BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — March Madness begets March Gladness.
And nobody was gladder for the postseason opportunities, nobody derived more pleasure out of playing in the NCAA tournament than Alando Tucker, whose accomplishments include being the school's first consensus first-team All-American in 65 years and UW's all-time leading scorer.
But not even his two buzzer-beaters, he contended, could match the adrenaline rush that he got in 2003 before taking the floor in Spokane, Washington for his first game in the Big Dance. The No. 5 Badgers were matched against No. 12 Weber State and Tucker was starting as a true freshman.
"Every kid dreams about it (the NCAA Tournament) from where I come from," said Tucker, a Chicago-area product out of Joliet, Illinois. "To have that privilege my freshman year to play in the NCAAs is a feeling like no other.
"It's the whole aura around the pregame when you're going out there to warm up. It's feeling the team chemistry at that moment. Everything plays into the extraordinary emotions. That's the moment that stands out the most, the moment I first stepped out on that floor."
Watching televised tournament games as a youngster, Tucker heard all the stories about Michigan's Fab Five, the trendsetters when he was 8 and 9. They were not only the national narrative with their play, distinctive look and style but they featured a Chicago-bred baller in Juwan Howard.
It was with that backdrop, that frame of reference, he left the locker room before the Weber State tipoff and ran out with his Wisconsin teammates. "And the reality of it is," Tucker recounted, "was, 'Boom, this is it. This is what you've been working for ever since you were a kid.'"
Tucker scored 11 points in his first NCAA game, an 81-74 win. He then had 10 points and played all 40 minutes in a dramatic comeback victory over Tulsa capped by Freddie Owens' last-second dagger. But the satisfying run was derailed in the Sweet 16 by Kentucky in the Minneapolis Metrodome.
In 2005, the Badgers got to the Elite Eight, and the cusp of a Final Four, before losing a shootout, 88-82, to North Carolina, the eventual national champ. Tucker had 25 points against the talent-rich Heels. Yet when prodded about his fondest moments, he kept coming back to his freshman year.
"To make it to the Sweet 16 your first year, honestly, that stood out the most to me, because I didn't know what to expect," he said. "For one thing, it was so nerve-racking. But at the same time, it was the best feeling that I've ever had because it was the first."
The first dance, the first Big Dance.
Brad Davison, Nate Reuvers, Kobe King and Aleem Ford will be making their NCAA debuts Friday against Oregon in San Jose, California. Tucker, 35, the director of student-athlete engagement for the UW athletic department, is hoping that they will each experience what he did in Spokane.
"I've already talked to the guys and I said, 'Listen, you don't get these moments back, your hour-glass winds down every year, so you have to enjoy it, but give it your all,'" Tucker related of his message to the full team. "You don't want to think back with regrets on not leaving it all on the floor."
• • • •
Wisconsin assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft grew up in Missouri making it only natural that he would be a fan of the Kansas Jayhawks, which he was. When the family moved to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, he was drawn to Kirk Hinrich, who was raised 90 minutes away in Sioux City, Iowa.
In the 2003 national title game, the Carmelo Anthony/Gerry McNamara-led Syracuse Orangemen were too much for Hinrich, Nick Collison and Kansas. "That was when I was old enough to really get into basketball," Krabbenhoft said. "I remember crying after that game."
Krabbenhoft, who will be 32 Sunday, still gets sentimental hearing "One Shining Moment."
"Every year," he said with a sigh, "it gets me every time."
Every year, Bo Ryan's preparation was the same, Krabbenhoft remembered, no matter the seed.
"Coach Ryan did such a good job of making every game seem like they were the same; we didn't get up too high or too low for any of them," said Krabbenhoft, who balanced the high of beating K-State (and Michael Beasley) with the low of losing to Davidson (and Steph Curry) in the 2008 Sweet 16.
What's the best advice that he could give to Davison, Reuvers, King and Ford?
"Soak it all up, enjoy every moment — all the lights and the hoopla that comes with it," he said. "But when you cross that line, nothing changes. Don't change who you are as an individual to this team. And don't let the identity as a team change just because the stage is a little bigger and brighter."
• • • •
The night before the Badgers were getting ready to play Cincinnati in a 1994 NCAA first-round game — UW's first in 47 years — Rashard Griffith was watching television in his Ogden, Utah hotel room. "I think it was Digger Phelps," he said, "and he didn't give us a chance to win the game."
Phelps' put-down annoyed Griffith, a 6-foot-11, 280-pound freshman from Chicago. "I didn't sleep, I tossed and turned all night," he said. "And I made it a point, personally, to make sure I went out there and did everything I could within my power to help our team win that game."
Teaming with Michael Finley, who had 22 points, Griffith also responded with 22 points (12-of-14 from the free throw line) and 15 rebounds in an 80-72 win over Cincinnati; the program's first triumph in the NCAAs since Glen Selbo's game-winner beat Navy in a 1947 consolation game.
"My dream was to get Wisconsin to the tournament because they hadn't been there in so long," said Griffith, who's in the process of completing work on his undergrad degree. "Number one, it was to get my school back to prominence. And number two, it was for me to do well."
Davison is one of the dreamers on this season's team. "It's a new excitement for me, something I've never experienced before," Davison said. "Seeing the school that I play for pop up on the bracket is what I've always dreamed about since I was a little kid and started playing basketball.'
Griffith would encourage Davison and his teammates to continue dreaming. Especially since the pundits are picking the Ducks. "Frank Kaminsky is the perfect example, he made his legend during the tournament," Griffith said. "You can make a name for yourself. Just don't be timid. Seize the moment."
