Wisconsin men’s basketball: UW shoots self right out of NCAA Tournament

On Sunday evening, the 3-seed Wisconsin Badgers met the 11-seed Iowa State Cyclones in Milwaukee with a trip to the Sweet 16 on the line. Both teams shot incredibly poorly, but ISU shot just a little bit better and played lock-down defense the entire game to get the 54-49 victory.

As many predicted, the game started off slowly with both teams missing a bunch of shots and neither offense able to find a rhythm. The officials inserted themselves into the game early and often, usually in Wisconsin’s favor as the Cyclones racked up 14 fouls in the first half.

A big shift in the game came with 4:37 left when freshman point guard Chucky Hepburn rolled his ankle and had to be helped back to the locker room. Officially, Hepburn would not return due to a “lower body” injury. The Badgers didn’t make a field goal for the rest of the half and Iowa State went on an 8-0 run to take back the lead.

The Badgers were able to get to the free throw line a couple of times and looked to be heading into halftime with a one point lead until the refs, yet again, popped up. The Clones started their final possession with 31.1 seconds left and were trying to hold for the last shot.

The ball ended up going out of bounds with just over one second left and the refs went to review what happened. Somehow, despite the Badgers never having possession, the shot clock didn’t run out nor was 0.2 left on it. Instead, ISU had 1.2 seconds left, the Badgers blew their defensive assignment and Caleb Grill made a wide open layup.

Brad Davison and ISU’s Gabe Kalscheur both scored 10 points in the first half to lead their respective teams. Johnny Davis had nine points for the Badgers and Chris Vogt recorded two blocks. Tyler Wahl picked up his second foul with just over 11 minutes to go and sat for the rest of the half.

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The Badgers and Cyclones came out in the second half and, well, didn’t do a whole lot of scoring. Neither team shot over 30% in the second frame but the Cyclones made 2-of-5 shots from deep while the Badgers went 1-of-14, with the one make coming after the game was pretty much decided, and that was the difference in the game.

Iowa State’s Gabe Kalscheur scored 12 points in the second half, and 22 for the game, and made a couple of huge offensive rebounds that, while not resulting in points for ISU, took a bunch of time off the clock. Izaiah Brockington was the only other Cyclone to score in double figures with 10 points.

Davis ended the game with 17 points and Davison had 12 for Wisconsin. This game sucked major ass and I don’t feel like writing any more of this game recap. We’ll have more on the game later.

Notable stat lines:

• Brad Davison —> 12 points (3-of-7 from the floor), four rebounds, four assists, four steals
• Johnny Davis —> 17 points (4-of-16 from the floor), nine rebounds, four blocks, two steals
• Tyler Wahl —> eight points (3-of-6 from the floor), eight rebounds
• Gabe Kalscheur (Iowa State) —> 22 points (10-of-19 from the floor), four rebounds, one assist

Up next: the offseason...bummer.