One of the great things about each year’s NCAA Tournament is the inevitable matchups between some of the nation’s top teams that normally never face each other during the regular season.
That was the case in the Sweet 16 in 2015 when the Bo Ryan-led Wisconsin Badgers squared off against the famed North Carolina Tar Heels.
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The end of Wisconsin’s tournament run that year is obviously a forgettable moment, losing a tight game to Duke in the final after ending Kentucky’s run at an undefeated season the previous round.
But with the Badgers set to play the Tar Heels in the first round of this year’s tournament, we look back at the two team’s most recent NCAA Tournament battle.
Summed up perfectly by UWBadgers.com, it was resilience and a career day from Sam Dekker that helped propel the Badgers to a 79-72 victory.
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North Carolina came out strong, jumping out to a 33-28 lead right before halftime thanks to an 11-1 outburst.
But the Badgers battled, Dekker tipping in a shot at the halftime buzzer to make it a 33-31 contest and the rest of the Wisconsin team holding it together even when North Carolina built a five-point lead with under 13 minutes to play.
When you think about that Badger team and the capabilities of Frank Kaminsky, Dekker, Nigel Hayes, Bronson Koenig and Traevon Jackson, one thing that sticks out is their ability to win a game down the stretch.
That is exactly what they did, Zak Showalter coming up with two huge buckets late and Dekker coming up with a late-shot clock drive-and-score to put the Tar Heels away.
The story will likely be different this time around, with both Wisconsin and North Carolina not playing to the level of their 2015 squads. But the history between the two programs is there, and the next chapter is now ready to be written.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94KCE-zeBtU
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