Davison's magic runs out as Michigan State ends Badgers' NCAA Tournament hopes
By Ben Pickman | Mar. 2, 2018NEW YORK — As Brad Davison walked off the court for the final time in the 2017-’18 season, head coach Greg Gard was right by his side.
NEW YORK — As Brad Davison walked off the court for the final time in the 2017-’18 season, head coach Greg Gard was right by his side.
NEW YORK — With a Big Ten Tournament loss and his redshirt junior season now in the books, Ethan Happ is weighing his options. Though he said that nothing is set in stone, he said, moments after Wisconsin’s 63-60 loss to Michigan State, that he will declare for the NBA Draft so that he can compete at the NBA Draft Combine on May 16-20.
NEW YORK — As Brad Davison’s game-tying 3-point attempt fell inches short of the front of the rim at the buzzer, he dropped his hands to his knees.
NEW YORK — Five days ago, when the Wisconsin men’s basketball team fell at home to Michigan State, Brad Davison addressed the team.
NEW YORK — With a split bottom lip, junior forward Khalil Iverson made what might have been the most important defensive play of Wisconsin’s season.
NEW YORK — For the sixth game in a row, as Brad Davison jogged out of the locker room onto the court, he left behind a message in all caps on the team’s whiteboard: “BE SPECIAL.” And while for the majority of the game, highlight moments were few and far between, down the stretch Thursday afternoon, the No. 9 seed Badgers (8-11 Big Ten, 15-17 overall) got special contributions from several players as they survived No. 8 seed Maryland 59-54 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament. Though UW led for the overwhelming majority of the game, it could never quite piece together enough consecutive plays to separate from the Terrapins.
NEW YORK — When junior forward Khalil Iverson was fouled with less than one second to play and Wisconsin (8-11 Big Ten, 15-17 overall) leading by five points, freshman guard Brad Davison’s hands shot to the sky in excitement.
NEW YORK — The Wisconsin locker room seemed dejected as players enteredand drooped down in their black fold-up chairs.
Lilly Kuske sits on her bed with her head buried in her hands. She’s not an emotional person, but tonight the tears won’t stop.
"We'd rather beat them next week, anyways." That was the message Brad Davison gave to his teammates after the Wisconsin Badgers’ (7-11 Big Ten, 14-17 overall) 68-63 loss to No. 2 Michigan State (16-2, 28-3) on Senior Day Sunday afternoon. In the team’s final game of the regular season, Davison exploded for a career-high 30 points, the most by a Wisconsin freshman since 1996.
No matter how many times freshman guard Brad Davison clapped his hands on defense, let out fist pumps to the crowd on offense or hit highly contested jumpers, No. 2 Michigan State (16-2 Big Ten, 28-3 overall) failed to go away. Wisconsin’s (7-11, 14-16) 68-63 loss on Senior Day marked yet another time the Badgers have hung with some of its top opponents, but failed to close the deal.
In late January, when Wisconsin (7-10 Big Ten, 14-16 overall) fell to No. 2 Michigan State (15-2, 27-3), a talented trio of Spartan frontcourt players proved too much to handle for the undersized Badgers.
Andy Van Vliet has spent the majority of the 2017-’18 season playing on Wisconsin’s practice scout team.
As the Wisconsin men’s basketball team (6-10 Big Ten, 13-16 overall) prepares for its final road trip of the season, Khalil Iverson finds his role perpetually growing.
Last fall, when Bronson Koenig arrived at the Standing Rock camp in North Dakota and exited the trailer that he and his brother Miles had driven 14 hours in, it was nearly midnight.
On the first day of February, Brevin Pritzl missed all eleven of his shots in an eight-point loss to Northwestern.
If there was any hangover from the Wisconsin Badgers’ (6-10 Big Ten, 13-16 overall) massive upset of Purdue Thursday night, it missed Brad Davison.
The Wisconsin men’s basketball team (5-10 Big Ten, 12-16 overall) has seen more than its fair share of downs in what has turned out to be one of its most disappointing seasons in recent memory. But as the Badgers welcome an equally downtrodden Minnesota (3-12, 14-14) team to the Kohl Center Monday night, they’ll be riding higher than at any other point this season. Just 20 minutes after steadily raising the jersey of Frank Kaminsky to the rafters Thursday evening, the UW players found themselves engulfed by a sea of fans at center court as they collectively celebrated a massive upset of then-No. 6 Purdue.
Following Wisconsin's upset victory over Purdue, Daily Cardinal sports editor Ben Pickman and men's basketball beat writer Thomas Valtin-Erwin break down what UW's victory really means for the team going forward.
In many ways, Frank Kaminsky was a perfect storm of basketball ability. We can only speculate what the basketball gods were thinking as they poured pinpoint passing, lights-out shooting and sensational footwork into the former Badger’s seven-foot frame.