March Madness: Wisconsin survives the upset everyone saw coming, beats Colgate

For days, no March Madness upset pick was more trendy than Colgate over Wisconsin.

Much was made about the No. 3 seed Badgers and their unsustainable 15-2 record in games decided by six or fewer points. And their unimpressive run to end the season. And their historically awful 3-point shooting. And Colgate's nationally excellent 3-point shooting. And Colgate's experience (every starter is an upperclassman). And, most of all, the recent injury to Big Ten Player of the Year Johnny Davis.

As it turns out, there may have been something to all that, but not enough to keep the Badgers out of the second round.

Wisconsin survived an upset scare in the final game of the first round on Friday of the men's NCAA tournament, outlasting the No. 14 seed Colgate, 67-60, despite a forgettable night shooting the ball. They will face No. 11 seed Iowa State on Sunday, again in front of a very favorable Milwaukee crowd.

No basket was bigger than a breakaway dunk from Davis to give the Badgers a six-point lead with 3:51 left.

Davis finished with 25 points and eight rebounds, while forward Tyler Wahl had 15 points, nine rebounds and four assists. As a team, Wisconsin shot 26-of-62 from the field (41.9%) and 6-of-17 from deep.

It wasn't easy for Wisconsin

Wisconsin opened the game ice cold on offense, scoring only two points in the first six minutes of the contest. Its biggest problem was Davis very much looked like a player pressing, opening the game 2-for-10 from the field. Colgate, the Patriot League champions, swarmed the paint every time he got the ball at the perimeter and forced multiple bad shots.

The first half was really defined by cold runs, as Colgate also had separate scoreless stretches of three minutes and 55 seconds; two minutes and 29 seconds; and four minutes and 54 seconds. Wisconsin feasted during those times, pushing the game to a 28-28 tie at halftime.

The final 20 minutes was that first half played in extreme. Again, Colgate made things difficult with 3-pointer after 3-pointer, most of them contested. Again, Wisconsin struggled to keep up, finding themselves down 52-48 with 10:40 left in the game.

But then Colgate was hit by the mother of all scoreless stretches. The Raiders would not score again until the 3:33 mark, a seven-minute, seven-second span of time that saw Wisconsin build up a six-point lead. Davis was in full late-game mode by then, scoring 14 points in the final six minutes to pull the Badgers out of upset territory.

Had Colgate stayed hot, it could have been a very different game. Senior guard Nelly Cummings led the team with 20 points plus six rebounds and six assists.

Wisconsin didn't leave entirely unscathed though, as Davis appeared to aggravate the ankle injury that has bothered him for most of March. He remained in the game, but Madison will be holding its breath for good news on his health by Sunday.