If you are looking for calm, levelheaded rationalizations as to why Wisconsin maybe deserved to be a No. 8 seed, then you have come to the wrong place.
How far will Wisconsin go? Zach Rastall: Round of 32 Wisconsin’s play in the Big Ten Tournament inspired renewed hope that they could make a little run in the NCAA Tournament, only to have that optimism promptly squashed into tiny bits by the selection committee.
March Madness is here, and the Daily Cardinal Sports Desk is bringing you endless coverage of the NCAA Tournament. We've got predictions, breakdowns, previews and more. Anything you could ever hope for from a tournament preview package is all inside.
Vitto Brown almost never wears his two Final Four rings. He knows where they are—in a mural of his athletic achievements at his house in Bowling Green, Ohio—but the rings, for now, are just museum relics on display for visitors of the Brown house to marvel at. Over the past two years, Brown—who still uses his 2014 Final Four backpack—has come to fully appreciate UW’s 2014 and 2015 deep tournament runs.
Happ goes off at the Garden: Under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden, redshirt sophomore Ethan Happ walked onto one of the most hallowed floors in all of basketball and took center stage, delivering his best performance of the season. In Wisconsin’s 61-54 overtime victory over Rutgers, Happ carried the load on both ends, torching the Scarlet Knights for a career-high 32 points while also anchoring the defense with two blocks. On a night when scoring woes nearly cost Wisconsin the game, it was up to Happ to keep his team alive.
While the UW sixth-man carousel continues to spin, freshman guard D’Mitrik Trice remains the lone constant.
Vitto Brown burst onto the scene last year in his junior season when he lept from 6.4 minutes per game to more than 25.
Quiet leader: Though his shooting development hasn’t been what fans had hoped, the importance of Nigel Hayes to the Badgers’ success is unquestionable.
MIDWEST No. 1 seed: Kansas Jayhawks For the seventh time in the last 11 NCAA Tournaments, the Jayhawks earned a No. 1 seed in the Big Dance.
WASHINGTON — Less than an hour after losing to Michigan in the Big Ten Championship game, No. 24 Wisconsin (12-6 Big Ten, 25-9 overall) learned it would be playing Virginia Tech (10-8 ACC, 22-10 overall) in Buffalo on Thursday. While many bracketologists projected the Badgers to be either 5-seed, 6-seed or 7-seed in the NCAA tournament, Wisconsin is instead an 8-seed and if they advance past Virginia Tech they would very likely face the tournament’s number one overall seed, Villanova. “It is what it is,” senior forward Nigel Hayes said.
WASHINGTON — All season, the Wisconsin senior class talked about wanting to close their careers with a Big Ten Tournament crown.
WASHINGTON — It was a long night on the offensive end for the No. 24 Badgers (12-6 Big Ten, 25-9 overall) Sunday at the Verizon Center as they couldn’t string enough successful possessions together to knock off Michigan (10-8, 24-11) 71-56 and claim the Big Ten Tournament crown. Wisconsin fell behind early, 30-20, but clawed back into the game to close the half.
After battling all season to put themselves in a position to earn a bid to the NCAA Tournament, the Badgers deflated in front of the Kohl Center crowd, falling 3-1 and virtually ending their chance at an at-large berth.
WASHINGTON — On multiple occasions this season, redshirt sophomore Ethan Happ has had to run extra sprints in front of teammates at the end of a Wisconsin practice.
WASHINGTON — The Badgers ended the Big Ten regular season playing the hottest team in the conference.
Playing in its first-ever NCAA tournament game, Robert Morris took the ice against No. 1 Wisconsin and for the first 13 minutes managed to play toe-to-toe with the top-ranked team in the country. Then junior forward Annie Pankowski forced a turnover, senior forward Sarah Nurse scored, and the Badgers (22-2-4 WCHA, 32-2-4 overall) proceeded to dominate the next 27 minutes of play en route to a 7-0 win over the Colonials (15-3-2 CHA, 24-5-6 overall) in the quarterfinal game.
WASHINGTON — Sometimes, everything goes right. After a brutal stretch of games in the middle of the season, the Badgers put together their most complete game of the season as everyone got in on the action, including Ethan Happ at the free-throw line. The redshirt sophomore forward had his best shooting performance of the season as No. 24 Wisconsin (12-6 Big Ten, 25-8 overall) laid waste to Northwestern (10-8, 23-11), 76-48, to earn a spot in the Big Ten Championship Game for the second time in three seasons. Though the Badgers shot the lights out in the second half, it was the defense that looked most impressive in the semifinal.
WASHINGTON ? The Badgers opened their Big Ten Tournament semifinal game with two airballs in the first three possessions.
WASHINGTON — In the games leading up to No. 24 Wisconsin’s (12-6 Big Ten, 24-8 overall) 66-59 loss to Northwestern (10-8, 23-10) in mid-February, the Badgers had been playing with fire. While UW had won eight games in a row, in its wins over Nebraska, Indiana, Illinois and Rutgers, Wisconsin pulled out victories not because of its offense, but in spite of it. Against the Wildcats, the Badgers finally got burned.
WASHINGTON — D’Mitrik Trice didn’t sleep much before Wisconsin’s Big Ten Tournament game against Indiana Friday night. And when the freshman got off the bus and entered the Verizon Center Friday night, he said he felt a “different feeling” than he does before most games. But any nerves that Trice had quickly subsided, as the young guard flourished in his 31 minutes of play. But Trice was far from the only productive Badger on the night, as five different Badgers scored in double figures in No. 24 Wisconsin’s (12-6 Big Ten, 24-8 overall) 70-60 victory over the Hoosiers (7-11, 18-15).
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