MINNEAPOLIS – He wanted to be Willis Reed, limping onto the floor, inspiring his teammates. He wanted to be Chuck Wepner, standing in there for 15 rounds despite the loud screams coming from deep inside his wounded leg.

Mostly, Kentucky’s Keith Bogans wanted to be able to be able play basketball the way he knows he can play it, leading his Kentucky Wildcats the way he knew he could lead them.

If only his ankle hadn’t betrayed him.

“I did what I could do, and I played as well as I could play,” Bogans said yesterday, in the aftermath of the Wildcats’ decisive 83-69 loss to upstart Marquette.

“Just by being out there, I was trying to show my teammates how badly I wanted to play. It meant a lot to me to be out there playing this game.”

And in truth, Bogans played as well as anyone could be expected to play on one leg. With his left foot wrapped in a protective boot so he couldn’t add further injury to the high sprain he’d suffered Thursday night, Bogans scored 15 points, right around his season average and grabbed three rebounds. There was only so much he could do, though.

“We made the decision to start him to see if that would inspire the team,” said Kentucky coach Tubby Smith, who saw his team’s winning streak end at 26 games.

“We hoped people would really feed off him, but we couldn’t seem to execute, and capitalize.”

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Marquette’s Dwyane Wade, the region’s most outstanding player, was joined on the all-region team by Bogans and Marquis Estill of Kentucky, and by his Marquette teammates Steve Novak and Robert Jackson.