Defense still reigns for Wisconsin

INDIANAPOLIS - Josh Gasser sat in his locker as media encircled and described the final minutes of the biggest win in Wisconsin basketball history.

Gasser didn't talk about Sam Dekker's 3-pointer that put the Badgers in the lead for good. His theme was simple, yet typical for his program.

'We've got one of the better offenses in the country, but when it comes down to it, we still consider ourselves a tough, defensive-minded team,” Gasser said. 'That's what we're going to hang our hats on.”

Wisconsin's defensive pressure engineered a shocking upset Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium. The Badgers (36-3) stifled Kentucky's offense late in the second half in a 71-64 national semifinal win. The victory sent Wisconsin to the national title game for the first time in 74 years. It also ended the Wildcats' chance at the Division I's first perfect season since 1976.

The Badgers needed their defense to come through at the game's most pivotal juncture. A charging call against Gasser in a tie game cost Wisconsin a 3-pointer. Kentucky (38-1) took advantage as Aaron Harrison raced up the court for a dunk to take a 58-56 lead. One possession later, Kentucky center Karl-Anthony Towns twice rebounded missed shots but putback on the third try to push the Wildcats ahead 60-56.

With two-thirds of a football stadium cheering the neighboring Wildcats, Wisconsin needed a defensive stand. Kentucky had scored on four straight trips up the floor and flipped a four-point deficit into a four-point advantage with 6:36 left in the game. That's when Wisconsin locked it all down.

The Wildcats ran clock and tried to work the ball around, yet Wisconsin stayed in tune. Nothing rattled the Badgers. Not the situation, not the nation's best collection of offensive players. Kentucky didn't score for 5 minutes and 40 seconds and missed five straight shots. Wisconsin put together its own 8-0 run in the process.

'They were definitely wanting to run the clock down, so they were going to run it down to 10 or 12 seconds and run into a ball screen or a clear-out,” said Gasser, a perennial member of the Big Ten's all-defensive team. 'So we were able to stay solid. What we were trying to do all game, not give them anything easy from 3 and make it tough on them in the post.

'They get their post touches, they're going to get the ball to the big fella, Towns, but we want to make it hard on them, not let him catch it too deep. We were able to get it out of his hands and make a guard, make a play. Just do a good job. That's what we've been preaching all week, all year.”

Standing outside the locker room Saturday night, Wisconsin associate head coach Greg Gard allowed himself a moment of definition. He accidentally was left at the team hotel and had to find a ride to the game and laughed he might do it again on Monday. But when he examined the game, Gard marveled at the way the defense tightened over the late stretch. It included five Kentucky trips up the floor and one possession twice after a Towns' offensive rebound.

'At the heart of this program it's still defense matters,” Gard said. 'We have to be able to get stops to be able to play on. Those were probably the six biggest stops in program history to be able to get to that point to be able to do that.”

Players like Gasser try not to get wrapped up in the moment. Instead, he'd rather focus on the present and immediate future. That's what Wisconsin Coach Bo Ryan preaches to his team, the concept of 'Next.” In his office, on his wall, the word 'Next” appears in three-foot letters. The word pertains to everything from the next possession and next game to the next class and the next test.

The Badgers embodied that mantra after Gasser's charging call. They didn't live in the past like many teams. Those moments often lead to frustration and both ends of the floor. Instead they refocused and played the same style of basketball that pushed them to the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles and landed them in the Final Four for the second consecutive season.

'We've had calls throughout the year that haven't gone our way,” Gard said. 'We have to be able to move on to next and move on to the next play and get a stop. Get back and get it back the next possession. Fortunately we were able to rally a little bit and gather ourselves and get back and finish it off and make phenomenal stops down the stretch.”

In other words, next. For Wisconsin, there's one more ‘next' this season. That's against Duke on Monday in a game that will determine the ‘next' national champion.

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