In the Wisconsin Badgers’ march to the 2000 Final Four, Dick Bennett went up against several great coaches. The exception was the 2000 Sweet 16 in the West Regional semifinals in Albuquerque.
John Brady of LSU was not a bad coach. He lasted over 10 years at LSU and did reach the 2006 Final Four with the Tigers. He was competent. Not every coach is. Yet, while being competent on a basic level, Brady was just as surely not an especially gifted bench boss. Even his best LSU teams — such as that 2006 Final Four group — were not seeded higher than number four in the NCAA Tournament. Brady recruited well and got his players to perform with energy and hunger, which enabled him to carve out a reasonably successful career. However, as a tactician, he fell well short.
Strong tactical coaches could — and did — expose him. This was a gift Wisconsin made full use of in the 2000 West Regional semis.
LSU, seeded fourth that year, had Stromile Swift, a big and strong physical specimen who, a few months later, would become the No. 2 pick in the 2000 NBA Draft. He went to the Vancouver Grizzlies after Kenyon Martin of the Cincinnati Bearcats went No. 1 to the then-New Jersey (now Brooklyn) Nets.
Wisconsin did not have any player who could measure up to Stromile Swift in terms of athleticism. The Badgers needed to be in the right positions on the floor to contain him. Wisconsin needed a cohesive defensive plan and the smarts to implement it.
Dick Bennett made sure his team was prepared.
Wisconsin made only 38 percent of its field goals against LSU. It hit just 6 of 19 threes. UW’s starting five scored a grand total of 42 points. Only one player — Jon Bryant — scored more than eight points for the Badgers.
If you had been told these statistics would be part of Wisconsin’s box score at the end of the game, you would have assumed a loss.
The Badgers won by 13, 61-48.
How fully did UW flummox Stromile Swift? His number of made field goals was the same as his number of turnovers: 3.
How completely did Wisconsin confuse and throttle LSU’s offense? The Tigers committed six more turnovers (23) than their number of made field goals (17).
Bennett outflanked Brady at every turn. LSU scored just 14 points in the first half and desperately scrambled in the second half in an attempt to rally, but LSU’s impatience kept leading to bad possessions for the Tigers, who kept falling deeper and deeper into the quicksand the Badgers laid in front of them.
LSU had the athletes. Wisconsin had the well-coached and cohesive team. The Badgers moved one step closer to a Cinderella Final Four as a No. 8 seed.