Rodney Williams has known Mike Bruesewitz for the better part of his basketball life, so in a moment of need, he didn't fall short on strategies to distract.
As Bruesewitz gripped the game in his hands – outside the baseline and preparing for an inbounds pass with 22 seconds remaining – Rodney Williams started talking smack.
He needled his old friend, a St. Paul native, on whether he really thought the Austin Hollins charge that had given him the ball was a good call. He asked him – was he sure?
"The idea was definitely to get into his head," Williams said.
His mission may have worked. Bruesewitz, who had just been reminded by the referee that he couldn't walk with the ball, started doing just that, automatically ending the Badgers' possession.
To his credit, Bruesewitz took all responsibility for the mental slip.
"I messed it up," he said. "I knew I shouldn't have moved. We had a timeout and I knew it was getting close (to a 5-second call). I tried to step and took one too many … I've been in that position 100 times, if not more. I've done it enough in practice when you can't move. I just took one too many steps. I was trying to get a better angle to get the ball into Jared. They called it and that was the game."
From there Joe Coleman turned a broken play into a drive to the basket, getting fouled and making his two shots to send the game to overtime.
