INDIANAPOLIS – The national player of the year called it his best birthday present ever.
“I got a [Nintendo]-64 once,” Wisconsin forward Frank Kaminsky said. “I don’t know what happened to it. My dad drove me to get my driver’s license when I was 16, so that was pretty cool too. Yeah, that’s about it.”
And then there is Saturday night’s victory over undefeated Kentucky. A 71-64 victory in the national semifinals at Lucas Oil Stadium during the 2015 Final Four. A victory over the powerhouse, blue-blood program that began the season No. 1, started out with a two-platoon system that featured All-Americans and future NBA stars, and used “Pursuit of Perfection” as its motto.
Best present ever. It was so good, Kaminsky, who had 20 points and 11 rebounds, decided to share it with his coach, his teammates and the entire state of Wisconsin.
The headline on this game might be the downfall of Kentucky and end of perfection. But give Wisconsin credit. The Badgers deserved to win this game. They played the better game. They solved the Kentucky puzzle on both ends of he floor.
The Badgers (36-3), who will play Duke (34-4) Monday night in the national championship game, won despite letting a nine-point, first-half lead get away and despite a scoring drought of more than six minutes late in the second half.
“Extremely proud of the way our guys hung in there when it looked like we dug ourselves a hole that we could never get out of,” Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said. “When you don’t score a field goal in about a seven-minute period, the other team got hot. When we got down four, we just kept battling on every possession. . . . It was just the end, the last five minutes. Again, these guys just gutted it out. I told them, I’ll hang out on the sideline for 40 minutes [Monday] night. So here we are.”
Wisconsin trailed 60-56 after a basket by Karl-Anthony Towns with 6:31 left. Sam Dekker (16 points) scored and Nigel Hayes was credited with his own put-back basket despite the fact the shot clock went off on the Badgers. That tied the score and from that point on Wisconsin was the toughest team. Kentucky didn’t score again until a three-point play by Aaron Harrison with 56.2 seconds left.
A 3-pointer by Dekker with 1:40 left gave the Badgers a 63-60. The Badgers went 8-for-10 from the free throw line to put the game away.
In that stretch, Wisconsin forced Kentucky into three consecutive shot-clock violations.
“I don’t think we necessarily did anything different than what we were supposed to do,” Dekker said. “I just think we clogged up the driving lines a little better and just made it tough on them to get easy looks inside. If they get you behind them on the low block, those guys are so big and so talented, they’re going to score that 70% of the time. So we just tried to make it tough off the dribble, for them to enter the post. Those shot-clock violations were big for us. Gave us confidence on the defensive end and maybe hopefully drained a little bit of their confidence on the offensive end.”
Wisconsin thought about returning to this point as soon as the Badgers lost to Kentucky in the 2014 national semifinals. It wasn’t about revenge against the Wildcats or stopping their perfect streak. Wisconsin just wanted to get back.
“It’s definitely us wanting to reach our goals,” Hayes said. “I mean, it was not the mindset to try and end their streak. The fact that we wanted to win a national championship and they were the team we had to play, inevitably we would have to end that streak if we wanted to reach that goal. The fact we were able to do that against a great team was definitely secondary, but we’ll take it.”
Kaminsky said the loss to Kentucky last year motivated the Badgers during off-season workouts. Dekker agreed.
“It didn’t matter who was in front of us,” he said. “We just wanted to get a chance to play for the national title. We set those goals out before the season. We were very vocal about it. I think it was big for us making that run that we could get back. I’m proud of these guys for stepping up. Couldn’t be more privileged to be with these guys. ”
Kentucky coach John Calipari gets his players at the drive-thru window of the McDonald’s All-American basketball restaurant. Ryan takes the best players from the Midwest, many of them homegrown from Wisconsin. They stay in school, they get experience, they grow and they win.
“Wisconsin has some really good players,” Ryan said earlier this week. “We’ve gone after a lot of guys from the Midwest. Parents, family can see the games. A lot of times young men want to stay close to home. Not everybody. So the idea is to find people who want to be at your place and want to be with your guys and play the game and have a chance to go to the NCAA tournament every year.”
The Badgers have been in the tournament the last 17 seasons. Now they are one win away from the school’s first NCAA championship since 1941.
“Well, without a doubt we’re not here without these guys, having been through the development that they’ve gone through,” Ryan said. “You know, people can say what they want about we don’t have X- number of All-Americans, we don’t have this… I’ve never in life looked at what you don’t have, I’ve always looked at what we do have and what can we do with it.
“You know, we’ve had a few guys transfer in 14 years, but not very many. And this group is doing what it’s doing right now because they’ve stuck to what they believe in and worked extremely hard in the off-season, each season. Now they’re veterans. So many of these guys have been here before. So I definitely have enjoyed working with young men like this and building a team with seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen. It works for us. ”
Duke advanced with an easy 81-61 victory over Michigan State.
After the first four minutes, Duke simply dominated play at both ends of the floor. Denzel Valentine (22 points, 11 rebounds) made three 3-pointers and Travis Trice (16 points) added another as the Spartans jumped ahead 14-6 in those opening minutes. But then the Blue Devils clamped down on defense and changed the complexion of the game.
“After the first four minutes, we were a completely different team, ” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “We played great basketball tonight., especially on the defensive end. We got hit with a couple of punches early, figuratively, but for my guys to show that [toughness] – I’m really proud of them.”
Justise Winslow led Duke with 19 points and nine rebounds. Freshman Jahlil Okafor, who blocked two shots, had 18 points and should be well rested for the championship game after playing just 30 minutes. Guard Quinn Cook, 6-for-12 from the field, had 17 points.
After shooting 29.6 percent in the first half, Michigan State improved to 50 percent in the second half. But the damage had been done. Duke opened the second half with a barrage of dunks, including one by Grayson Allen that brought down the house and gave the Blue Devils a 50-31 lead. The game felt over right then and there.
Duke outscored the Spartans 27-10 from the free throw line.
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