Senior point guard Nick Boyd grateful for his one season with the Wisconsin Badgers

Crunch time was coming and Nick Boyd was finally starting to find his driving lanes.

The University of Wisconsin senior point guard had been lethal all season finishing around the rim with his left hand, which he showed on three straight possessions with his team in a tie game and a spot in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on the line.

But after High Point senior Chase Johnson hit another cold-blooded three-pointer, all Boyd could do was shake his head on the way back to the huddle. Deep down, is just wasn't his or Wisconsin's day.

Boyd did all he could to help fifth-seeded Wisconsin separate from 12th-seeded High Point, but Boyd couldn't get his go-ahead layup to fall in the closing seconds of what ended up being an 83-82 defeat over the Panthers at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon.

On finishing his career with the #Badgers: "More special than I imagined"

Nick Boyd finishes with the second most points in a season in Wisconsin history.

"Hopefully I left a good impact people can remember me for" pic.twitter.com/YpBxUYu6cH
— Andrew Bandstra (@andrewbandstra) March 19, 2026

The senior finished with 27 points, five rebounds, six assists, and one turnover in his final collegiate game and in his only season at Wisconsin, placing him solidly in the school's record books.

He finished the season averaging 20.7 points per game, becoming the first Badger since Michael Finley in 1995 to average 20.0 ppg over a season. His season average is fifth in school history for a single season, trailing Clarene Sherrod's 23.8 in 1971, Joe Franklin's 22.7 in 1968, Sherrod's 22.4 in 1970, and Finley's 22.1 in 1993.

Scoring in double figures in every game this season and authored 22 20-point games this year - the most by any Badger in the last 30 years, Boyd scored 726 points to finish two points ahead of John Tonje and six behind Frank Kaminsky's all-time single-season school record.

Having led Florida Atlantic to the Final Four, Boyd has been one-and-done in the last three tournaments with three different schools (the Owls, San Diego State, and Wisconsin). He wouldn't change a thing.

"I just thank God," Boyd said. "Came a long way, man, from nothing, you know? Just trying to make a way. Got to do that with FAU. San Diego State welcomed me with open arms. I came here, you know? Expectation was always high. Came with high expectations. We had a bunch of great guys. We had the highs and lows of the season.

"As I look back, man, I'm just grateful for every moment I spent. I'm a little different. I'm high energy, I'm competitive. Sometimes I can be a lot to accept. These guys open they arms and allowed me to be myself. Change my life forever as I go on my next journey, wherever it's at.

"I'm just grateful for my experiences. Man, I just want to spend as much time as I can with these guys. All three schools I went to, I have lifelong connections with these people. That's why I think the transfer portal is such a beautiful thing in that sense."