CHICAGO -- The post-game meal was catered by D'Agastino's Pizza and Pub, a place many locals will tell you produces the best thin-crust pie in Chicagoland. Some in these pizza-crazed parts might even submit the sweet sauce and crisp, crackery crunch for a world championship consideration, but you probably won't get such a zesty endorsement from the 2006-'07 University of Wisconsin basketball team.

The Badgers' last meal together as a team, consumed in an auxiliary locker room late Sunday afternoon inside the United Center, tasted too much like defeat.

No one has invented a food that could stave off the frustrated, helpless, empty feelings that followed a 74-68 loss to the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in the second round of the Midwest Regional.

"This is not how I wanted to go out," said senior guard Kammron Taylor, who shook off an icy first half to lead his team with 24 points. "Our goal was to make a deep run in the tournament. Right now, it stinks. But, life goes on."

The second-seeded Badgers -- whose season included a school-record 30 victories, a scoring record for senior Alando Tucker and the program's first-ever No. 1 ranking -- got off to another slow start, went cold at the wrong times and were unable to counter the outside shooting of Rebels guard Kevin Kruger, whose 16-point effort included a handful of clutch three-pointers that pleased his father and coach, Lon.

"I just had a little faith," said the younger Kruger, who was 1 for 15 in the tournament when he got hot. "I don't ever think I'm going to miss, as bad as that sounds."

In a similar way, Badgers fans couldn't fathom their team losing. Favored by six points and playing their fifth straight game before thousands of red-clad friends on the Chicago Bulls' home floor, Wisconsin grabbed a five-point lead with eight minutes left and couldn't hold it.

Badgers fans now have several months to analyze the breakdown Sunday -- and the final couple weeks of the season - in frame-by-frame fashion.

Some undoubtedly will point to the elbow injury that sidelined center Brian Butch, who would have been ready to play had the season continued. Others will cite the mysterious disappearance of Marcus Landry, the frustratingly inconsistent scoring of Taylor, the utility of playing three tough games in the Big Ten tournament or the fatigue that cost Tucker a few inches on his jumper and a little quickness in his first step. They'll look for reasons the slow start against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was mirrored on Sunday against UNLV. They'll wonder if the Badgers ran out of gas battling back from the early deficits.

As usual, coach Bo Ryan cut to the chase.

"We got it to where you get five to seven minutes left on the clock, if you're in that situation, that's where you've got to make plays," Ryan said. "They made more than we made. We lost that lead, they took theirs. We didn't have the shots when we needed them to overcome that."

For the past several years, the Badgers turned to Tucker in their time of need. The talented senior, facing double- and triple-team pressure, ended up with 17 points to give him 2,217 for his career.

"It was tough all game," Tucker said, crediting the Rebels' defense. "They were hard-nosed on the ball. When I caught it on the block or off the block, they were sending two guys at me. It's one of those things where I had to find the open man. And we talked about it. Guys had to move off the ball and I just had to find them. So it was one of those things, they were tough on me all game.

As was often the case in the Badgers' six losses, the rest of the team didn't offer a lot of help.

"Alando had three assists and no turnovers," Ryan said. "Sometimes, when teams have doubled and pressured him, he's had some turnovers. He did a good job of taking care of the ball and getting it to the other guys. Those other guys just needed to knock down a few shots once we got it into the post and (UNLV defenders) collapsed. And (when) we got it out, it looks real good if you're knocking some of those (shots) down.

"(UNLV) ended up knocking some of those down. You could see where we had the rotate, help, sink, pinch. What does that leave? If they kick it out, we're flying out at shooters and you've got to hope that they're not knocking ‘em down. Hope sometimes is your last resort. We got them to miss a bunch in that one stretch. They just went cold. Then in the end, Kevin (Kruger's) three and (Curtis) Terry's one, those were the nails."

Those were final nails in a season. The one that ensured there are no more practices and that a potentially delicious pizza tasted like rubber.

"As seniors, you have a feeling of frustration, disappointment, but I wouldn't change anything that's happened this whole season," Tucker said. "I've had fun, it's been a journey that I've been able to be a part of, me and Kam, to do some of the things we've done. We got to 30 wins, we also lost six, but we all stuck together as a family. It feels bad that we know we can't come back. That's the only thing that's frustrating. But we played a tough game. I'm happy about the things I've been a part of here at Wisconsin.

"After a game like this, it's only right to be frustrated, because we don't get to strap 'em up again....

"We wanted to do something special this year as a unit. We figured with the personnel that we had, we had a chance to do a lot of great things for Wisconsin, for the university. And for the most part, we lived up to that. It's hard to get to 30 wins and to do that alone is a great accomplishment -- for the team, myself, the coaching staff. Things just a lot of times don't fall in place like you want it. But overall, I look down the line, at some of the things that we've done, and I wouldn't take anything back."