The toughest year of Bronson Koenig's career was coming to an end, and he was letting it all out in a St. Louis hotel.
The Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball team had played Pittsburgh in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in 2016, but the 47-43 win was far from a masterpiece. Koenig had gone 1-for-8 and finished with two points. For the first time in a run of 44 straight games that dated to the previous year's national runner-up team, he didn't make a single three-pointer.
"I played horrible," Koenig said. "I was extremely stressed out. My mental health wasn't very good. I had put so much pressure on myself to be kind of the representative of the Native basketball community for all Native people, obviously my family, the state of Wisconsin … I put so much pressure on myself to perform. I also didn't know how to take care of myself. I didn't have the tools to deal with the traumas and things that were going on that kind of went unchecked back then."
The moment that would define his decorated Badgers career, a buzzer-beater to topple Xavier in the second round, was less than a day away, but he didn't feel it then.
"It was one of those cries where you're kind of hyperventilating, snot running down your nose, just completely overwhelmed," he said. "As men, we hold so much in. It was just one of those times where I completely lost it and couldn't stop crying and didn't even want to play anymore, wanted to quit, because the pressure and everything else was just too heavy."
It's a story he's told before, part of a circuit of speaking engagements to Native communities over the past decade. A member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, Koenig, 31, has traveled to the far reaches of the country, even Alaska and Hawaii, to share stories from his career, run basketball camps and emphasize the importance of mental wellness.
Naturally, even hundreds of miles from Wisconsin, someone will bring up the shot. Ten years later, it still appears in NCAA commercials and remains a fixture in Badgers basketball lore.
"My nervous system needed that relief, because after I got done crying, I felt a million pounds lighter," Koenig said. "That next day was when we played Xavier, and I never felt so light and free. I went from being so deep in my head to being in my body and not overthinking when I would miss a shot. I remember my motto that day was. 'I'm just going to let it fly and whatever happens, happens.'"
Koenig's buzzer-beater puts capstone on tough Badgers season
With the game tied at 63, the seventh-seeded Badgers and second-seeded Musketeers were two seconds from overtime at the Scottrade Center. Koenig had assured inbounder Ethan Happ that he'd be open, and Happ shuffled the ball to the junior streaking toward the corner along the sideline. Koenig took one dribble, rose up and splashed it through as the horn sounded. Milwaukee Brewers broadcaster Brian Anderson, on the play-by-play call for TNT, captured the moment perfectly.
The buildup to the final moment featured a ton of Koenig. With 11 seconds left, he rose for a deep three-pointer that tied the game. After Zak Showalter drew a charge on Xavier's Edmund Sumner with five seconds left, Koenig raced the ball across halfcourt before calling timeout, assuring UW a chance to inbound closer to its own basket.
"I think I missed my first few shots and I started getting that constricting feeling again," Koenig recalled. "I took a moment to ground myself, took some deep breaths and said, 'Nope, I'm just going to keep letting it fly, no matter what,' and that's what I did.
"It was one of those games where you're kind of in that flow state, where time kind of stops and slows down. That three I hit with 11 seconds left, it was almost like some external force takes over. You just kind of knew without thinking about it. It was almost instinctual movement. I pulled it from pretty deep. Watching the highlights, I was like, 'Whoa.'"
Koenig went from zero three-pointers against Pittsburgh to a career-high six against Xavier. He scored 14 of his 20 points after halftime.
"It was an out-of-body experience almost," Koenig said of the winner. "I remember when it left my hands, 'That either feels way too good or it's an airball.'"
To that point, the Badgers had a 21-12 record, and the year had been a rollercoaster in the aftermath of appearing in the NCAA championship game. Head coach Bo Ryan abruptly stepped aside early in the season, handing the reins over to Greg Gard, and it wasn't clear if Gard would remain the coach after the season.
"As I told the team in the locker room," Gard said after the game, "this game was kind of a microcosm of our season from the standpoint of November, December, January.
"I've always had confidence in them even when we were 1-4 and 9-9. They're probably tired of me hearing the word 'process,' to stick to the process and not deviate from the plan."
Koenig went into the season believing he and Nigel Hayes would pick up the mantle from outgoing stars Sam Dekker and Frank Kaminsky, but the transition wasn't smooth for the La Crosse Aquinas High School graduate.
"I was young and dumb and immature and reckless and foolish," Koenig said. "I didn't take it seriously. When I should have been in the gym, I was out drinking and partying and living like a rock star.
"After years of therapy and reflection and maturing, you look back and it's like, 'Man, I should have done things differently. Instead of partying, I should have been in the gym preparing to lead the team.'
"We still made a deep run, but I could have played a lot better, I could have put way less stress on my mind, my body, everything, and just been a better leader and teammate and person overall."
The basketball journey may not end there for Bronson Koenig
The Badgers lost a heartbreaker to Notre Dame in the Sweet 16, but Koenig still had more to give. After scoring 13.1 points per game and starting every game as a junior, he led the team with 14.5 points per game as a senior in 2016-17, a run that ended again in the Sweet 16 after an upset of defending champion and No. 1-ranked Villanova in the second round. This time, it was Hayes who hit the late shot, a layup that tipped the scales in a 65-62 win.
That was followed by a crushing 84-83 loss to Florida in overtime at the Sweet 16 level, but Koenig never played for a Badgers team eliminated in the first weekend of the tournament over his four years, with two Final Fours and the two additional Sweet 16s on his resume. Wisconsin hasn't been back to the Sweet 16 since.
Starting Thursday, March 19, one day before the 10-year anniversary of Koenig's shot, the Badgers will again give it their best shot, seeded fifth and playing High Point in Portland, Oregon.
Koenig spent time in the NBA G-League and overseas in Montenegro, playing most recently in 2020. But is the basketball quest over?
"I got an opportunity to play professionally again after six years retired, and I've been training the last couple months," Koenig said, saying he hopes to land a spot on a team in a Belgian-Dutch league but is open-minded to other landing spots, as well. "I'm taking that opportunity while my body is still young and healthy enough to do that. … It's all up in the air right now but I'm riding on faith."
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bronson Koenig looks back at his 2016 NCAA game-winner for Wisconsin