The Wisconsin Badgers fell short in a 68-65 loss to the Michigan Wolverines on Saturday, ending their bid for a Big Ten Championship in the semifinals.
It was a tough game, but one where Wisconsin fought hard yet again, and they even overcame another double-digit deficit in the second half, coming back down 15 to even lead late in the game. But a Yaxel Lendeborg three with 0.4 seconds left propelled Michigan to the Championship Game, sending Wisconsin home.
The loss gives the Badgers an extra day of
rest, which the Badgers haven’t gotten the last two years, and head coach Greg Gard acknowledged the impact of that postgame. That’ll be especially helpful for a squad nursing some injuries and players seeing heavy minutes.
The biggest loss the Badgers had was Nolan Winter, who suffered an ankle sprain last week against the Maryland Terrapins and sat out this week in the Big Ten Tournament. When suffering the injury at home, the big man was down for several minutes before heading to the locker room, leaving fans worried about his status.
But Gard said the issue wasn’t as bad as it seemed, and that it was an ankle sprain, albeit a new one on the ankle Winter hadn’t sprained earlier in the year.
Winter wasn’t expected to play in the Big Ten Tournament, but did go through a pre-game warmup on Saturday before deeming himself not ready to play. After the game, he was made available to the media, and brushed away any notions that he wouldn’t be available for the NCAA Tournament.
“I’m feeling good,” Winter said with a smile. “I’ll be ready to go next week. Obviously, I wanted to be out there this weekend with my boys. Seemed like a lot of fun out there. Fans brought the juice.”
Winter acknowledged that playing on Saturday was a thought, but ultimately made the decision himself that playing wouldn’t be what was best for the team.
“Yeah, I woke up this morning feeling a lot better than I had previous days. Moving around pretty good,” Winter said. “But at the end of the day, just wanted what was best for the team. Being here for a couple of days too, and with my boys, seeing how much fun it was, how much fun they had yesterday, I wanted to be out there really bad. But at the end of the day, just sat this one out and I’m ready to go [next week for the tournament].”
“I don’t think there was anything specific [on why I didn’t go]. Just going through warm-ups, just didn’t think I’d give my 100 percent for the team, and that’s ultimately what I want to be doing every time I step on the court. So saving up and making sure I’m 100 percent for next week is more important to me and just for the team’s sake. And like I said, I was proud of the way they fought today.”
At the time of the injury, Winter acknowledged he was more in shock, as it was a new injury he hadn’t experienced, but that quickly went away once the testing was positive.
“At the time, honestly, it was more of just like a shock to my body because I hadn’t sprained this ankle before, so I was a little, you know, concerned at the time, but once we got our tests and evaluations back, it was all good news. So when I heard the word of all those coming back, I was happy with it and got after that treatment with Brent over there. So yeah, I’ve got a lot of good training these last couple weeks and feeling really good.”
It’s been an extensive treatment process for the Badgers big over the past two weeks after the swelling started to subside, with that process carrying over to this week on the road.
“Swelling was the biggest thing for me the first couple of nights,” Winter said. “So just trying to get that down, being able to, you know, start walking and moving on it a little more after those first couple of nights was the biggest thing. So getting that swelling under control and then going from there. And I think day by day, I’ve gotten better each day. So, you know, I’m at a point right now where I’m ready to start practicing with the guys and get out there next week.”
“I’ve taken it to my fullest advantage of these last couple of weeks, been doing treatment for 5, 6 hours a day. I’m just trying to get it right and was trying to get ready for this weekend. I thought for a chance there was maybe a split second I’d be ready for this weekend, but ultimately made the decision not to, and we’ll be ready to go next week.
“We brought a lot of equipment for me, hopped in the hotel pool quite a bit, just really doing everything we can to get this thing going. But yeah, obviously, we’re at the games, and when I go back, I do even more treatment. So it’s just throw everything we can at it.”
Winter’s return will be big for the Badgers in the tournament, who will head back to Madison and now get ready for whatever Selection Sunday throws their way. But, in his absence, Wisconsin saw some big growth from Austin Rapp and Aleksas Bieliauskas, who will both be key, be it off the bench or in the starting lineup, in the tournament.
Now, we’ll get to see Wisconsin close to full strength as they look to reach the second weekend for the first time since the 2017 season.
