Team #105 - Colgate

And the final game of the night allowed me to see my 105th Division One College Basketball teams. On this occasion, I saw the Colgate Raiders take on the Wisconsin Badgers. Colgate is the 1st team that I have seen out of the Patriot League. Colgate comes into this matchup with a 23-11 record. They beat Navy in the Patriot League Tournament Champion to get the automatic bid. The Raiders were given a 14 seed by the committee. This is the same seed they were given last year and gave Arkansas a good run for it's money. Colgate has been one of the most exciting mid major programs this year. They rank top five in three point percentage this year and have won 15 straight games. Nelly Cummings has been the leading scorer for Colgate averaging 14.5 PPG. As for Wisconsin, there are a lot of unknowns coming into the game. How healthy is Johnny Davis is the most pressing question. The Badgers had an early exit in the Big Ten Tournament as they lost to seven seed Michigan State. As we all know Michigan State has struggled down the stretch. The game prior to that for Wisconsin was a loss to Nebraska. I am not feeling very good about the Badgers at all. I have no idea the hype behind a potential Final Four run. Johnny Davis has been the leading scorer for Wisconsin, averaging 19.7 PPG. Davis is expected to be a lottery pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. I expect Colgate to make this a very competitive game. Many experts are actually picking the Raiders to pull the upset. I will be curious to see how Wisconsin handles playing so close to home. I did not think they deserved to get a essentially a home game but the NCAA also does not value my opinions. If Wisconsin is able to make it out of Milwaukee their regional is in Chicago. What a great opportunity for a team that I don't really think is that good. 

The first half of this contest was the battle of Nelly Cummings and Johnny Davis. Nelly Cummings was a walking bucket. He may have shot 14 times but he was sure awesome to watch. Wisconsin as I mentioned before very overrated in my book. Johnny Davis had a slow but steady half for Wisconsin. He was not as productive as Nelly Cummings and only had eight points. Every shot Wisconsin made, Colgate countered. This game was awesome. The Wisconsin faithful couldn't believe they were struggling with Colgate. To many surprise this game was tied at halftime by a score of 28 all. This occurred after a layup at the buzzer by Nelly Cummings. 

The second half for Colgate was the Tucker Richardson show. Richardson made four straight threes and all of a sudden Colgate found themselves up five. This game remained close the whole second half. The most annoying play of the game happened when Steven Crowl banked in a side spinning three pointer. I was so annoyed at this point. This unfortunately started the fire under Wisconsin. Johnny Davis decided to take over this game. Davis would hit the clinching three with under two minutes to go which put Colgate down nine. At this point I knew the game was over. Nelly Cummings was the leading scorer for Colgate with 20 points. Johnny Davis had a great second half and was the leading scorer for the game with 25 points. Wisconsin would go on to win this game 67-60. One of the most exciting games on the Friday edition of March Madness.