Badgers trashed: Florida wins in OT
Gators take bite out of NYC-trashing Hayes, Badgers in epic overtime finish at Garden
Nigel Hayes Night at the Garden commenced at a quarter past ten o’clock Friday. Baseline to baseline, he was a busy Badger, jab stepping and jump stopping, feeling out defenders early and filling the lane on the break. No fan of New York, the city he called too big, too dirty, too crowded a day earlier, Hayes looked at home in Macy’s window, making his merry way to the rim with ease, spinning and sealing. He appeared to be too much. It turned out that he tried to do too much too soon.
His rhythm all but ran its course with 4:25 left in the first half. Whistled for a second offensive foul after tossing a Gator for his first, Hayes, the cynosure of Wisconsin’s swing offense, sat. He watched Florida erase a seven-point lead, twice drawing fouls from the Badgers on threes. This was Hayes’ nightmare on 33rd Street, stuck in Manhattan with time on his hands, nine points in the book, nowhere to go.
Hayes gave chase until the end, though. There he was at the line, hitting two free throws to put Wisconsin up, 83-81, in overtime following teammate Zak Showalter’s 3-pointer at the end of regulation. Hayes picked up Florida guard Chris Chiozza full court, chasing after him from the backcourt to the frontcourt, only to watch Chiozza knock down a running dagger three in front of him. Hayes held his hands up and looked on. The ball went in. Referees reviewed it. The scoreboard read: Florida 84, Wisconsin 83.
Hayes got his wish: a quick exit from New York. Madness eliminated him.
Hayes can be a handful and a mouthful. He was both this week. Skilled on the court and practiced in his arguments advocating that college players should be paid more than a scholarship for their services in a billion-dollar industry, Hayes minced no words when describing the host city. He noted that it might be the backdrop of movies, but prior trips to Manhattan left him unimpressed. No one would blame him for electing not to pop in the game film of the second half against the Gators.
Hayes proved to be a capable headliner. His tournament
performances turned heads. In the first round, he stitched together a stat line of 16 points, 10 rebounds and followed that up with 19 and 8 against Villanova, his finishing touch coming on a half-spin along the baseline to beat the defending national champions. He finished with 22 points but missed 7 free throws that proved most costly.
Wisconsin needed all of its wiles in reaching the Garden. Hayes and classmate Bronson Koenig righted a team that dropped five of six games from February into March, first going to the Big 10 tournament title game and then getting to a fourth Sweet 16. Its mistakes came in pairs. If it wasn’t Hayes picking up two fouls it was his teammates being called for fouling the Gators beyond the arc. The momentum changers erased any margin for error the Badgers may have enjoyed. Even at the start of the second half, Wisconsin failed to get a shot off, suffering a shot clock violation. For a veteran team, it revealed those struggles through February.
Friday offered a look at Hayes in full. He popped in a corner 3-pointer, drove baseline to feed a fellow big man and altogether took over at times. Still, he knew the the 16-6 lead that Wisconsin sprinted to early on was a footnote by the finish.
Hayes talked about taking the final steps to a title when he wasn’t sharing his thoughts on the city Thursday. He talked about advancing past the rounds he already reached, about getting into the Final Four, back to a championship game and not leaving that stage without a net cord in his hands.
There will be no third Final Four run, no chance to climb the post-game ladder on a raised court in Phoenix. Hayes’ season didn’t die in the desert. It started to unravel when he went to the bench in New York, and his charmed college run came to an end past midnight. There was nowhere for Hayes to go but home, back to Madison, his lasting memory from Manhattan being a dagger thrown a step in front of him. He threw his hands up to defend. In the end, he was one more helpless visitor in midtown.