The Wisconsin Badgers were winding up a celebration on the Target Center court after an upset victory over Purdue in the Big Ten semifinals Saturday afternoon.
Trio of Minnesota-bred bigs help Wisconsin fell Purdue and its giant, Zach Edey
Ex-Twin Cities high school standouts Steven Crowl, Tyler Wahl and Nolan Winter all fouled out, but Wisconsin edged Purdue in overtime, 76-75.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
March 17, 2024 at 3:37AM
The Nebraska Cornhuskers were arriving in the same tunnel for their pregame workout as the Badgers were drifting individually back to their locker room.
Max Klesmit had been interviewed near the court and was now heading up a ramp toward the smallish locker room assigned to the Badgers.
Through a large grin, Klesmit looked over to some reporters waiting to get into that locker room and said: “You’ve seen that before, Evan. You weren’t surprised, were you?”
Evan Flood, the Badgers’ on-site reporter for 24/7 Sports, assured Klesmit that he wasn’t shocked at Max’s heroics — a winning basket, 76-75, with 4.7 seconds left in overtime.
The Badgers had gone from 16-4 and a top-10 rating nationally to a five-week, 2-7 collapse that dropped them to fifth place in the Big Ten.
And now came this determined effort to knock off the regular-season champion, Purdue, and prove the cause had been righted entering the NCAA tournament. The Badgers were forced to endure Zach Edey’s overtime march to the free-throw line.
Edey is 7-foot-4, set to become the national player of the year for a second straight season and gets leaned on without a doubt.
Yet rarely has the giant in a contest been treated with such sympathy as was demonstrated by Saturday’s officiating crew of Jeff Anderson, Brian Dorsey and Rob Riley.
The Badgers had reached overtime when Tyler Wahl was inbounding from the high sideline. He waited to find Chucky Hepburn, and Hepburn laid it in with a half-tick left to cause overtime at 66-66.
Edey had gone 1-for-2 at the line late to allow the Badgers to tie the score with Hepburn’s drive.
Then, in that overtime, Edey became Steph Curry at the line — 8-for-8 on no-doubt free throws. In the process, Edey ran over Wahl, a fifth-year senior from Lakeville North, and was sent to the line. And 40 seconds later, Nolan Winter, a freshman from Lakeville North, nudged Edey and was disqualified with foul No. 5.
We do make quite the fuss over the Badgers’ ability to bring in fine contributors from Minnesota, but on Saturday the locals with a Gophers allegiance in the building should have had empathy for our high school products in red.
Steven Crowl, the 7-footer from Eastview High with a year of eligibility remaining, and Edey were tangled two minutes into the first period.
Edey was called for a foul, and then the referees overreacted and assessed both Edey and Crowl technicals. A technical for bad behavior counts as a personal foul in college rules.
Boilermakers coach Matt Painter immediately sat Edey for most of the remainder of the first half, which no doubt benefited the Badgers. Then again, Edey wound up playing 26 more minutes and did not get called for another foul.
By contrast, Crowl, Wahl and Winter all fouled out, with young Nolan — son of memorable Gophers of the past, Trevor Winter (basketball) and Heidi Olhausen (volleyball) — receiving his disqualification in eight minutes played.
And yet once the march to the line concluded, and Purdue’s Lance Jones missed one of two free throws and Hepburn made a terrific defensive play, it was 75-74 in favor of Purdue with 23 seconds left.
Klesmit would up with the ball on a cut and hit a runner in the lane, one hop off the rim and in. A Jones hope shot wasn’t close, and Wisconsin had the upset — 76-75, continuing the trend of No. 1 seeds in conference tournaments going down the tubes all around the country.
What did freshman Winter anticipate for himself when sharing leans with Edey and hearing a whistle?
“I wasn’t surprised at all that the fouls were on me,” Winter said. “He’s the national player of the year.”
How did Wahl analyze the moment when he stood like a statue waiting for Edey to move toward the basket, and Edey ran over him and shot two free throws?
The five-year Badger offered a slight smile and said: “The referees make the call they feel they have to make.”
A meat-grinder game for a grinding player — the reason you chose Wisconsin, no doubt?
“I came to Wisconsin to win games,” Wahl said. “And we’ll be trying to get another one tomorrow and win the Big Ten tournament.”
The Badgers haven’t done that since 2015, which was even before Nate Reuvers (2017-21) started their Lakeville North invasion.
Two offensive linemen from Lakeville, Bryce Benhart and Riley Mahlman, are standouts for Big Ten rivals of Minnesota.
