NEW YORK—While the Florida Gators (27-8) were celebrating their 84-83 overtime victory over the Wisconsin Badgers (27-10) mere feet from the spot of Chris Chiozza’s game winning 3-point shot, Ethan Happ walked over to Zak Showalter, pulled him away from the Gators’ jubilant scrum and put his arm around Showalter’s left shoulder.
“I told him that it was good,” Happ said. “I saw both the clock and his feet behind the line, so I just told him to [keep his] head up to the locker room. He had such a great career, you don’t want him to walk off the court with his head down.”
Showalter tried to fight off the tears as he headed to the locker room, wearing his Wisconsin jersey for the final time. But when he saw assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft, his emotional dam broke and tears started to fall from his face.
Despite Showalter’s powerful emotional display, the script was nearly flipped just seconds before Chiozza’s shot.
With four seconds remaining in overtime, senior forward Nigel Hayes made a pair of free throws to seemingly seal a win for UW yet again, just days after scoring the game-winner against Villanova. But in the waning seconds, Chiozza raced up the floor, evading any Badger defender in his path, and tossed up a prayer at the buzzer.
Senior guard Bronson Koenig turned his back to avoid watching the Gators’ celebration. Hayes took one final glance at Florida as he walked to the rest of his teammates, stunned in disbelief on the sideline. Senior forward Vitto Brown stared motionless from the bench, where he watched the final 12:10 of the game after fouling out with just over seven minutes remaining in regulation. Head coach Greg Gard’s hands fell to his knees. And the Wisconsin fans at Madison Square Garden?who seconds earlier had been euphoric—fell silent.
The Badgers led by five points with 1:08 to play in overtime. A mere 68 seconds separated UW’s senior class from its third Elite Eight in four seasons.
Instead, the winningest senior class in the history of Wisconsin basketball will be stuck on 13 NCAA tournament victories. There will be no uplifting encore or cheery reprise for this Wisconsin team.
“What hurts most is that we had those multiple chances to kind of put the game out of reach,” Brown said. “We just didn’t get it done.”
UW missed five free throws in overtime, all five misses coming in the final 3:26 of the game. The Badgers also finished with 16 turnovers, which translated into 20 Gator points.
Wisconsin, though, barely even got the game into the extra session. Showalter’s one-legged, running 3-pointer with 2.5 seconds to play in regulation tied the game at 72, erasing what was a 12-point Gator lead with 5:23 to play in regulation.
Wisconsin trailed at halftime, 34-32, after squandering an early 10-point cushion. The Badgers led for only 22 seconds in the second half, and instead were in a constant game of catch-up.
“To win in the tournament, you need to be good and you need to be lucky,” Hayes said. “We got lucky to send it into overtime and they one-upped us to win the game.”
Hayes led the Badgers with 22 points, but the senior forward from Toledo, Ohio, missed seven free throws, and his early foul trouble helped spur the Gators’ first-half comeback.
Happ finished with 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting and collected six rebounds as well. Showalter scored all 14 of his points in the second half. Brown added ten points, and a cramping Bronson Koenig limped to the finish line of his Wisconsin career with 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting from the field.
“I can’t thank those guys, specifically the four seniors, enough for their time and dedication and commitment that they have made to our university and our program,” Gard said. “This is a tough way for them to go out.”
As Wisconsin’s seniors walked off the court, two wins shy of their third Final Four appearance, Happ, the player who will be tasked next season with carrying the torch lit by UW’s outgoing senior class, found Brown, his frontcourt partner and roommate. The duo, for one final time, walked back to the locker room together.
“Thanks for showing me the ropes,” Happ said.
