On Thursday night in the 2015 NCAA Tournament, a nation of college basketball fans was deprived of one potential rematch from the 2014 edition of the Big Dance… but not two.
Kentucky and Wichita State were on the verge of trading places. The Shockers, unbeaten when they faced Kentucky a year ago in Bracketville, had a chance to become the spoiler against Big Blue in a possible Midwest Regional final. However, Notre Dame got in the way, creating an Elite Eight game which feels like Digger Phelps against Joe B. Hall, fresh from the 1970s.
Yet, if there was a sense of disappointment that Kentucky-Wichita Part II did not materialize, that taste quickly vanished in Los Angeles, where a thoroughly entertaining West Regional gave us not only a rematch from last year’s tournament, but the first game worthy of a national champion.
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Arizona and Wisconsin will almost surely have to face Kentucky in the Final Four’s featured national semifinal on April 4, so of course, the Wildcats and Badgers know that their pursuit of a national championship is only just beginning. Yet, in almost any other season — one without a 37-0 team waiting in the wings — this Saturday’s clash between the top two seeds in the West Region would feel like a national title game, one week before the Final Four.
Why do Arizona and Wisconsin carry an air of greatness heading into another Southern California showdown, 12 months after they met in nearby Anaheim to decide the 2014 West Regional champion? The answer is not a complicated one: The Wildcats and Badgers both played well below their best in the Sweet 16. They both took their opponent’s strongest punch. They both played mature and airtight basketball down the stretch. They both won despite all the turns of events that cut against them.
For Wisconsin, the team standing in the way of a reunion with Arizona played with the offensive balance that had been missing for much of the season. North Carolina, getting steady and mature performances from the likes of Justin Jackson and Joel Berry, carried a 60-56 lead over Wisconsin into the final seven minutes of regulation inside the Staples Center.
Jackson — very much a “here one night, gone the next” player for much of the regular season — became his best self in the postseason for North Carolina. His 22 points in the ACC tournament semifinals carried the Tar Heels to a win over Virginia that was responsible for gaining a number four seed in this tournament and the favorable draw which brought Carolina to the Sweet 16 once again after a two-year absence. Berry, for his part, helped the Tar Heels to push the pace when Marcus Paige was unable to find offense for himself. This version of North Carolina would have done a lot more damage in the ACC. Roy Williams — for all the insane criticism he gets — got this team to play its best in the postseason.
Wisconsin — caught off guard at times by North Carolina’s quick-hitting plays — needed a full half to get going. Frank Kaminsky, the best player in college basketball this season, scored only four points in the first half and looked invisible at times, which is hard for a man of his physical size and all-around skills to accomplish. Wisconsin settled for threes, the problem being not that the Badgers attempted long balls so much as they didn’t fully probe North Carolina’s defense before shooting.
Had Sam Dekker not scored 15 of Wisconsin’s 31 first-half points, all while pounding the glass and making his presence felt in just about every way imaginable, the Badgers could have been in very deep trouble at halftime. Instead, they trailed by only two. Dekker was clearly his team’s best player on Thursday, and with Kaminsky needing time to find his best form, every last ounce of excellence from Dekker was needed to push the Badgers past the Tar Heels.
Forced to regroup at halftime, Wisconsin didn’t immediately solve the problems posed by North Carolina, but in the final seven minutes of play, the Badgers finally cracked the code. While Kaminsky announced his presence as an elite player by scoring 15 in the second half, the Badgers might not be alive in this year’s tournament had it not been for a role player who provided a vital infusion of energy.
Zak Showalter has not existed at the forefront of the Badgers’ 2014-2015 season, and some might say that he hasn’t even existed on the periphery. Bronson Koenig shouldered the burden for this team when initial starting point guard Traevon Jackson (who played nine minutes on Thursday in his return to the lineup) got injured. Showalter remained in the shadows, receiving single-digit minutes in a majority of Wisconsin’s games. It’s very hard to develop a rhythm under such circumstances, and it’s mentally challenging to know that you’ll be on court for a very short period of time with teammates that are much more accustomed to other lineup combinations. Sure, an eight-minute-a-game player doesn’t have to worry about overextending himself when he’s on the floor, but that source of comfort doesn’t make the assignment any less difficult in terms of performing it with the precision necessary to help a team.
Yet, when Wisconsin went on the 9-0 run in 89 seconds that turned the game around and gave the Badgers a 65-60 lead with 5:13 to go in regulation, who was the catalyst? Not Dekker or Kaminsky, but Showalter. A dive to the basket for a layup and then a steal-and-breakaway bucket against North Carolina’s Kenny Britt gave Wisconsin the four points which put the Badgers in front, 63-60. Showalter, whose 5 points and 5 rebounds against Oregon represented comparatively large numbers (he averages 2.2 points and 1.4 rebounds per game), could not have done more in his eight minutes on Thursday: 3-of-3 field goal shooting, 6 points, an infusion of emotion, and a collection of game-altering plays. This is the kind of performance top teams manage to bring forth in March. This is how the 1 seed, playing well below its ceiling, fends off the 4 seed which finds a higher level of play because it knows its season could end.
