In his nine seasons in the NBA, Karl-Anthony Towns has experienced several brutal losses in the regular season and the playoffs. However, none has stung as much as the Kentucky Wildcats’ loss to the Wisconsin Badgers in the Final Four of the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament.
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During an appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay, the host brought up that loss and asked Towns about his memory of it. The Knicks star revealed he has never rewatched the game and claimed the defeat haunts him to this day. He said,
“Yeah, that game still hurts. I still haven’t watched it, I can’t. It’s a painful memory I think we both have. As professionals…that game probably hurts the most.”
The Wildcats were on a historic run in the 2014-15 season. They started the year 34-0, won the SEC Tournament, and were the heavy favorites to win the national title. They thrashed their opponents in the first three games of the NCAA Tournament and survived a scare against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the Elite 8 stage to set up a Final Four clash against the Badgers.
The game was tied at halftime, but Wisconsin started pulling away in the second half. Despite Towns and Kentucky’s best efforts, they couldn’t mount a comeback and their bid to become only the fifth program and the first in 39 years to win the National Championship with an undefeated record ended in the semifinal.
