Wisconsin simply had the more talented team against K-State

OMAHA, Neb. | Jack Hartman had it right. People always used to marvel at how Hartman, the old Kansas State basketball coach, could win so many games with so much less talent than other teams. He never bought the premise. He liked his talent. He never accepted the notion that “talent” means players who can jump higher or move quicker or stretch higher.

“Talent,” he said, “is just being where you’re supposed to be and doing what you’re supposed to do.”

Saturday, Wisconsin had a lot more talent than Kansas State. Few across the country will see it that way, of course. Lots of people were looking for an upset in this NCAA Tournament game.

And why not? Kansas State had the surefire No. 1 pick in the NBA draft (Michael Beasley) and another potential first-round pick (Bill Walker) and a bunch of other guys who would wow them at the NFL combines or a “Superstars” competition. The Wildcats seemed to be overloaded with talent.

Wisconsin, meanwhile, did not have one guy who averaged more than 13 points a game or grabbed more than seven rebounds a game or dished out even three assists per game. The Badgers do not have a single player likely to be drafted by the NBA, certainly not next year. They won the Big Ten regular-season title and tournament despite not having a player in the top five in any offensive category.

And still … Wisconsin rolled past Kansas State 72-55 on Saturday. The game was never really in doubt. The Badgers built a 10-point lead about a minute into the second half and never once led by fewer than nine after that. They hounded Beasley, they frustrated Walker, they prevented Kansas State from making a single three-point shot.

They pressed K-State coach Frank Martin into making an incredible 19 substitutions in the first 17 minutes of the second half. At some point, it was pretty obvious that the Wildcats really had no idea what to do. They were overwhelmed.

“Every point our opponent scores,” Wisconsin’s Trevon Hughes said, “there will always be some blood spilled.”

Yes, that should be the Wisconsin motto. There will be blood. The Badgers’ talent is exactly what Hartman talked about so often; their players do what they’re supposed to do and are where they’re supposed to be. They play the best team defense in the country because everyone moves in coordination. They score enough without a pure scorer because they move the ball around and get good shots almost every time down. They run only a few plays. But they run them precisely every time.

On Saturday, the Badgers smothered Kansas State. You can break things down with numbers, if you like. The Wildcats shot only 40 percent from the field. They went zero for 13 from three-point range. They scored 24 fewer points than their season average. Beasley, after a typically brilliant first half, managed two field goals in the second half. The Wildcats had only four assists the entire game — four — and that tells you an awful lot about how out of sync they played.

But these things go beyond numbers and into emotions. Here is what great defensive basketball teams do: They get you talking to yourself. They press you into pressing and believing that every jump shot is so important that you feel deflated and frustrated when it doesn’t go in. They leave you muttering about shots you should have made. The Wildcats fell into every trap.

“That’s not the team you want to play on a night you don’t make jump shots,” Martin said. But the thing is, nobody makes jump shots against Wisconsin. That’s the whole point. The Badgers gave up 53.8 points per game this year. They have not given up even 73 points in a game since early December. This is like the old Tim McCarver line about how Bob Gibson was the luckiest pitcher ever because every time he pitched, the other team didn’t score any runs.

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To reach Joe Posnanski, call 816-234-4361 or send e-mail to jposnanski@kcstar.com. For previous columns, go to KansasCity.com