INDIANAPOLIS — The Cinderella team of this year’s NCAA Tournament walked into the hoops chapel where one of the greatest Cinderella stories in basketball was played.
It was in Hinkle Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler University that tiny, rural Milan High School beat mighty, urban Muncie Central for the 1954 Indiana state high school championship. How fitting it is that the Wisconsin Badgers, a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament, practiced in Hinkle yesterday for tomorrow’s national semifinal showdown with vaunted Michigan State.
“We didn’t take out a tape measure but we all started yelling, “Hickory,” said Wisconsin guard Jon Bryant.
In the 1986 movie “Hoosiers,” Hickory High was the fictious school used to represent Milan. Butler has refurbished the old fieldhouse, yet with every bounce of a ball one can hear the echoes of Indiana basketball.
“This is a basketball state,” said Bryant, a native of Minnesota who, like his teammates, knows Hoosiers almost verbatim. “It seems like everyone in this state can shoot. Sort of like skating in Minnesota, except I can’t skate.”
Early in this NCAA Tournament, it was the Butler Bulldogs who almost pulled off one of the great first-round upsets, losing in overtime to Florida. How ironic it is that the Gators are here in Indianapolis, one of just four teams in the nation left playing today, while Wisconsin, and later yesterday North Carolina, another No. 8 seed, practiced in Hinkle.
“Maybe we didn’t even feel that we belonged here in the beginning [of the tournament],” said Bryant. “I think by now, we all feel we deserve to be here. We’ve beaten a number one seed [Arizona] and we’ve beaten some teams that have a lot of talent and were really playing well. So we can’t look at it anymore like we don’t belong here. It’s an opportunity of a lifetime.”
The Badgers (22-13) can’t go into the game against the Spartans with an overabundance of confidence. They lost to Michigan State three times this season.
In the first game, Michigan State outrebounded the Badgers 50-23. Yikes! In the second game, Wisconsin, which averaged 11.3 turnovers per game, committed 17. And in the third, Wisconsin missed 38-of-55 shots.
But since this tournament has started a strange magic has bewitched these Badgers, who are hitting 38 percent of their 3s and are scoring four more points per game (64) than they did in the regular season. Even the Badgers will tell you their fantastic journey hasn’t sunk in.
“If it hits us now, it could come out Saturday and we’ll play poorly,” said forward Mark Vershaw. “We’ve just got to keep it going like we’ve been doing this whole tournament. The time to reflect is at the end.”
Vershaw is the closest thing the Badgers have to a superstar. He’s only player averaging in double figures (11.9) and led the team with 115 assists.
“Vershaw is our version of Jimmy Chipwood,” said teammate Andy Kowske, comparing Vershaw to the star of the Hickory team.
Vershaw shed some light
on the lighthearted aspects of the Badgers’ practice. In “Hoosiers,” Chipwood’s trademark shot is a corner jumper, although he wins the state championship game on a jumper from the top of the key. The Badgers had Vershaw attempt both shots over and over again yesterday.
“I tried to hit that shot, that corner and things like that,” said Vershaw. “And then when he [Chipwood] held the ball at the top and waited until the coach told him to take the shot. I wasn’t hitting them as well as he did.”
The Badgers will have to play as well as they can to upset Michigan State. While the Badgers are relishing their role as underdogs, the Spartans, the only No. 1 seed to advance to the Final Four, is busting out with confidence.
They paid their dues in last year’s tournament, advancing to the Final Four before losing to Duke in the semifinals. The Spartans believe this is their invitational to lose.
“Make sure you get all your homework done,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo told students at a pep rally in East Lansing Wednesday night before leaving for Indianapolis. “Because next Tuesday I plan on celebrating.”
First, the Spartans must get past Hoosier-crazy Badgers.
