When the Berlin Wall fell, the crowd in Germany may have been more pumped than the Kohl Center Wednesday night.
But just barely.
Trying to be reigned in by Per Mar security guards, the Grateful Red student section piled to the front of the court in anticipation of UW guard Trevon Hughes sealing the victory over Duke with a free throw.
With a calm swish, the senior delivered.
And after Duke guard Jon Scheyer’s last second heave fell short to leave the final score at 73-69, security gave way to a flood of red that enveloped the players, eventually carrying Hughes and Jon Leuer (17 points) on their shoulders.
Giving a little perspective to a win over the No. 6 Blue Devils, the last time students rushed the floor Brian Butch and the Badgers had just sealed up a Big Ten Championship in 2007-08. Fittingly enough, Butch was in attendance tonight.
“Just make sure I stay up,” Hughes said of what was going through his mind with students rushing towards him. “I didn’t want to get trampled over. I was looking at J-Bo, because he took a spill, but it was fun, it was good for the team.”
During timeouts, big defensive possessions and after almost every basket, the Kohl Center would explode.
Badger fans have always been able to make their presence felt — Jump Around anyone? — but this night reached levels usually reserved for Bruce Springsteen concerts.
Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan even went so far as to suggest the Kohl Center scoreboard should be fitted with a crowd-noise measuring gimmick.
Through it all, UW players kept their cool, only letting emotion seep out as they walked to the huddle during timeouts.
“That is as many students as I have ever seen in here,” UW junior forward Keaton Nankivil said. “It was a huge boost to us.”
“Great crowd, great atmosphere,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski added. “I think it’s a night where Wisconsin fans should feel pretty darn good. They should be very proud of their basketball team.”
Embarrassed by Duke two years ago in an 82-58 drubbing, the Badgers led the entire game this time around, matching Duke bucket-for-bucket for much of the second half.
Starting guards Hughes and Jason Bohannon never turned the ball over, and the Badgers only gave it away five times against Duke’s stretching, pressure defense.
With Duke shooting better overall field goal, three-point and free throw percentages, the 11-to-5 turnover ratio may have made all the difference in a four-point game.
“That is five opportunities that you didn’t get a shot at the basket. They had 11 opportunities where they didn’t get a chance to score,” Ryan said. “Might have been the difference in the game. … I have always liked the statistic of not giving the other team the ball without getting a shot at the rim.”
Finishing with 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting — including a clutch 4-of-7 from behind the arc — Hughes improved tremendously from his first go around with Duke in 2007 where the then-sophomore guard had as many turnovers as he did assists.
“They played like veterans,” Krzyzewski said of the Wisconsin guards.
Going into the game, every player for UW downplayed the significance of a chance to knock off Duke.
Amid the euphoria of rushing the court and likely entering the top 25 rankings, the players were willing to admit after the game that taking the “it is just one game stance” was as much to keep themselves on an even keel as it was truthful.
“Everything we said all week is kind of to keep ourselves calm as much as anything,” Nankivil said.
Not trying to make too big a deal of the win, however, Nankivil was sure Ryan would be showing video of what to improve on in the morning.
“The one thing I know coach is good at is keeping everybody level,” Nankivil said. “He loves to use clips to do it the next day. If an individual has a good game or if the team has a big win, he is going to make sure you know that you did some stuff wrong too and you got to fix those.”
Adding to the sweet taste of victory, the Badger win proved to be necessary for the Big Ten conference to finally wear the ACC/Big Ten Challenge crown — a feat the conference accomplished by winning 6-5.
Along with it being the first time for conference as a whole, it marked the first loss for Duke in the 11 years of the challenge
“After the first couple weeks of games, you heard people on TV say the Big Ten might not be as strong as we initially thought,” Nankivil said.
“To know we had something to do with [the conference victory] in a game a lot of people probably didn’t think we were going to win, that was pretty special.
With wins over Arizona, Maryland and Duke, the Badgers already have the look of an outstanding r?sum? looking toward March.
For the much closer future, however, Hughes just believes the win will serve as a confidence boost for the rest of the nonconference season.
“We needed this win, you know that marquee win to get us going,” Hughes said.
