It’s preposterous, really.
If you had told Arizona head coach Sean Miller; any of his players; or any U of A fans that the No. 2 seed in the West Region would hit 55.8 percent of its field goal attempts and make 28 of 30 free throws, you would have received universally enthusiastic responses.
“YES! WE’RE GOING TO THE FINAL FOUR!!!! FINALLY, WE, THE ARIZONA WILDCATS, WOULD RETURN TO COLLEGE BASKETBALL’S GRAND EVENT FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2001! YES!”
Would anyone have been in a position to counter such a hypothetical if offered before Saturday’s West Regional final? Arizona is one of the elite defensive teams in the country — the Wildcats have become a lockdown team under Miller and have stayed that way. They were formidable last year and formidable this year. The main problem with the 2014-2015 Wildcats was that they’d go through some prolonged valleys at the offensive end of the floor, without enough peaks to make their lives easier. Arizona still won the outright Pac-12 title and captured the conference tournament as well, but the Wildcats faced second-half drama against Xavier on Thursday because they weren’t in rhythm offensively.
The notion that Arizona would hit north of 55 percent from the floor and make 28 of 30 foul shots seemed almost impossible before Saturday’s tip-off against Wisconsin. Those kinds of glossy numbers — if they ever could emerge (and of course, they never were going to, anyway…) — would surely mean victory for the “other” Wildcats in this NCAA tournament.
Right?
Wrong.
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The Wisconsin Badgers — playing the most pressure-packed game of any college basketball season other than the national championship game (it’s the Elite Eight which affects reputations more than a Final Four semifinal) — also hit just over 55 percent of their field goals, but they went beyond that. The Badgers nailed an absolutely ridiculous 67 percent of 18 threes, knocking down 12 triples.
Yes, Arizona had one of its very best offensive games of the season… and that performance by the Wildcats kept them in the game for 40 minutes. It didn’t earn them anything more than that. Miller and his heartbroken players will have to comfort themselves with the realization that other teams, with poor shooting or a lack of precision, would have lost by 40 to Wisconsin on a day such as this one. Arizona lost by only seven.
Is that going to make the Wildcats sleep better on Saturday night? Not when you lose the last game before the Final Four. Not when you lose it to the same team in the same metropolitan area (Los Angeles) for the second straight year. Not when your school loses a third Elite Eight game in four years.
Arizona played a high-quality game on the day when every player and coach most desperately wants to be great.
The Wildcats’ greatness was not enough, because Wisconsin’s greatness was greater. This was the inverse of Friday’s Duke-Utah South Regional semifinal. Duke won more because of what Utah failed to do, but the Blue Devils advanced in the bracket just the same. Here in L.A., Arizona lost not because of any deficiency, but because Wisconsin attained a transcendant state of existence.
In terms of field goals, threes, and foul shots, Sam Dekker — the best player in this entire NCAA tournament so far — uncorked shooting totals fit for a superhero: 8 of 11 overall, 5 of 6 on triples, 6 of 7 from the foul line.
He wasn’t even the highest scorer on his own team.
Does this begin to put in perspective how awesomely imposing Wisconsin was with its shooting?
Dekker’s 27 points were eclipsed by Frank Kaminsky’s 29. “Frank the Tank” really is an inaccurate nickname for Wisconsin’s anchor in the pivot, because he so smoothly moves inside and out to fluster defenses and space the floor for his teammates. Kaminsky’s ability to earn 12 foul shots provided the interior complement to the Badgers’ three-point-shooting barrage, and that balance wasn’t merely too much for Arizona. It was too much for Arizona playing as well as it could realistically play on offense.
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We are brought to the realization that two very short years ago, Wisconsin was a victim in one of those 5-versus-12 upsets (you know, the ones that did not occur this year in the Big Dance). A 5 losing to a 12 is a team with some talent, but enough flaws to get exposed by a cut-line-level NCAA team in the round of 64. Wisconsin was a program that churned out solid, disciplined, patient, workmanlike teams that consistently made the Dance and occasionally won a game or two because they didn’t make mistakes… and their opponents did. The Badgers were that boring 10-6 NFL wild card team that won a bunch of 20-17 games because of turnover margin and field position.
Now? Wisconsin is winning high-stakes, end-stage NCAA tournament games against top-tier opponents because it can blow them out of the water with overwhelming displays of firepower. It’s a testament to every Wisconsin player’s skill level that the Badgers have evolved to the point that they could beat a team like Arizona on a day when the Wildcats shot extremely well. It’s also a testament to Bo Ryan that he could reinvent Wisconsin basketball — maybe not in terms of core principles, but in terms of realizing he needed a lot more ammunition at the offensive end of the floor.
Wisconsin basketball arrived last year with its first Final Four in the Ryan era, won against Arizona in a grinder. If Wisconsin arrived last year, the program has now made itself very much at home in the Final Four.
Greatness was established by Wisconsin in 2014. It was affirmed and elevated by the Badgers in 2015 on a special Saturday in Los Angeles.
The City of Angels watched a level of basketball that was nothing less than heavenly. Now Wisconsin tries to win a national championship next weekend in Indianapolis.
