Last week they bent. This time they broke. There will be no undefeated national champion, and nobody can say justice wasn’t served.
Wisconsin outplayed Kentucky, much as Notre Dame had done in the Midwest Regional. Difference was, the Wildcats steeled themselves against the Irish and made their final nine shots. On this night, the Big Blue fell to pieces at the end.
They’d already done the hard part, or so it seemed. They’d overridden a nine-point first-half deficit to pull into a halftime tie, and they’d surged from eight points down with 14:41 remaining to lead by four. A truly great team would have finished the drill. The 38-1 Wildcats will have to settle for having been very good until the very end, and then they were awful.
With six minutes to play, Kentucky led 60-56. It would score four more points. It would commit — and I’m sure this had never happened in a Final Four game — three consecutive shot-clock violations. With a chance to seal a 39th consecutive victory, the nation’s No. 1 team couldn’t manage to shoot the ball and hit the rim. (Actually, they hit the rim once in that span — and then conjured up a shot-clock violation.)
Credit Wisconsin’s zone defense, which clearly flummoxed the Wildcats. But fault Kentucky for waiting so long to initiate anything that slightly resembled an offensive set. And here we must note: The Wildcats are coached by John Calipari, the only man ever to have a team with a nine-point lead and two minutes to play in the NCAA final not win the championship. (Memphis against Kansas, 2008.)
Shaquille O’Neal famously dubbed his former coach Stan Van Gundy the master of panic. Calipari may have minored in it. At a time when both Harrisons — Andrew and Aaron, the driving forces of last season’s tournament run and last week’s escape from Cleveland — were clearly tired, Calipari didn’t call a timeout to give them a break, didn’t call a play that resulted in a halfway decent shot.
Instead he stomped in front of his bench and flailed his arms. For the first time all season, the Wildcats acted as if they didn’t know what to do. Even as we applaud Calipari for his recruiting and his ability to get a passel of McDonald’s All-Americans to play as a team, we must say: The man isn’t apt to outflank Mike Krzyzewski with the national title on the line.
Moot point there, though. Krzyzewski’s Duke Blue Devils will play Monday night. Cal’s ‘Cats won’t.
Bo Ryan, the Wisconsin coach, authored a lovely game plan. Truth to tell, though, it was what everyone expected. The Badgers spread the floor and forced Kentucky’s big men to chase, which is what Wisconsin does to everybody. Kentucky’s big men couldn’t stop center Frank Kaminsky (20 points, 11 rebounds) or forward Sam Dekker (16 points, including the go-ahead trey inside the final two minutes).
But here’s where it got really strange: The second half began with Kentucky trying to match Kaminsky, the national player of the year, with 6-foot-6 freshman guard Devin Booker. Maybe that was a function of clever Wisconsin design or the Wildcats’ insistence on switching, but it allowed Wisconsin to seize another working lead.
Long before it was actually over, the thousands of Kentucky fans inside Lucas Oil Stadium sensed what was coming. The massive gym got quiet, as if those ‘Cat backers — who do know their basketball — could tell that the Badgers were the better side. Wisconsin led for more than half the game, outrebounded Kentucky 34-22, outscored the Wildcats 13-4 on second-chance points — and won 71-64.
As dominant as Kentucky could appear this season, they were never a great offensive team. They were a great defensive team, but twice in eight days good hitting outdid good pitching. Notre Dame was unlucky not to win. Wisconsin was not one bit lucky to win.
And now the championship game will feature two superb teams, just not the team we all expected. Duke versus Wisconsin should be a lovely game, and from the way the Devils dispatched Michigan State, it’s fair to ask if Kentucky was even the second-best team in this Final Four. Whatever the case, it’s in this Final Four no more.
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