COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S TOURNAMENT : WEST REGIONAL / AT OGDEN, UTAH : The Jig Is Up for Wisconsin Green Bay

Turn out the lights, the polka’s over.

That Cinderella of America’s dairyland, Wisconsin Green Bay, bowed out of the Big Polka, falling to fourth-seeded Syracuse, 64-59, Saturday, leaving without ever realizing what an underdog it had been.

UWGB chased the Orangemen into the last two minutes when its best shooter, guard John Martinez, found himself unexpectedly open at eight feet and, with a chance to put his team ahead, missed.

“I think the clock struck 12 when John’s runner rimmed out,” said Coach Dick Bennett.

“I thought I heard the clock strike 12. I thought I saw the big pumpkin roll in.”

It was fun while it lasted, though.

Everything about these North men was colorful, from their names--Ludvigson, Nordgaard, VanderVelden, Grzesk--to their cheerleaders who actually did polkas, to their Cheese Head pep band, to their local hostelry, a truck stop called the Flying J, to their witty coach.

Their upset of California was Syracuse Coach Jim Boeheim’s worst nightmare, subjecting him to yet another round of questions suggesting that Bennett had unskilled players with superior intelligence, not to mention coaching.

Boeheim countered that the Green Bay players were underrated athletes.

“Then I’m Olympic caliber,” said Bennett, a short man in his 50s, laughing, “because I think I can outrun all our guys.”

Loath to abandon the David role in this morality play, Bennett joked about everything, like comparisons of his team to Princeton, another slow-down slayer of the mighty.

“They’re really smart,” he said. “We’re a state school. Doesn’t cost a lot to go to Wisconsin Green Bay.

“We’re trying to get them (Princeton) to come down to our holiday tournament. Coach Pete (Carrill) is interested in coming. Probably set basketball back 100 years, but people in Green Bay will enjoy it.”

Saturday, Bennett’s troupe of “discerning players without options” did what they usually do, throw a monkey wrench into the works of a superior machine.

Unlike Cal, Syracuse was prepared, psychologically and otherwise.

It took the Orangemen 12:04 to get their first lead, but they went up, 37-26, at halftime and 50-37 before the improbable happened again.

Wisconsin Green Bay rallied.

Syracuse led, 58-57, with 1:40 left when Martinez drove to the baseline, popped into the clear, and, surprised, pulled the string on his shot and left it short.

“I passed the first guy and I thought someone else was coming,” Martinez said. “I was actually looking to pass the ball.”

With 35 seconds left and the Orangemen ahead, 61-57, Green Bay’s Ben Berlowski drove the baseline, hit a layup, bounced off a Syracuse player, fell to the floor . . . and was called for charging by referee Lenny Wirtz, who also wiped out the basket.

“Who’d he run into?” asked someone on press row.

“He ran into Lenny Wirtz,” said a member of the statistics crew.

Bennett said later that as soon as the disappointment ebbed, he expected to feel proud. Indeed, he thought it might do wonders for the program.

“Maybe there’s somebody out there,” he said, “who thinks, ‘I don’t mind wearing a parka for nine months. I want to be there.”’

Polka on, Dick.