There has been much talk the last two weeks about those rules Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan propounds. They are the foundations of his teams’ successes, even though they are nearly as old as the game of basketball itself.
At root they involve simple stuff like screening and shading, playing with poise, attending to fundamentals and contesting every shot. Yet throughout this season they have confounded countless foes.
But Friday night in the NCAA tournament Midwest regional semifinal, in one of those twists that make athletics so alluring, a team similarly grounded in the basics ended the Badgers’ season.
That is the truth about Davidson (29-6) despite the resplendent presence of Stephen Curry, the sophomore guard who was simply brilliant in its 73-56 victory at Ford Field. He gashed the Badgers (31-5) inside and out and won his stare-down with Michael Flowers while scoring 33 points in leading his Wildcats into the regional final Sunday against Kansas.
One clip that lasted a mere 29 seconds highlighted Curry and his team as well as the very nature of this game. It began, fittingly, with Curry calmly dropping an open three-pointer after Flowers had committed a fundamental error while going for and missing a steal. Opponents often had marveled that Wisconsin never hurt itself. But Flowers had made just the kind of mistake that damages a team.
Now, down three points with more than 13 minutes still remaining, the Badgers went into their swing offense, Joe Krabbenhoft eventually attempting an entry pass to Marcus Landry. Krabbenhoft lobbed it to get it over the head of Thomas Sander, the Wildcat who was fronting his teammate. But as Landry moved to collect it, Curry left Flowers, sneaked in behind him and flicked the pass away.
This season it was this kind of basic defense that smothered the Badgers’ opponents, and Wildcat Jason Richards collected Krabbenhoft’s turnover. All night the point guard from Barrington was spectacular, finishing with 13 assists and no turnovers in 39 minutes. And Richards pushed the ball up the court, just as it’s designed in a teaching video.
“He delivered,” Ryan said. “He can be my mailman anytime.”
This time he delivered again, to Curry in the left corner. There, with the poise that normally characterizes the Badgers, Curry waited as Krabbenhoft went flying by him and then coolly dropped one more of his threes.
Through this stretch, through this night, the Wildcats recalled the Badgers at their fundamental best. They committed seven fewer turnovers than the Badgers and handed out nine more assists. They allowed the Badgers no fast-break points and piled up 18 of their own.
They also got 18 points off turnovers to only four for the Badgers, and their defense held the Badgers to 37 percent shooting while they themselves riddled the Wisconsin defense while going 49.1 percent overall and 50 percent on threes.
“We stuck to our system and got a lead on them and never looked back,” Richards said, sounding much like a Badger.
“It’s hard for a defense to sustain themselves for a whole 40 minutes,” said Curry, doing the same. “If you’re patient, stick to the system that we’ve worked on all year, eventually you’ll find yourself open. It’s just being patient and sticking to the system that we have at Davidson.”
“They outplayed us,” Krabbenhoft said. “It seemed they were getting every rebound. We usually do that. It seemed they were getting every loose ball. We usually do that.
“I’d like to say it was our fault. But that team got us into situations we didn’t want to be in. They kept us from getting into what we do best.
“A lot of things we like to do, they did better. That’s why they won.”
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smyslenski@tribune.com
