In the 67-year history of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, a 15 seed has upset a 2 seed four times. Friday, the Wisconsin Badgers hope to avoid being the fifth.
The Badgers open up the NCAA Tournament in Chicago Friday when they take on the Islanders of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, winners of the Southland Conference in just their first year in the conference.
Islanders head coach Ronnie Arrow, who has built the Islander program up from nothing in his eight years at the helm, is excited for his team's chance to make history.
""Thank goodness in the numerical system there's the number five. We hope to be number five,"" Arrow said. ""We understand that in the history of the NCAA Tournament only four times has a 15 beaten a two.""
The four teams' historic victories Arrow spoke of have all occurred in recent history. In 1991 Richmond defeated Syracuse, in '93 Santa Clara topped Arizona, in '97 Coppin State upset South Carolina and in 2001 Hampton took out Iowa State.
But the Badgers' star player understands perfectly well that no team is safe come tournament time.
""Our eyes are open and we don't underestimate anyone, especially in this tournament,"" Big Ten Player of the Year Alando Tucker said. ""When it comes down to the NCAA Tournament, it's not like a non-conference game or regular season game. Anyone can knock you out and you have to play your best basketball at this time.""
Tucker's classmate and UW's starting point guard Kammron Taylor agrees, and asserts that it's not the mentality of the Badger club to neglect the Islanders' chances of coming out victorious.
""We're not the type of team and we don't have the type of coach that's going to overlook anybody,"" Taylor said. ""We treat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi with the same importance as everybody else we play, as Ohio State. They might not have the big-name players, but that doesn't mean they can't beat us.""
If the Islanders are going to beat the Badgers, it's going to be because of their offense. TAMU-CC ranks second in the nation in field goal percentage, shooting 52.4 percent, trailing only defending national champion Florida.
Arrow says his team's scoring is a direct result of the way they push the ball, a direct contrast to the Badgers' half-court offense. The Islanders average 79.8 points per game, good for 15th in the country, while the Badgers' average of 70.1 ranks 62nd.
""I think this is going to be a tempo game, where [UW] would probably want to keep it in the 60s,"" Arrow said. ""[UW] plays very physicial, where we play up-tempo, so we hope that before [the Badgers] can hit us, we can be quick enough to get out of the way.""
Wisconsin will have to guard the Southland Conference MVP, 7'0\ 265 lb. Chris Daniels, who led his league in field goals and was third in rebounds. Daniels averaged 15.5 points and 6.6 boards per game this season, and excelled when the Islanders traveled to Purdue to take on the Boilermakers.
Wisconsin will take the court with the statistics on its side. Not only in terms of 15s and 2s, but also because Ryan has never lost a game in which he was the higher seed, and never won a game in which he was the lower seed. But as the Badgers mentioned, anything can happen.
""Anybody can be beat on any given day,"" Taylor said. ""Tomorrow we don't want it to be our day.""
Butch All Smiles
The last time we saw junior forward Brian Butch on the basketball court, the sight wasn't pretty. Tears were in his eyes in Columbus as he was ushered off the court and subsequently diagnosed with a fractured and dislocated elbow.
Badger fans who attended UW's public shootaround at the United Center yesterday afternoon were treated to Butch's presence in drills. Wearing a brace on his right elbow, he participated in shooting and dribbling drills with his teammates. Butch was all smiles and UW fans could see the big man sooner than expected.
Alando Tucker: Captain America
Tucker garnered another accolade yesterday as the United States Basketball Writers of America, The Sporting News, SI.com and ESPN.com named him to the All-American First Team.
Tucker was joined by Texas' Kevin Durant, Nevada's Nick Fezekas, UNC's Tyler Hansrough and Texas A&M's Acie Law IV on the first team, as well as UCLA's Arron Afflalo, Boston College's Jarde Dudley, Georgetown's Jeff Green, Flordia's Joakim Noah and OSU's Greg Oden on the second team.
Tucker averaged 20.2 points and 5.3 rebounds per game for the season. He is also a candidate for National Player of the Year.
