Wisconsin fans packed a Manhattan bar in horrible weather at 10 a.m. in honor of a bad basketball team — and had a blast

I learned three things today:

Mustang Harry’s, located a block from MSG, brought in the Wisconsin band, cheerleading squad, and Bucky Badger himself ahead of the Badgers’ two Big Ten Tournament games at Madison Square Garden. The Big Ten’s decision to host the tournament in New York City has been scrutinized for asking fanbases to travel much farther than they would for Midwest-friendly Chicago, and forcing teams to play a condensed schedule.

The weather compounded an already ugly mess, and yet here were Badger fans having a hoot.

“This is not that bad in our opinion, I don’t think,” said Kim Brehm, who has lived in Madison since graduating from Wisconsin in 2009. “We’re from Wisconsin. There’s not a foot of snow on the ground, so we’re good.”

Brehm was at the bar with Bobby Newman, who grew up in Juda, Wisconsin, and graduated high school with 22 people. His grandfather has had season tickets for decades.

“Growing up from a small town, I was a little bit leery, but I feel super safe,” Newman said. The two of them had already been to the Statue of Liberty and the Met, and were planning to go to Times Square.

“Last night we went to Bobby Flay’s restaurant in New York — I know,” Brehm said, acknowledging her very touristy dining choice, “but whatever. It was good.”

Mustang Harry’s boasts that it has the longest bar in New York City at 99 feet. It was well-lined with fans, who also filled the booths along the wall behind it. Cheerleaders polka’d in the space in between while the band played looking down from the second floor. Allegedly, the bar was even more full the day before ahead of Wisconsin’s win against Maryland.

In a booking coincidence, fans of Wisconsin’s opponent, Michigan State, reserved the second floor, which meant that as they filtered in, they had to edge around dancing Badger fans and the band at full blast. There were no dust-ups, though the Spartan fans began chanting, “Go Green, Go White” as the first song finished. The Badger band quickly struck up the next song.

Ian Conroy, a co-founder of Mustang Harry’s with his brother, Niall, is used to hosting big fanbases at his bar, and called Wisconsin’s among the cheeriest.

[Full disclosure: I’m a UW Grad and I know this may read like propaganda, but no, seriously, Wisconsin fans are just like this.]

“We feel they’re very kind of nice people. What I would describe as wholesome people,” Conroy said. “They were just very nice to and mannerly to our staff and clientele — everybody. I couldn’t say enough about them, really.

“Some Michigan State fans were not overly pleased with it, but my perspective is, our job was to fill our location. And when everybody comes in we just make them understand, too, that this is sport and life, and it’s not something we should get too upset about.”

At one point, Bucky took the hand of Linda Philipps, an older woman sitting at the bar, to dance with him. Philipps is the president of the Wisconsin alumni group for the Tampa Bay area. Her parents began receiving season tickets in 1944 and she travels to most big Wisconsin games.

“I don’t know if I’m happier than when I’m with other Badgers,” Philipps said. “I was at the Orange Bowl, I go to all the bowls, I was there last year for the Elite 8, there’s just something about it. You saw with the cheerleaders and the band, it’s just a whole happiness.”

All that joy is for a 15-18 team that will miss out on the NCAA Tournament this year for what would have been a 20th-straight appearance. Wisconsin went to back-to-back Final Fours in 2014 and 2015, and came narrowly close to defeating Duke for a national title behind Frank Kaminsky, Sam Dekker, Nigel Hayes, and head coach Bo Ryan.

No one I talked to at Mustang Harry’s said they debated not making the trip, except Brehm and Newman. And even then they didn’t think about it much.

“We debated probably because of the price more than anything,” Brehm said.

“We were coming,” Newman added. “There were points where I was like, ‘Is this really the year to go?’ But with that said, I don’t know if they’ll ever be back in Madison Square Garden for the Big Ten Tournament again, either, so that was kind of my thing, even though it was a bad year, this is my chance to go.”

There was little reason to be confident in Wisconsin’s chances — certainly not past the Spartans, who were ranked No. 2 in the country going into the game — though Anne Ruscher told me, “We’re going to win this tournament,” and I promised to immortalize her words in writing. (Sorry). Even beating No. 8-seed Maryland on Thursday was no gimme, yet Dawn Baumann made plans somehow knowing that the Badgers would win and move on to play the Spartans.

“We ended up getting tickets to end up on the TV show, ‘The Chew,’ yesterday [during the Maryland game],” Baumann said.

The Badgers lost their second spirited effort against the Spartans in the same week, falling 68-63 last Sunday and 63-60 on Friday. But it’s hard to imagine anyone here being bothered. No one remotely concurred with Hayes’ observation during the 2017 NCAA Tournament that New York City was “too big” and “dirty” and had “trash everywhere,” though many longtime, proud New Yorkers would probably say those are true. They couldn’t even bring themselves to complain about the weather. No, New York City was “nice” and “safe” and “lovely” even as the sky spat heavy sleet on them.

It would have been a miserable weekend for most. That’s why it’s comforting to know that even when Wisconsin sports stop seeming like an inevitability, Wisconsin fans will still be cheery beyond all good tangible, of-this-Earth reasons.

“I just love being around other Badgers. No matter where I’ve gone in the world, I’ll meet somebody, and they’ll go, ‘Are you a Badger?’ ‘Yeah!’” Philipps says. “Venice, Italy, the mountains out in Colorado. It’s so cool because it brings you a sense of belonging.

“I’m not ever alone.”