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Curry leaves UW with upset stomach

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Also by Mike Ackerstein:

Curry leaves UW with upset stomach (March 31, 2008)
Cinderella up next for UW (March 28, 2008)
Why outsource MLB's opener? (March 27, 2008)

by Mike Ackerstein

Monday, March 31, 2008

DETROIT — During Friday’s pre-game introductions, Michael Flowers and Stephen Curry met at half court and shared a brief embrace.

It was the last time Davidson’s star would be within Flowers’ grasp.

Over the next 40 minutes, Curry beat Flowers and the Badgers in just about every way he possibly could have. He forced steals. He made 3-pointers. He hit layups and free throws. He dished it out to teammates.

And when it was all said and done the scoreboard at Ford Field read Davidson 73, Wisconsin 56; the Badgers’ season had reached its end in the Sweet 16.

“We felt like we could have came in here and got a win … but that’s not the story right now,” forward Joe Krabbenhoft said. “The story is they outplayed us. The ball was thrown up, and they outplayed us from the tip.”

For one half, though, the two teams played pretty evenly, and after the first 20 minutes of play the score was tied at 36.

Davidson quickly jumped out to an eight-point lead in the second half, but it looked like Wisconsin was wearing the Wildcats down when the Badgers started drawing fouls and cut the lead to 48-45 with just under 14 minutes left in the game.

Curry then hit consecutive 3-pointers, the start of an 18-3 run that stretched the Davidson lead to 21, and Wisconsin was never again within striking distance.

It was all Curry down the stretch. The sophomore scored 22 points after the break—two more than the entire Badger team did in that span—to lift the Wildcats to the win.

By the time the guard checked out with under a minute to play he had totaled 33 points, stole the ball four times, handed out four assists and led Davidson to a 17-point win that left the Badgers, but not his coach, stunned.

“I stopped being amazed with Curry back in December of last year,” Davidson coach Bob McKillop said of the performance. “What he did today is what I expect from him. He does that so consistently.”

“Curry is a great second-half player,” forward Marcus Landry said. “He came out and he proved that once again today.”

In Davidson’s first two tournament games, wins over Gonzaga and Georgetown, Curry had scored a combined 55 points in the second half.

“I try not to force anything,” Curry said. “It’s hard for a defense to sustain themselves for a whole 40 minutes. Eventually you’ll find yourself open.”

As Curry heated up, the Badgers cooled off. Wisconsin shot 23.8 percent from the field in the second half and made just three field goals over the game’s final 13 minutes of play.

“I think that was probably one of our worst halves of basketball,” forward Brian Butch said. “We picked a bad time to play it.”

It was Michael Flowers, who earned All-Big Ten defensive team honors this season, that was matched up with Curry Friday, but the senior had trouble sticking with the speedy shooter.

“I think they did a good job running him off of double screens, sometimes even triple screens,” Flowers said. “He doesn’t need that much time to catch the ball and release it. You know, that’s what their game plan was and they executed it pretty well.”

Even when Flowers was in position, Curry would still hit 3-pointers. He finished the game 6-of-11 from behind the arc.

“[Curry’s] confidence is through the roof,” Krabbenhoft said. “He thinks he’s Kobe Bryant out there, and that’s not a knock; that’s a compliment. Every time he put up a shot it went it in, it seemed like.”

Still, Bo Ryan felt Wisconsin was capable of winning even if Curry had a good game — but only if the Badgers could shut down the rest of the Wildcats.

UW was unable to do that, however.

Wildcat guard Jason Richards, the nation’s leader in assists, finished the game with 11 points and 13 assists. He and Bart Barr, who hit a couple of big 3-pointers, were able to give Curry some help. Forward Andrew Lovedale also went 5-of-5 and scored 12 points.

With the rest of Davidson’s roster contributing, Wisconsin was unable to cut down the second-half deficit.

“I felt like we were always in it,” forward Brian Butch said. “I felt like we just needed to make some plays, and we didn’t make any plays. They kept on making plays.”

Wisconsin had mounted a comeback from a double-digit deficit in the Big Ten Tournament semi-finals against Michigan State, but Davidson simply refused to let UW back in the game Friday.

“I’m always positive about playing from behind,” Ryan said. “But there are some teams you can play from behind against better.”

Davidson, with the ability to hit 3-pointers seemingly every time Wisconsin made a basket, was not one of those teams.

“Davidson played a great game,” guard Jason Bohannon said. “They shot really well from three and made the shots when it counted, and that’s why they won the game.”

Davidson’s win was its 25th in a row and its third straight upset victory of the NCAA Tournament.

For the second consecutive year, Wisconsin’s season came to an end at the hands of a lower seed — this time in the Sweet 16 with a trip to the Elite Eight on the line.

The Badgers finish the season with a 31-5 record and Big Ten regular season and tournament titles, but that doesn’t ease the pain of being defeated.

“It’s always tough,” Krabbenhoft said of losing. “Ask anyone who’s involved with college basketball.”

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Anonymous (March 31, 2008 @ 8:04am):

I think Michael Flowers did as good of a job as he could of Friday night and made Badger fans proud. He can't win the game on his own. He fought through 10 screens every possession and played the entire game, I think he did the best job of anyone in the tourney defending Curry, they were just hot and we were cold. It was a great season, Thanks Badgers!!

Anonymous (March 31, 2008 @ 11:10am):

I look at this two ways.

First if you had told me, going into this season, that the Badgers would be big 10 champs, big 10 tourney champs, and go to the sweet 16, I'd be ecstatic. So it's hard not to look back at this season and be proud.

But at the same time, I hate losing to a team I think that we're better than on paper. The way we lost was atrocious. Bo was outcoached. We settled for too many threes. We couldn't get it inside. Basically, it was like watching our Duke and Marquette losses. Once again, we lost to a lower seed. And I'm beginning to get concerned that, while Bo's system is terrific, we don't have the athletes to make deeper runs in the tournament. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. So, congrats Badgers on a great season and thank you seniors, but this loss left a horrible taste in my mouth.

Anonymous (March 31, 2008 @ 2:04pm):

I, too, must congratulate the Badgers on a great season. It may have been disappointing to see them lose in that fashion, but sometimes the stars align against you. It seemed they never got a good bounce or break the whole game, and Davidson was just like the little dog nipping at the ankles. Between all the Davidson students that got that free ride to the game and all the Michigan State fans (a sea of green everywhere), it was really a home court advantage for Davidson. I guess I won't be cheering for Michigan State and my fellow Big Ten teams next time around.

Having attended the game (only seeing the second half due to a horrible traffic and parking situation in Detroit), I must say that the venue was just too large for basketball. I had pretty decent (and expensive) seats, and it felt like I was still a mile away from the action.

Lastly, I was not impressed by the sportsmanship of all the Davidson fans. There were a number of times after the game that groups of their fans openly gloated and hurled pretty unfriendly insults towards those of us wearing Badger red.

At least Kansas put them in their place on Sunday.

Anonymous (April 1, 2008 @ 4:46pm):

To the poster that wrote: "Lastly, I was not impressed by the sportsmanship of all the Davidson fans. There were a number of times after the game that groups of their fans openly gloated and hurled pretty unfriendly insults towards those of us wearing Badger red."

Being a Davidson grad and knowing our fans, I'm sure anything said paled in comparison to the rude and offensive behavior of "Bad"-ger fans. There were a number sitting in the section immediately next to Davidson's main fan section that yelled off-color and uncalled for things throughout the game. One in particular was telling us to "go back to the f*ing South" among other choice phrases. I personally confronted him to shut him up. Point being, don't act like you and the Wisconsin fans can take the award for sportsmanship.

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