A Yaxel Lendeborg three-point shot near the buzzer proved to be the difference between the 23rd-ranked Wisconsin Badgers and the third-ranked Michigan Wolverines, with Michigan winning 68-65. With the win, Michigan moves on to the Big Ten tournament championship game, where they look to repeat as champions.
For the Badgers, it’s a gut-wrenching, heartbreaking loss after making another 15-point second-half comeback against a top-ten Big Ten opponent. While disappointment is understandable, there was
much to like about Saturday’s performance.
This team now gets to find out who they will face in the NCAA tournament and where they will play. Unlike last season, the Badgers will get an additional day of rest before March Madness and should have Nolan Winter in the starting lineup for the first round.
Wisconsin appears to be a 5-seed in some Bracketology projections. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has the Badgers in a 5-12 matchup with High Point out in Portland as of Sunday morning. CBS Bracket projections also have Wisconsin as a five-seed facing MAC tournament champion Akron in the West region. One final projection from Fox Sports’ Mike DeCourcy has the Badgers facing Southland tournament champion McNeese State in the South Region as of Saturday afternoon.
Here are three standouts from the Michigan-Wisconsin conference tournament semifinal.
Austin Rapp
It was not looking good for the Badgers when Aday Mara’s layup gave Michigan a 54-39 lead with under ten minutes left in the game.
But then Austin Rapp took over in the second half.
Rapp, who missed the Badgers’ previous matchup with Michigan back in January with an illness, hit six three-pointers to help rally Wisconsin. His fifth and sixth three-pointers of the afternoon helped give the Badgers a late four-point lead and had the CBS Sports crew going crazy from their broadcast table.
Nick Boyd
One of the players, along with John Blackwell, who assisted Rapp on his second-half three-point tear, was Nick Boyd. While he did not have another standout scoring performance like against Illinois, Boyd finished with a respectable 14 points, second on the team.
However, Boyd did dish out five assists and generate five steals against Michigan.
Michigan
Some days, you just have to tip your hat to the other team, and that’s how I feel about this Michigan squad. Aday Mara led the Wolverines with 16 points and eight rebounds, followed by Elliot Cadeau’s 15 points. Dusty May’s team is built to reach this year’s NCAA national championship game and end the Big Ten’s title drought at 26 years.
But then again, as Joe Panos famously stated back in 1993, “Why not Wisconsin?”
