The NCAA Tournament made its way back to the Wells Fargo Center … in a big way.
For the first time in three years, the Big Dance returned to Philadelphia with Friday’s slate of Sweet 16 games in the East Region. It marked the 28th time overall that the Big Dance has come to the city.
And while the nightcap battle between blue bloods North Carolina and Indiana was labeled as the main event, the appetizer did not disappoint.
Sixth-seeded Notre Dame made a mad scramble in the game’s final half-minute to pull off a 61-56 win over No. 7-seed Wisconsin and reach the Elite Eight for a second straight season.
“It feels great. Feels amazing to be going back,” Notre Dame guard Demetrius Jackson said. “We just did a great job sticking with it. We did a great job giving ourselves a chance to win. We had a lot of mistakes in the game but we kept fighting. We took our punches and we just kind of got back up, kept fighting, kept believing, kept communicating and we just made it happen.
Jackson put in the go-ahead layup off a wild turnover with 14.7 seconds remaining and later stripped Wisconsin’s Bronson Koenig to seal Notre Dame’s victory.
“I was just trying to play aggressive defense and help our team win the game,” Jackson said. “In that same possession, we realized we had a foul to give. So just playing aggressive and just kind of going for it and the ball kind of fell into my hands.”
With his team trailing 56-53 with 27 seconds remaining in the game, Jackson darted down the court for a layup to cut the Notre Dame (24-11 overall) deficit to one. After a Wisconsin timeout, the Badgers inbounded the ball to star Nigel Hayes, who was swarmed and lost the handle to Jackson for another layup to give the Fighting Irish a 57-56 lead.
Koenig tried to quickly respond but had his own layup attempt at the other end roll off the rim and into the hands of Notre Dame guard V.J. Beachem. Beachem drained a pair of free throws after being fouled.
The Badgers had one last chance at a game-tying three-pointer with just over seven seconds left. Jackson, however, had other ideas and cleanly picked Koenig’s pocket just over half court. He sank a pair at the line to close out the game on an 8-0 run and deny Wisconsin (22-13 overall) the possibility of a third consecutive trip to the Final Four.
“It's kind of the nature of this whole tournament. You've seen it a lot,” Hayes said. “They've made a big deal about showing the roller coaster of emotions we can have. We go from Vitto (Brown) hitting the three to thinking we have a chance to have the game. And you blink your eyes and the next thing you know Jackson's shooting two free throws and now we're down five and now we're going home.”
If you were tuned into the other games or just couldn’t catch the action at the Wells Fargo Center, here’s a recap of the top moments from Friday’s March Madness between Notre Dame and Wisconsin.
Best performance
Despite struggling from the field (6 of 18), Jackson came through when the Irish need him most. He scored six of his 16 points in the game’s final 20 seconds. Plus, he added six assists, three rebounds and three steals to fill out the stat sheet.
Best player
Jackson made the clutch plays, but teammate Zach Auguste was steady all night long.
The 6-foot-10, 245-pound senior held his own in the paint with 13 points, 12 boards and three blocks. Auguste, who now has three straight double-doubles in this season’s NCAA Tournament, is averaging 13.0 points and 13.0 rebounds in Big Dance.
He shot 4 of 9 to damage his tourney percentage (Auguste came into Friday shooting 70.5 percent in seven career NCAA Tournament games), but we’re sure he’s much happier with the win.
Best player you’ve never heard of
If you’re a hardcore hoops fan, you know who about Wisconsin’s Ethan Happ. After all, he was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year.
But chances are you didn’t know Happ was this good.
The 6-foot-9, 230-pound frosh racked up 14 points (6 of 12 shooting), 12 rebounds and two steals before fouling out against Notre Dame.
Best play
Outside of Jackson’s terrific steal, there were still plenty of other highlight-reel plays in the game.
Auguste threw down a huge alley-oop late in the game, while Beachem had a sweet floater that he switched from his right to his left hand in mid air.
Still, none were more impressive than one of Zak Showalter’s dunks. With 8:06 to go in the game, Showalter came gliding through the lane for a thunderous put-back slam on a Koenig missed three-pointer to give the Badgers back the lead.
Best stat
Notre Dame shot 24.1 percent in the first half and 57.7 percent in the second half. Also, the Fighting Irish, who scored 19 points in the entire first half, put up 10 points in the game’s final 46 seconds.
Best March moment
With 46.5 seconds left and Wisconsin up by two points, officials went to the monitor to review the fifth personal foul on Badgers freshman Ethan Happ. The lull in the action sparked both fan bases to try and out-scream the other with school chants.
Doesn’t get much better than that.
Best quote
"On Monday I told our group, I saw us showing us up as the 16th-rated team of the 16 teams left. But I thought we were the toughest team, the No. 1 team in toughness. And I think it's played itself out again in a third game." – Notre Dame head coach Mike Brey
Best non-player injury
On an obvious foul that wasn’t called, Brey jumped in the air in disgust and actually hurt his right calf.
“Trainer said I should be able to go Sunday. About the 15-minute mark, I was excited and jumped up and I pulled a calf muscle,” he said. “Thank God it wasn't Achilles. So little calf strain, no surgery needed, but I'm a little sore. I told the guys I'm the first one taped on Sunday.”
Best fan
Fighting Irish supporters pulled out all of the expected garb for Friday’s game (green, leprechaun hats, four-leaf clovers, etc.). Still, when a burly Badgers fan opts to wear red-and-white-striped overalls and an impressive wig, he gets the nod.
Best shoes
Notre Dame’s basketball team typically likes to keep the school’s signature colors to accents when it comes to the uniforms. But that didn’t stop a few players from sporting flashy green and gold sneakers on the court.
Best Philly connection
Notre Dame’s Philly ties start with Brey. He was an assistant on Duke’s back-to-back national championship teams in 1991 and 1992, which included Christian Laettner’s legendary shot at the Spectrum in the ’92 regional final to beat Kentucky. After his stint at Duke, Brey spent five seasons as the head coach at Delaware.
Other links to the area for the Fighting Irish include assistant coach Martin Ingelsby and starting guard Steve Vasturia, who hail from Berwyn, Pa. and Medford, N.J., respectively.
However, the biggest connection of the night likely goes to a person who was not with either school in an official capacity.
Chester native and former Wisconsin head coach, Bo Ryan, garnered strong support locally with his impressive job guiding the Badgers over the years. Despite stepping down earlier this season, Ryan presumably played a big role in the amount of passionate Wisconsin fans inside the Wells Fargo Center