THE BIG CHEESE BARELY CUTS IT
No. 1 Wisconsin survives Heel scare
LOS ANGELES — The vice of big game pressure has a way of squeezing out a team’s true personality. Wisconsin faced a bunch of it against North Carolina on Thursday night. What came through was a group that never panics because it believes it will ultimately win.
The top-seeded Badgers needed most of the second half to wrest the lead from the No. 4 Tar Heels in their West Region semifinal. Then twice UNC cut the margin to a single point, and both times Wisconsin gave a cool, winning response. The Badgers made no mistakes when it counted and held on for a 79-72 win at Staples Center.
“There is really nothing you can say in that situation to each other, other than ‘go out there and do it.’ We don’t need to get in each other’s faces. We just know how to stay calm,” Wisconsin’s Frank Kaminsky said. “We’re a veteran group and we understand situations and we’ve been through a lot as a group. So we know what it takes to win games like that at the end.”
Badgers coach Bo Ryan had a more colorful way of putting it.
“(It’s) the difference between involved and committed,” he said. “You sit down to the breakfast with bacon and eggs. You look at the eggs, you know the chicken was involved. You look at the bacon, and you know the pig was committed. . . . I’ve got a lot of committed guys in that locker room.”
Wisconsin (34-3) will be playing in its fourth Elite Eight on Saturday against the winner of the late semifinal between No. 2 Arizona and No. 6 Xavier on Saturday as its drive to make a second straight Final Four continues.
For Carolina it was the end of a difficult season that began with revelations from an NCAA investigation of widespread academic transgressions that could lead to penalties and ended with the program mourning the passing of iconic coach Dean Smith.
Sam Dekker had a career-high 23 points on 10for-15 shooting, Kaminsky had 19 points and eight rebounds and Nigel Hayes added 12 points for the Badgers, who shot 58% from the floor after halftime.
Brice Johnson and Justin Jackson each scored 15 points for the Tar Heels (26-12). UNC star Marcus Paige had 12 points, but made just four of 11 shots. Still, a couple of them were huge.
Wisconsin’s poise under the gun was never better than the first time that late lead was nearly erased. Johnson made one of two free throws with 4:21 to play to get Carolina within to 65-64. With that still the margin almost a minute later, Kaminsky missed a layup, but Dekker chased down the offensive rebound, whipped it to Traevon Jackson and he found Josh Gasser at the top of the key for a three-pointer with 3:24 left.
Paige finally found his shooting stroke late and made long three-pointers on consecutive possessions to get the Heels to within 71-70 with 55 seconds left. But Wisconsin went 8-for-8 on the free throw line and held Carolina to 0-for-4 shooting the rest of the way.
“They’re really, really tough kids. . . . I think the toughness that they showed today was really something,” Carolina coach Roy Williams said of the Badgers. “The instinctive play to chase the ball down was a big-time, big-time play. And they made their free throws. . . . They’re a No. 1 seed for a reason. They’ve won 34 games for a reason.”
Reserve Badgers guard Zak Showalter played a key role in getting Wisconsin ahead the final time. He had the middle two baskets in a 9-0 run that started with just under seven minutes left and put Wisconsin up 65-60. He went for a back-door layup for the lead and then stole the ball from Nate Britt and took it all the lay for a layup on the ensuing possession.
Dekker said that having walked the road to the Final Four last year “grows you up fast.” It also apparently teaches a team what it takes to change a game and to win.
North Carolina showed Wisconsin early that it had superior length and athleticism. The Tar Heels scored the first two baskets on breakaway dunks by Johnson. In the first five minutes, Carolina had six points on the fast break.
The Badgers adjusted by prioritizing getting back to stop the ball and Carolina got only two more baskets in transition.
“Once we figured out the quickness, how many more did they get the last (35 minutes)?” Ryan asked.
“We have a veteran bunch. Everyone understands time and score and what we need to do,” Kaminsky said. “It’s just great to have so many voices understanding what needs to happen and what we need to do out on the court (to win).”