It was supposed to be a night of lasts for the UW seniors, but it quickly turned into a night of firsts, including Wisconsin's first Big Ten Championship since 2003.
Senior forwards Brian Butch and Greg Stiemsma scored 12 and 10 points, respectively, while junior Marcus Landry led the way with a game-high 15, as the UW men's basketball team topped Penn State 77-41 on Senior Night Wednesday in front of a sold-out crowd at the Kohl Center.
This is why we play. This is why we run the hill, this why we do all the stuff that nobody likes to do. It gets you moments like this,"" Butch said. ""You know, we had a great year last year but we didn't have anything to show for it.""
It might have been the last time the senior quartet of Butch, Stiemsma, Michael Flowers and Tanner Bronson played at the Kohl Center, but it was the first time Stiemsma scored 10 points at home since Nov. 15 against Savannah State, and it was the first time Bronson scored at all since Nov. 16 against Florida A&M.
The former manager and fifth-year senior missed his first two shots after he entered the game with 4:49 left, and the Badgers leading 70-33. But just minutes later, shooting with the confidence of a seasoned veteran, Bronson took a three from NBA range at the top of the key and dropped it through the net with ease.
""We are used to that from Tanner, so to see him do that in a game like this, on senior night, it just comes full circle I guess,"" Butch said. ""I'm just so excited and so happy for him to be able to experience something like that. It is something that he and his family will remember for the rest of his life.""
For Stiemsma, the senior could not have had a better night. His 10 points came on 4-of-5 shooting while adding six rebounds and two assists in 21 minutes. He added the exclamation point with 12 minutes to go, when he took a Jason Bohannon miss and tip-dunked it, giving the Badgers a 55-25 lead, their largest of the game at the time.
""I think it still seems surreal,"" Stiemsma said. ""It's senior night and the last game of our careers here. Those are pretty big things to look at and it hasn't really set in yet.""
It also was a night of firsts for the underclassman. Freshman Tim Jarmusz hit his first career 3-pointer and freshman J.P. Gavinski had his first career dunk. Junior Kevin Gullikson played for the first time since Jan. 5 after being benched for receiving his third underage drinking citation. But after the game the team was still talking about junior Joe Krabbenhoft's first career dunk, which came just 32 seconds after Stiemsma's tip-dunk.
""We've been giving Joe a hard time for the last couple of years that he doesn't have a dunk yet,"" Stiemsma said. ""But for it to happen at the time of the game that it was, we started to break things open at that point and it was a time to really enjoy it.""
It also happened to be the first time students rushed the court since 2003, when the Badgers beat Illinois in a winner-take-all finale to win the Big Ten title outright. The 36-point win Wednesday might not have been the nail-biter the 2003 clinching game was, but for the seniors, it was the first time any of them had experienced a conference title so the win was all that mattered.
""To achieve what we did tonight, it's really special,"" Stiemsma said. ""It's one of those things where it doesn't seem like it should happen, but I don't know if it's fate or whatever it is, things just fell into place and we took care of our end.""
