MIKE LUCAS Senior Writer

BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer

MADISON, Wis. — Senior guards have become an anomaly in college basketball. Especially if they've stayed with one program for the length of their careers. Four and five years as the case may be.

The transfer portal is here to stay. And only getting more popular.

But Friday night, Wisconsin got maximum production out of its senior backcourt – Brad Davison and D'Mitrik Trice combined for 50 points – and upended North Carolina, 85-62.

The score reflected the 40-minute dominance of the No. 9-seeded Badgers in their first-round game of the NCAA tournament at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Davison had a season-high 29 points and Trice had 21. They each took only 15 shots. But they combined for 18 makes, including 8-of-15 from the 3-point line.



The Badgers outscored the Tar Heels by 24 at the arc, something which an emotional North Carolina coach Roy Williams cited as one of the determining factors in the lopsided outcome.

In mentioning his freshmen guards by name – Caleb Love, Kerwin Walton and RJ Davis – Williams also underlined the impact of Wisconsin's senior leadership and shotmaking.

"In sports, in basketball particularly, it's man-on-man a lot,'' said Williams whose teams had won 29 consecutive first round games in the tournament. "They wanted to do well (the freshmen). We weren't good enough or experienced enough or coached well enough. Or all of the above tonight.''

Later, he shifted the focus to the UW and said, "I congratulate their kids. They didn't finish the season as well as they would have liked … Those seniors when you get into tournament play sometimes, they really, really want something and they worked exceptionally hard for that and they performed.''

Especially on the glass. North Carolina led the nation in offensive rebounding (15.9 per game) and rebound margin (+15.9). They've had as many as 54 boards twice. Moreover, they were outrebounded only twice in 28 games. By Florida State (30-29) in a loss. By Kentucky (42-38) in a win.

The Badgers outrebounded the Tar Heels, 37-34, while limiting them to 12 offensive rebounds and 12 second-chance points (they were averaging 16.8). They did so by committee. Davison and Jonathan Davis had six rebounds each. Trice, Aleem Ford and Nate Reuvers had five apiece.

"Not many people have done that to us,'' Williams said. "Their coaching staff got them to be more in-tuned and more focused with better desire and more alert to go for the offensive rebounds … Got to congratulate them. They played very very well … Roy Williams didn't coach very well.''

To compensate for North Carolina's size in the frontcourt – 6-10 Armando Bacot, 6-10 Garrison Brooks, 6-10 Day'Ron Sharpe and 7-1 Walker Kessler – UW coach Greg Gard played Reuvers and Micah Potter together more than he has in the past. Reuvers played 26 minutes, Potter 25.

"On the glass, by and large, we were doing what we were supposed to do,'' said Gard who had stressed getting rebounding from his guards. "We got contributions not only from the 4's and 5's but the others who were able to get into the mix and clean up some of that … that was a big piece.''

Gard even got 7-foot freshman Steven Crowl into the game for nearly three minutes. And Crowl produced two rebounds and an assist in his limited playing time. Crowl had not seen the floor since February 21 at Northwestern. And had not played more than one minute in seven Big Ten appearances.

"Their big guys fought our big guys and blocked shots and made it difficult for us to score inside, particularly in the first half,'' said Williams who was specifically referencing the rim-protection of Reuvers (four blocks) and Potter (three blocks). Davis also had a block in the paint.

"I just felt coach Gard – I call him Greg – he and his staff did a great job of getting their kids so much (more) ready to play. Every loose ball it seemed like they got. Every time we gave them an open look – and some of them not open – they made shots.''

Williams was frustrated over his team's bad shots and turnovers.

"That's been an Achilles' Heel for us all year long,'' he said.

By comparison, the Badgers played their most complete game of the season in all facets.

"We don't really talk about making shots,'' said Gard after the Badgers shot 51 percent from the field and 48 percent from the arc (13-of-27). "We talk about defending, rebounding, and taking care of the ball. The other parts of the game have a tendency to fall into place.''

In singling out those foundational pieces, the bedrock of the Wisconsin program for years, Gard acknowledged, "Shooting can be fleeting as we've seen this year. There's going to be night where you have a hard time scoring. And then there's nights like tonight.''


Two years ago, the Badgers were ousted unceremoniously from "The Dance" in their first-round game, a 72-54 loss to No. 12 seed Oregon. It was Davison's worst nightmare. He played 33 minutes and didn't make a field goal (0-for-8, 0-for-7 from the arc). But he made amends Friday.

"Part of it is a senior leader coming into this event,'' Gard said. "Really good players have a tendency to elevate their game at this time of year … the team rallies around Brad … they support him. He's our emotional leader. He's kind of the cement between the bricks, so to speak.''

Trice has been the floor general. It was no different against North Carolina. Besides getting the ball where it needed to go facilitating the offense, he scored in different ways, whether from the 3-point line or on dives to the rim or on pull-up jumpers. Davison and Trice were a lethal one-two punch.

"Those are two experienced guards, they've had a lot of possessions together, they've had a lot of situations,'' Gard said. "And obviously given the fact that Carolina was so big at the rim, we were going to have to have some scoring from the backcourt. I felt that was important.

"They got going early. They got into a rhythm. They were aggressive … they were both really determined tonight. You could tell just in their preparation and the look in their eyes that they were going to make sure we were going to take care of this thing once we got that lead.''

The offense has shown signs of awakening over the last four games, three of them losses. In fact, the resurgence or revival, whatever you want to label it, started in Mackey Arena on March 2. Despite losing 73-69 to the Boilermakers, there were signs of a turnaround in offensive efficiency.

Many of those pieces fell into place against the youthful Tar Heels.

"We kept our spacing, we didn't over-dribble, which was obviously an emphasis coming in because of how they can trap and do some double-teams,'' Gard said. "We wanted to make sure we had good spacing and screened well and cut hard. Our players did a good job of sharing the ball.

"I'm happy for our team because they played very unselfish.''

Nobody was happier than Davison to play in front of an audience.

"My favorite part was having fans back in the stands, even though it was a limited amount, it was just the energy they bring,'' he said. "We had a student section up top. We had some family members there. We had some friends there … That's what makes March … March.''

Particularly after last March was scrubbed because of the pandemic.

"The team didn't get to a chance to play in this last year,'' Gard said. "That's added incentive.''

Playing someone outside of the Big Ten was even more motivation.

"To have an opportunity to play against a blue-blood school, a program that has such great tradition, we were all excited …'' Davison said. "It was refreshing to play somebody new.''

It was refreshing to see the ball go through the net, too.

"We know how talented of shooters we have, especially when people get rolling,'' said Davison, who has scored in double-figures in five straight and seven of the last eight games. "That's the one thing about shooting. It's very contagious. We all trust each other. We all trust our shots.''

The Badgers will now play on Sunday against No. 1 seed Baylor.

"This is so special,'' Davison said of beating tradition-rich Carolina and advancing. "We also know we didn't come here just to win one. There's a lot more out there for us to get …. we're here to make an impact and make a run in this tournament.''