INDIANAPOLIS – Frank Kaminsky was still processing what happened, already aware that what he’d witnessed would forever play on a nauseating loop in his mind, staining what had been one of the best times of his life.
Minutes earlier, Wisconsin was seconds from reaching its first national championship game in 73 years. Holding a two-point lead over Kentucky in the Final Four at AT&T Stadium, Aaron Harrison went into a phone booth and flew into Wildcats lore, hitting a game-winning 3-pointer with 5.7 seconds left.
Afterwards, in the Wisconsin locker room, there was frustration and disbelief, but mostly sadness, knowing how close the team had come, knowing hard it would be to get back.
“That’s a shot that’s going to stick in our minds for the rest of our lives,” Kaminsky said.
One year and one day later, Kaminsky and the No. 1 Badgers (35-3) can change what the memory means, meeting No. 1 Kentucky (38-0) in the national semifinals for the second straight season.
As a senior, Kaminsky could be entering the final game of his unlikely and extraordinary career – at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday night – or, the National Player of the Year front-runner could orchestrate one of the most memorable upsets in NCAA Tournament history, turning Harrison’s 3-pointer into Aaron Boone’s walk-off home run against the Red Sox in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS.
The pain, worth enduring, could be the reason the result wasn’t repeated the next year.
“I think that was a big motivating factor to try to get back here, try to play better than we did last year and hopefully come out on top,” Kaminsky said Thursday. “It’s going to be definitely tougher than last year. We know that [but] we’re going to do whatever we can do.
“It’s going to be fun. We know they’re different from last year, so are we.”
America had just met Kaminsky before last year’s Final Four – following a breakthrough performance against Arizona – and became instantly enamored with the lanky and likeable big man, whose skills on the block and behind the arc made it difficult to believe he had been hidden so long.
In the biggest game of his career, Kentucky made Kaminsky invisible once more, making Wisconsin’s biggest offensive threat the game’s tallest bystander. The 7-foot forward didn’t score in the game’s first 11 minutes and had two first-half points, finishing with eight points and five rebounds, while the Wildcats dominated inside, scoring 23 second-chance points and finishing with plus-22 points in the paint.
After a week of hype declaring him a superstar, Kaminsky also found extra attention from Kentucky’s defense, holding him to seven shots.
“I learned that maybe I wasn’t as good as I thought I was at that point in time,” Kaminsky said. “Just going against a team like theirs, they have so many elite players on the court at all times. I just struggled and didn’t play as well as I wanted to.”
Kaminsky’s struggles came against a Kentucky team not nearly as imposing on defense as the current version, with last year’s game not even featuring the Wildcats’ best defender – Willie Cauley-Stein – who was out with an injury.
The Wildcats are expected to use multiple members of their massive frontcourt to guard Kaminsky, athletic and long enough at most positions to switch on all screens.
John Calipari claimed he didn’t remember what the team did well in defending Kaminsky last year, but the Kentucky coach noted he sees a different player on film this season, one with improved swagger and focus, one who improved in nearly every statistical category.
Running into Kaminsky in the hallway on Thursday, Calipari cracked, “Look, I’m so tired of looking at your tape right now.”
Now an established star, Kaminsky’s continued growth remains remarkable, having averaged 10.3 minutes and 4.2 points his sophomore season.
On Saturday, he may need to make one more leap.
“We were getting a player who we knew was hungry and wanted to prove that he could get to be pretty good,” Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said about Kaminsky’s recruitment. “For somebody to go to the level he had, from start to finish, no, I’ve never had a player like that.”
Three keys to the game
Best vs. Best
The most efficient defensive team in the nation (Kentucky) faces the most efficient offensive team in the nation (Wisconsin), with the Wildcats holding teams under 33 percent shooting in the NCAA Tournament — under 21 percent on 3-pointers — and the Badgers hitting more than 41 percent of 3-pointers. Who will be better at what they do best?
The battle of the big men
Without the depth to match Kentucky’s, Wisconsin can’t afford to let the more athletic Wildcats get Frank Kaminsky and/or Sam Dekker in foul trouble, needing them to draw Kentucky’s bigs away from the basket on the other end with their perimeter prowess. Kaminsky can be a passive defender when trying to avoid picking up fouls, but he cannot be a turnstile against Karl-Anthony Towns if the Badgers are going to pull the upset.
Experience
Kentucky reached the title game last year, but only two starters — Andrew and Aaron Harrison — return from that run, while the Badgers bring back everyone from last year’s Final Four core except Ben Brust. Kentucky’s freshmen weren’t overwhelmed by the magnitude of the moment last year, perhaps again too talented to rattle, but Wisconsin could be fueled by last year’s heartbreaking one-point loss.