INDIANAPOLIS – It would be borderline ludicrous to suggest Frank Kaminsky returned for his senior season at Wisconsin just to get another shot at Kentucky in a national semifinal game at the Final Four.
That wasn’t even a realistic possibility until Selection Sunday, when the 2015 brackets were announced.
“It’s obviously motivating because you want to come back to this stage,” Kaminsky said Friday at Lucas Oil Stadium “This is what seasons are remembered for. You remember the national championship at the end of the season. I wanted that badly to be us. I thought we had an opportunity to do so. We’re back at that stage. We fought hard to be here. We’re going to do whatever we can to make sure we are the last team standing.”
The time is here. Wisconsin and Kentucky will settle things Saturday night, after Duke and Michigan State play (6:09 p.m.) in the other semifinal. It’s more than just a pair of No. 1 seeds colliding in the semis. It’s also a sample of Final Four history in the repetitive mode. It’s only the fifth time two programs have met in consecutive seasons at the Final Four. The other four times, the team that won the first meeting also won the rematch. Duke’s shocking 1991 win over UNLV is the exception.
In Arlington, Texas last year, Aaron Harrison took a pass from his twin brother, Andrew, and hit a 3-pointer from NBA range with 5.7 seconds left to lift Kentucky to a 74-73 victory over the Badgers. Kentucky went on to lose to UConn in the championship game.
“Last year’s loss was obviously very difficult,” said Kaminsky, who was named national player of the year by Associated Press and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association Friday. “To lose in the way we did on a last-second shot, left a sour taste. It was a motivating factor to get back to this stage. Just luck of the draw we get to play Kentucky again. Obviously, we’re going to do whatever we can to come out on top.”
Wisconsin’s Sam Dekker called it a “tough loss to swallow.”
“It was tough to get over because of how special a season it had been, how close we were to playing for a national title,” Dekker said. “We used that kind of as a steppingstone going into the off-season, what we wanted to, what we wanted to accomplish, not necessarily playing Kentucky, but just getting back in this position, having a chance in 40 minutes to get to a national title.
“So we’re blessed to be back in this position. We’re not going to use last year’s game as what you guys like to call revenge or the rematch. We want to play whoever we got to play and get a win and go on for another game.”
Throw in the fact that Kentucky (38-0) is attempting to become the first NCAA team to complete a season undefeated since Indiana in 1976 and the anticipation is building for a semifinal game that might be remembered for a long time. Wisconsin (35-3), because of Kaminsky’s versatility and the Badgers’ efficiency, might be the team that is best equipped to halt Kentucky’s undefeated streak and the history that goes with it.
Last year Kentucky was a No. 8 seed and the Wisconsin players thought there was no way they would lose. Treavon Jackson fired up a desperation shot after Harrison’s 3-pointer but it rimmed out. Now Jackson is settling back into the rotation after missing an extended amount of time with an injury.
“Definitely it took a while to get over it,” Jackson said of the loss. “For me, it was like that first week, I kind of just took some time off to really reflect on the whole season, not necessarily that whole season, just that game. I didn’t expect to lose. I knew we weren’t supposed to l It’s definitely fun to be back here. That had a lot to do with how hard we worked. Being in this position again this year I think is a lot easier.”
Both teams have changed. Kentucky is much better. Wisconsin has improved as well. The bottom line is there is nothing easy about trying to score against Kentucky’s big men, led by Willie Cauley-Stein and Karl-Anthony Towns. If those two get tired, Kentucky coach John Calipari can sub with Dakari Johnson and Marcus Lee.
It’s an imposing task.
“It’s very difficult when you have so much depth and height, especially coming off the bench,” Kaminsky said. “It makes for a good team. It’s not going to be easy. They’re great shot-blockers. They know how to score on offense. They can run the floor. They can defend in multiple positions. It’s kind of like a two-headed monster with their bench and their starters. It’s not going to be easy. But I think we have a team that’s willing to do whatever we can to make sure we win.”
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