Huskies' Valiant Upset Bid Comes Up Short Against Wisconsin

The better U-Dub won, but just barely.

Oh, but the beat-up version, the one with just seven healthy scholarship players, the one with no business hanging with Wisconsin, made a game out of it on Thursday afternoon in a Big Ten Tournament matchup in Chicago.

Rushing back from 18 points down, Danny Sprinkle's short-handed University of Washington basketball team crept within a point of the Badgers twice over the final 67 seconds before getting handed an 85-82 loss and postseason elimination.

Zoom Diallo, who finished with 24 points, had a 3-pointer to tie in the closing seconds bounce off the back rim and, for all intents and purposes, this closed out a bittersweet season in multiple ways.

"Our mindset was we were never out of it," Diallo said. "The whole mindset is it's never over until there's triple zeroes. We played a game yesterday were were down 13. Eighteen wasn't that much."

With its roster greatly depleted all season, the Huskies somberly left the Windy City knowing that Hannes Steinbach's brief and sensational tour of duty in a purple jersey likely was over, as well.

At least the 6-foot-11 forward from Wurzburg, Germany walked out of the United Center in an upright position as the NBA beckons him after he turned in the finest freshman season in UW annals.

Steinbach was at his best to the end, coming up with his 22nd double-double performance of the season with 25 points and 16 rebounds.

Though they never led, the Huskies (16-17 overall, 7-13 league) gamely hung in there against Wisconsin (23-9, 14-6) as best they could before finishing with a sub .500 record for the second consecutive season under Sprinkle.

The UW simply couldn't contain Wisconsin's highly accurate backcourt pair of 6-foot-4 junior John Blackwell and 6-foot-3 senior Nick Boyd, who did whatever they wanted whether working the perimeter or driving to the basket.

They combined for 57 points, with Blackwell leading all scorers with career-best 34. Boyd, a clever little lefty who played last season for San Diego State, had 16 of his 23 points in the opening half.

They combined to shoot 22 of 39 from the field, 11 of 18 from 3-point range.

"We had our hands in their face quite a bit," Sprinkle said. "They might be the best backcourt in America."

Badgers forward Will Garlock (23) scores against the Washington Huskies dunks on the Huskies in the Big Ten Tournament. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

Steinbach did everything he could to keep the Huskies playing deeper into the postseason. Early on, he launched multiple 3-pointers. He worked the boards throughout.

With 11 minutes left to play, the European sensation reached yet another double-double performance, when he grabbed his 10th rebound to go with 19 points at that juncture.

Huskies guard Zoom Diallo (5) looks for an opening against Badgers forward Austin Rapp. | Kamil Krzaczynski-Imagn Images

Unfortunately for the Huskies, they trailed 69-52 when all of this was happening.

However, Steinbach and his team kept coming. His bucket with 2:03 left pulled the UW within 81-79.

At the 1:07 mark, Diallo sank one of two free throws and it was 81-80.

The teams traded baskets and it was 83-82 when Diallo drove for a layin with 17.7 seconds left.

With 8.3 remaining, the Huskies fouled Andrew Rohde and he coolly sank both free throws for the final margin, which held up when Diallo got a good look but couldn't knock it down to force overtime for the UW for the second day in a row.

While Wisconsin moves to a quarterfinal game against Illinois, the Huskies packed up everything, including all of those ace bandages and smelling salts and players wearing protective boots, and headed back to the Northwest, hoping to get guys healthy for next season. Maybe to help the German pack up his stuff.

Steinbach, who's made no public declaration over what he's going to do, is projected to be taken anywhere from No. 10 to 20 in the NBA draft in June, which likely negates any hope that he would return for a sophomore season.