How else does a top seed deny a No. 4 seed which plays with effectively-channeled desperation? Wisconsin made all eight of its free throws in the final 45 seconds of regulation, all while North Carolina missed two foul shots and lost leverage in the final few exchanges of possessions. The Badgers didn’t impose themselves on North Carolina, but in the final seven minutes, they made very few mistakes. While owning a player of the year candidate who did respond well to a bad first half, Wisconsin was ultimately carried across the finish line by its second-best player and a role player who had been sitting in the shadows for a long time… and, yes, those not-insignificant free throws at the end.
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For Arizona, the pattern was eerily similar in Los Angeles.
Playing the role of Frank Kaminsky was T.J. McConnell. Arizona’s rock was simply not at his best on Thursday against Xavier. Hesitant against Chris Mack’s 1-3-1 zone and not trusting his jump shot for much of the evening, McConnell did not provide the clarity nor the ability to finish plays which marked most of his outstanding season. Many Arizona watchers felt that McConnell needed to be more selfish and shoulder more of the scoring workload for this team, but for the vast majority of this contest, he just wasn’t in sync with everything else that was happening on the floor.
Much like North Carolina, Xavier played as well as it had all season. The Musketeers, on the final day of the Big East regular season, barely escaped the last-place team in the conference, Creighton, with a one-point win. Had Xavier lost that game, the Musketeers very possibly would have found themselves in an 8-9 game on Selection Sunday, but they managed to hunt down a 6 seed and benefit from third-seeded Baylor’s late-game gack attack against Georgia State. Xavier did what it needed to do to get through the opening weekend under very favorable circumstances. This game was supposed to be a convincing Arizona win, but X did not get the memo in L.A. The Musketeers outplayed Arizona for most of the evening, taking a small lead — 53-49 — into the final seven minutes of regulation.
Hey, the final seven minutes — that’s when Wisconsin made its move. Arizona, when backed into a corner, managed to deliver a rally of its own.
Playing the role of Sam Dekker for Arizona — though not at the same soaring and transcendent level — was Kaleb Tarczewski. “Tarc” is often a source of exasperation for many Arizona fans because he doesn’t dunk the ball in traffic and gets denied a lot near the rim. This happened on a few occasions Thursday, as Xavier big man Matt Stainbrook — the best player on the floor over the full 40 minutes — got the better of Tarczewski on most of the confrontations between the two. Stainbrook’s thick and wide post presence was something Arizona’s thinner bigs could not easily handle, and that’s why Stainbrook scored 17 points and 10 rebounds while getting Tarczewski into early foul trouble in the second half.
Yet, while playing with that foul trouble for extended minutes, Tarczewski was able to remain effective on the floor. He didn’t pick up his fourth foul until much later in the game, and he continued to crash the offensive glass. He continued to work hard and make himself available for low-post feeds, and his energy is what began to draw a stream of fouls from Xavier. Tarczewski, more than anyone else on the Arizona roster, played with a level of energy that caught his team’s opponent off guard. Whereas Dekker spent Thursday night finishing plays at the rim for Wisconsin, Tarczewski made his presence felt more as someone who drew fouls and made free throws. Both men, though, starred on the offensive glass, and without them, their teams wouldn’t be headed for another showstopping West Regional final.
Playing the role of Zak Showalter for Arizona was Gabe York. Unlike Showalter, York’s profile has been much higher during the course of the season, but like Showalter, York has saved his best basketball for each of the last two games. His 19-point performance against Ohio State in the round of 32 was clearly his best of the season. Thursday night, York hit a number of three-pointers to keep Arizona close precisely when Xavier was carrying the run of play. York wasn’t as dynamic as he was against Ohio State, but he still made the timely baskets that didn’t emerge in road losses to Oregon State and Arizona State, the losses which prevented the Wildcats from being the No. 1 seed in this West Region.
Because York and Tarczewski carried so much of the workload, Arizona was in position to win as long as McConnell — like Kaminsky — was able to figure things out down the stretch. This is in fact what happened. With Arizona clinging to a 55-54 lead at the 4:19 mark of regulation, McConnell — who had been fighting his jump shot for most of the night — managed to hit a three-pointer when his team really needed it. Doing what great players manage to do in the most meaningful moments of a season on the brink, McConnell regained his edge. He found teammate Brandon Ashley a few possessions later for an assist pass that sustained a multi-score advantage. He steered his team to the finish line.
A comparison of Arizona’s and Wisconsin’s wins would not be complete without journeying to the charity stripe. McConnell joined an Arizona free throw parade which was noticeably similar to what Wisconsin produced against North Carolina. The Badgers were 8-for-8 in the final 45 seconds. The Wildcats were 8-for-8 in the final 3:36. The time spans were different, but the level of accuracy was the same… as were the results fashioned by these two teams in Los Angeles.
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Did Wisconsin and Arizona both look ahead to Saturday, just a little bit? Maybe, but give North Carolina and Xavier all the credit in the world for making the top two seeds in the West Regional earn their place in the Elite Eight.
Give those top two seeds credit for withstanding gallant opponents and enduring their own inconsistent performances to win on nights when the ball easily could have bounced the other way.
Badgers. Wildcats. It feels like a game worthy of the national championship, but because Kentucky’s in this tournament, it is merely one step on the road to something bigger. Yet, don’t allow the looming presence of Kentucky to make Saturday’s regional final any smaller than it is. Savor the emergence of a heavyweight fight, the first genuine big-boy matchup to become a bracket-based reality in the 2015 NCAA Tournament.
