PHILADELPHIA — With 1:22 left in the game, redshirt freshman Ethan Happ walked to the bench, his hands glued to his head, his face stunned in disbelief. Leading by one point against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (24-11) Happ, the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, had just picked up his fifth foul diving for a loose ball, a decision that would immediately haunt the Badgers (22-13).
Eighty-two seconds later, almost all the Badgers, much like Happ just over a minute earlier, stood frozen, stunned at what transpired down the stretch en route to their 61-56 loss to the Fighting Irish.
One day in the future they will reminisce about how miraculous their 2016 Sweet Sixteen run was. They will recall their early-season struggles and a coaching change six weeks into the season. A midseason loss to the Northwestern Wildcats will go down as the game when the narrative of the 2015-’16 UW team changed.
But the time for recollection was not Friday night, and the place was not Philadelphia. In the waking moments after the game, the agony of defeat was the prevailing emotion on every Badgers’ face. A team whose deep tournament run was predicated on belief sat in a locker room full of disbelief. Wisconsin gave the game away Friday night against Notre Dame and, with it, their season came to an end.
UW, widely regarded as a team that is careful with the basketball, combusted down the stretch, turning the ball over in three of its final four possessions.
“I don’t know if there’s a program in the country that prides itself more on taking care of the ball and valuing every possession more than Wisconsin,” head coach Greg Gard said. “I don’t know if there’s anybody that works on it more than we do. And to have this kind of ending it’ll be—it will sting for a while but hopefully it will be a great motivation as we continue to grow and move through the offseason.”
“[I] just had some uncharacteristic turnovers and they converted,” Koenig said of his performance in the final minute.
Koenig provided a simple explanation for getting his pocket picked with four seconds left in the game and UW down three points.
“He kind of cut across my body and kind of took it,” Koenig said.
The junior guard finished the game with only eight points while shooting 3-of-8 from the field.
Nevertheless, after a Hayes layup with 3:08 remaining in the second half, the Badgers looked poised to make yet another Elite Eight.
“We had all the momentum. They’re a team that really plays off of momentum all year. They’ll get down and they’re never out of it. Kinda like how we played the last couple of weeks,” junior guard Zak Showalter said. “So unfortunately, we didn’t take them out of it. And they just had enough left in reserve and pulled it out in the end.”
Showalter finished with 11 points and five rebounds, including an emphatic putback slam midway through the second half, but contributed four of the Badgers’ 17 turnovers on the night.
In a sloppy first half, the junior guard helped guide the Badgers to 23-19 lead with a flurry of crisp passes, timely baskets and defensive plays. The Badgers lulled the Fighting Irish to sleep, holding them to 24 percent shooting in the half while limiting junior guard Demetrius Jackson and senior forward Zach Auguste to a combined 2-of-12 shooting. But when it mattered most, Showalter, much like his teammates, came up just short.
As Wisconsin begins to reflect on its season, regrets about coming up short will pervade all thoughts.
“My high school coach always told me that the farther you go, the more important the game, the bigger risk you run, and if you don’t come out the winner it gets harder and harder and tougher to deal with,” Hayes said. “I’m proud of my guys, like coach Gard said. We’re in the position where everyone told us we wouldn’t make the tournament let alone be in the Sweet Sixteen.”
Hayes finished the game with 11 points and six rebounds, but struggled shooting the basketball for the third straight game.
“It comes down to scout. Understanding who your player is and staying solid,” Notre Dame sophomore reserve forward Bonzie Colson said. “We knew that he could drive it, but we wanted him to shoot it and contest it so we could get the rebound and go for there.”
Hayes didn’t make a 3-pointer until the 9:54 mark of the second half, but did achieve success attacking the basket. Yet down the stretch, a crucial turnover in the coffin corner against the Fighting Irish press will be the lasting memory for the defeat.
“Coach did a great job recognizing and letting us know that we had a foul to give,” Jackson said. “So we had a really aggressive trap, and then Bonzie made a great defensive play, getting his hands on it. It kind of fell into my arms and I just wanted to put it in and finish it.”
And just like that, the Badgers’ one-point lead became a one-point deficit. A trip to the Elite Eight instead became a trip back to Madison.
“It was a great season. I don’t think a lot of people expected us to be in this position,” Jordan Smith, the lone senior on the 2015-’16 Badgers said. “When coach Ryan turned the reins over to coach Gard I think we took what we had and made the best of it. And I think that says a lot about this group of guys that we came together and we made this run.”
