ever since.  Like too
many things in our society, we seem willing to find excuses rather than
require responsible action.  So I'd label this chemistry experiment a
failure.
 
My last thought -- Sauer does not coach Goon-style hockey, and Wisconsin does
not play that way either.  But they have shown too often a lack of maturity
and discipline.  Like others here, I hope that the next year will see a
different style of play.  For this year, I'd say that BU's players and
coaches had things exactly correct -- get them frustrated, stay disciplined
yourself.  Obviously, it worked.