How Wisconsin basketball unraveled in final moments vs High Point in March Madness
Nick Boyd put Wisconsin on his back many times in a stellar senior season, but he was one special play short of saving UW from more March sadness.
PORTLAND, Ore. – Nick Boyd and John Blackwell put the Wisconsin Badgers on their backs many times in 2025-26. Boyd and Blackwell both exceeded 20-plus points in 11 games heading into the men’s NCAA Tournament , and the Badgers won all 11 games.
That included games against then-No. 1 Michigan and Illinois (when the Illini were No. 7 and again when they were No.
9). “I can’t even put a word to how well they played and how much they meant to the team, both on and off the court,” Wisconsin forward Nolan Winter said. So it was perhaps no surprise that the Boyd-and-Blackwell-dependent season ended on Boyd and Blackwell’s backs in an 83-82 upset loss to 12th-seeded High Point in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Boyd and Blackwell scored 27 and 22 points, respectively, while each shooting 50% from the field in the March Madness game. But when the Panthers made it a game in the final minute, Wisconsin’s playmaking duo’s fortunes took a costly turn for the worse. Wisconsin had a chance to turn its one-point lead to either three or four with about an 11-second difference between the shot and game clocks.