CHICAGO – As Michigan star Yaxel Lendeborg knocked down a cold-blooded 3-pointer in the final second of Wisconsin’s loss to Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament semi-final Saturday afternoon, he might as well have delivered the Badgers a punch directly to the gut.
Against a team regarded by some as the best the Big Ten has seen in the last 50 years, Wisconsin held Michigan to its lowest scoring half of the season, erased a 15-point deficit in the game's final ten minutes with a magical 3-point run from forward Austin Rapp and looked primed to beat the 31-2 Wolverines for the second time this season.
After star Nick Boyd hit a contested 3-pointer with 29 seconds left to tie the game at 65, Wisconsin played stout defense for 22 seconds on Michigan’s final possession. But eventually, Michigan point guard Elliot Cadeau coerced the Badgers out of their shell, and as Lendeborg flashed to the wing, forward Aleksas Bieliauskas got caught in Michigan bigman Aday Mara’s screen. Lendeborg found himself wide open and splashed the 3 with a third of a second remaining, sending Wisconsin home and denying them from their third straight Big Ten Championship appearance.
The Badgers, who received a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament, will play No. 12 seeded High Point on Thursday.
After the loss, Wisconsin seems to be focusing more on the growth they’ve achieved over the past week, than on the thumbnail loss they suffered to one of the best teams in the country.
Wisconsin, despite getting off the emotional rollercoaster of the last 10 minutes of action with a loss, heads into next week’s NCAA Tournament with the confidence of a boxer who knows they can win their next fight. You could see it in Boyd’s eyes as he walked off the court and feel it in the presence of head coach Greg Gard moments after the loss.
“Extremely proud of [the team] and how we played this week here. This will be good for us because now we'll get healthy, get some rest and get ready for next week,” Gard told reporters minutes after the game. “This group is battle-tested, and I think hungry to make a deep run.”
Over the course of three days, Wisconsin fended off a feisty Washington team, overcame a 15-point deficit to beat Illinois in overtime and made life miserable for the first-seeded, and third-ranked nationally, Michigan for forty minutes.
“I think this group understands how good they are,” Gard said. “That's what I said a week ago when we won at Purdue. This group has gotten better. I think we can still get better. This was a good 'nother step for certain guys to continue to improve and get more confidence, and ultimately it makes the team better.”
“We’ve proven to everybody we can compete with anybody in the country,” guard Braedon Carrington told The Daily Cardinal in the locker room after the game. “I don’t think we’re too worried about anything.”
The Badgers, by overcoming 15-point deficits on back-to-back days, have proven that they are never truly out of a game, even against the game’s best teams.
On Friday, Wisconsin gritted out their comeback. But on Saturday, the Badgers were lifted by an unbelievable five minute stretch from Rapp. Wisconsin, bullied by Mara, had fallen into a 54-39 deficit when Rapp got the hothand. Rapp, previously 0-for-4 from beyond the arc with no points, hit his first 3-pointer off a dish from Blackwell.
After Carrington and Boyd each scored to bring the game within seven points, Rapp hit 3s on three straight possessions, bringing the United Center to a frenzy, tying the game and forcing Michigan head coach Dusty May to call a timeout. Rapp then proceeded to drill 3s on Wisconsin’s next two possessions to give Wisconsin a 62-58 lead.
Rapp’s sudden burst felt otherworldly, single-handedly changing the direction of the game. Regardless, a comeback, no matter the kind, takes belief to pull off. Wisconsin clearly has that, and it will benefit them as their season faces its biggest test yet.
“We’re just going to fight and leave it all out there,” Blackwell said after the game. “I told the guys when we were down, I said, ‘We’re not going to go out without a fight. We’re going to go out swinging.’”
Much of that never-say-die mentality comes from the loads of veteran experience Wisconsin has in their locker room. But by competing in high-leverage tournament games, Wisconsin also got invaluable reps for younger, less-experienced players, especially with stars Nolan Winter and Jack Janicki out with injuries.
Freshmen Will Garlock and Hayden Jones received postseason action in all three games, gaining the experience of playing underneath bright lights. Key players like Rapp and Bieliauskas had their roles elevated without Winter. With Wisconsin facing the cruelty of sudden death beginning next week, the Badgers will have an even more grizzled roster.
Now, after a grueling three-day stretch, Wisconsin will have had at least four days to rest up for the NCAA Tournament, when Saturday’s loss to Michigan will seem like a lifetime ago. But when they take the floor, the confidence that comes from giving a superpower a run for their money will be lingering.
Wisconsin may have fallen short Saturday, but for all the theatrics of the Big Ten Tournament, it is the NCAA Tournament that will ultimately decide how Wisconsin’s season is remembered.
