Basketball-Wisconsin ousts defending NCAA champions Villanova

While senior forward Nigel Hayes was the Badgers’ leading scorer Saturday, finishing with 19 points compared to 17 from Koenig, Wisconsin yet again needed Koenig to make perimeter jumpers to pull out a victory. For starters, the Wildcats looked like a team that was pressing a bit the two games in Buffalo, something that was uncommon for them through most of the past two seasons. All that time has taught Hayes to do one thing above all else in NCAA tournament games: Don’t panic.

Top-seeded Villanova was upset by eighth-seeded Wisconsin, 65-62, in the second round of the NCAA tournament Saturday, the first major upset of this year’s March Madness. He returned to the game with four fouls, made a 2-point jumper to bring Wisconsin within three with 4:25 to play, then tied the game with a 3-pointer with 3:28 remaining. He was fouled in the process.

Wisconsin advanced to its fourth straight Sweet 16 by toppling No. 1 Villanova, and the only thing shocking about the victory is that the Badgers earned it as a No. 8 seed. “You have all types of your ranking systems, statistics, analytics guys”.

In six games – three doubleheaders – none of the 37,000 fans who filed through the KeyBank Center turnstiles on Thursday and Saturday, asked for a refund.

Koenig, who finished with 17 points, hit two key three-pointers late. Koenig spent much of the second half nervously watching his teammates from the bench after picking up his fourth foul.

“I can’t believe you’re an eight seed”, Wright told Badgers head coach Greg Gard, per ESPN’s Dana O’Neil. Half those matchups were decided by six-or-fewer points. “I guarantee I’m going to be close to them to the day I die”.

“I don’t think the intensity dropped for us”, DiVincenzo said. “I knew that when Coach gave me the opportunity to get back in there, I was going to make something happen”.

Notre Dame’s Bonzie Colson hit 10 of 15 shots, scored 27 points and had eight rebounds. We don’t really have a, not to say no one is solid, but we do have some consistency, but when it comes to the post that is where they score. DiVincenzo then tipped the ball away on Wisconsin’s next possession and was fouled, but made just one of two from the line for the tie. “They’ve been crowding me so I knew I would have the baseline”, Hayes said. When he gets to eight years old, nine years old, 10 years old, when he finally starts realizing that sports are more than something that keeps him from being able to watch Elmo on TV, he’s not going to wonder about the context of Villanova’s title. Super sub freshman Donte DiVincenzo scored 15 and Jalen Brunson added 11 for Villanova, which had looked so vulnerable in a first-round win over No. 16 seeded Mount St. Mary’s.

But the Big East that they play is in not the same Big East that they were in before conference realignment. They repeated more painful history instead. “You’re judged by how you play in this tournament … that’s the reality of it (and) you have to accept it”. “You want to be like Kris and Josh and Darryl”. Wisconsin: All that’s left for the Badgers seniors – Koenig, Hayes, Brown and Zak Showalter – is to win a national title. West Virginia will go through dry spells on offense, but when full-court pressure defense is forcing turnovers and creating points at the other end they are explosive and suffocating.

As Villanova came to grips with the end, Hayes marched back up the hallway from his postgame interview obligations.

“It came down to a couple of plays at the end”, Wright noted, “and Wisconsin executed better than we did”. After an emotional win against Vanderbilt, Northwestern just didn’t have the firepower to break through against a seasoned team with a double-digit advantage through the second half.