NCAA National Championship
It’ll be Wisconsin vs. Duke in Monday’s game. Sorry Kentucky, Michigan State.
BASKETBALL
WISCONSIN 71, KENTUCKY 64
INDIANAPOLIS — The Kentucky Wildcats weren’t perfect after all.
The hard-nosed Wisconsin Badgers did what nobody else could Saturday night — knocking off the Wildcats 71-64 behind 20 points and 11 rebounds from Frank Kaminsky and a clutch comeback down the stretch.
Now, it’s Wisconsin heading to the final to play Duke, an 81-61 winner over Michigan State in the earlier semifinal.
“It gives us another 40 minutes, I know that,” said Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan, who leads the Badgers to their first final since 1941.
The Wildcats close the season at 38-1 — two wins short of becoming the first undefeated team in college basketball since the 197576 Indiana Hoosiers finished 32-0. Instead, these NBA-talent-laden Wildcats join the star-studded 1991 UNLV team as the latest to take an undefeated record into the Final Four but lose in the semifinals.
Wisconsin showed there are other programs with talent to match the Wildcats.
Wisconsin has some future pros, too, and they came up big in the biggest game of their lives — a rematch of last year’s semifinals, which the Wildcats won 74-73.
The Wildcats had the
reputation as the team that never quits when things don’t look so good — as evidenced by last week’s 68-66 win over Notre Dame — but Wisconsin came up clutch this time.
“They did to us what we’ve been doing to other teams all season,” Calipari said. “They executed down the stretch and we didn’t.”
Trailing by four and gasping for breath after going six minutes without a basket, the Badgers (36-3) responded with an 8-0 run to take a lead Kentucky couldn’t overcome.
It started with a tough, twisting shot by a likely future NBA player, Sam Dekker (16 points), and kept going when Nigel Hayes tipped in an air ball after the shot clock appeared to have turned to “0.” No violation was called, and it generated momentum for the Badgers and left Kentucky flat.
With the score tied at 60, Andrew Harrison missed on Kentucky’s next possession. Then Dekker spotted up for a 3-pointer that gave Wisconsin the lead for good with 1:42 left.
With Wisconsin ahead 64-63 with 24 seconds left, national player of the year Frank Kaminsky, who was celebrating his 22nd birthday, hit two free throws. He and Bronson Koenig went 7 for 8 from the line over the last 24 seconds to seal the win.
“Best birthday present I’ve ever had,” Kaminsky said.
Kentucky’s last, best chance came while trailing by three with 12 seconds left. But Karl-Anthony Towns got the ball in the post and was fouled. He made only one free throw, and from there, Wisconsin iced it from the line.
Now Kentucky can watch the national championship game from the couch.
“I just feel like we wanted to win the national title, and we didn’t do it, so the season was a waste,” Wildcats freshman Tyler Ulis said.
A bunch of Wildcats tugged at their jerseys and walked off the court losers for the first time this season, and the first time since last year’s final against UConn.
“We didn’t care about the record,” Towns said. “We just cared about the trophy that came with it.”
Former starter Traevon Jackson played 12 minutes and finished with six points, including 4-of-4 shooting from the free throw line.
Josh Gasser, the Badgers’ best on-the-ball defender, was his usual pesky self in the backcourt, but he scored just three points.
Wisconsin’s national title game on Monday night against Duke will be especially sweet for Jackson, a senior who started last year’s national semifinal and missed a shot at the buzzer in the loss to Kentucky.
He sat out more than two months of Big Ten play with a foot injury. Koenig took over, and Jackson returned off the bench in the regionals.