In the end, the Wisconsin Badgers were unable to pull off the biggest possible upset of the tournament against the No. 1 seed in the Midwest and the No.1 team in the nation, the Kentucky Wildcats. Ultimately, the Badgers could not match the Wildcats’ strength in the post, depth or sheer poise down the stretch as UW fell to Kentucky 63-57.

The Wildcats began the game on a 4-0 run after two overpowering baskets down low by 6-foot-5 senior forward Marquis Estill. This was a sign of how the night would continue, as the Badgers repeatedly had trouble containing Estill in the post.

“He had a great game today; he was making his shots and did a good job in the post,” Mike Wilkinson said. “He is as big and strong as anyone we have seen this far, and he does a great job holding his position. He uses everything to his advantage. He gets his body and keeps the ball away so you can get it.”

Estill finished the game with 28 points and six rebounds in 32 minutes of play.

While Estill scored the first six Kentucky points, the Badgers were able to counter with their own weapon, senior guard Kirk Penney.

“We knew they would come in and make a run and try and blow us out from the start, but the guys did a good job just to absorb it and to come back at them,” Penney said.

With the game tied at six, the senior hit back-to-back three-pointers to put the Badgers up 12-6. A little over one minute later, freshman Boo Wade knocked down another three-pointer to put the Badgers up 12-8, the team’s biggest lead of the night.

The lead did not last long; the Wildcats pulled within two points, 16-14, with 8:53 left in the first half.

UW once again was able to pull away, but baskets by senior phenom Keith Bogans and Estill put Kentucky up by one point with 3:25 to play in the first half.

With the scored tied at 28-28, the fifth tie of the game, UW seemed to start to self-destruct as a turnover and foul by Devin Harris and a turnover by Penney allowed Kentucky to head into the locker room with a 32-28 lead.

The second half began just as excitingly as the first half, with the two teams trading baskets back and forth, producing seven lead changes or ties in the first six minutes. However, with 14:07 remaining in the game, Kentucky would never trail UW again.

UW remained behind by either four or six points for the next 10 minutes of the game until Harris hit a three-pointer in front of the Badger bench to cut the lead to 56-53 with 3:43 remaining.

Two Wildcat turnovers, coming from steals by Harris and Alando Tucker, and a Wilkinson layup made the Wisconsin- and Marquette-dominated crowd rise to its feet, forcing Kentucky to call a 30-second timeout to quiet the crowd with 1:33 left to play.

The unbelievable seemed to be happening for the Badgers as only a minute and half stood between the team and a trip to the Elite Eight.

However, the dream fell short. The Badgers were only able to score one more basket during the rest of the game: Harris’s dunk with only six seconds to go and the fate of the game already decided.

“Coming down the stretch of the game, we were where we needed to be, but things didn’t quite fall the way we would have liked them to,” Ryan said.

The Wildcats were able to score seven points in the remaining minute and a half because of two Badger turnovers, three fouls and two missed free throws.

In addition to key mental errors down the stretch, the Badgers were without Penney’s hot hand as the Wildcat defense held the senior shotless in the remaining 15:34 of the game. After scoring 17 points at halftime on 4-of-6 shooting from behind the arc, Wildcat sophomore Chuck Hayes increased his defensive pressure on the sharpshooter in the second half to limit him to only three second-half points.

“I hate to see something come to an end, but we have to take Kirk’s uniform away from him,” head coach Bo Ryan said. “He has been so good for the school and so good for his teammates — just a first-class individual. He has left a lot of things behind with his teammates, guys like Devin and the rest of the team. We are looking forward to next year; we are looking forward to getting back to [the NCAA tournament].”

Harris agreed with his coach: “We made a tremendous step this year, and we made a step last year, and we are just going to keep trucking. We lose Kirk, but we gain a lot too. Guys are more experienced, and we will try and take it forward from there.”