The Wisconsin Badgers suffered their fourth loss of the season, falling short in a 76-66 overtime defeat to the Villanova Wildcats on Friday.
It was a tale of two halves, as the Badgers didn’t look like
themselves over the first 20 minutes before dialing up a comeback in the second half. Unfortunately, their juice fell short in overtime, where Villanova got out to a quick eight-point lead and held on for the win.
After the game, head coach Greg Gard pointed out the team’s need for more consistency and where the Badgers go from here.
Here’s everything Gard said following the game on Friday.
Opening Statement…
“For us, I thought the second half showed who we can be, who we need to be. It’s what we’ve been asking for in terms of that effort and commitment on the defensive end. And obviously, you claw yourself back from down 15. Those guys that did that were a part of that. Five or six guys showed me where, you know, who I need to have on the floor, and other guys got to continue to rise to the expectations. I thought first half, we were not aggressive enough. We have one offensive rebound, no free throws, you know, just. And not good enough defensively. Let three-point shooters be real comfortable. The second half is what I’ll be able to hold onto, to build upon.
“And these guys will as well, as we just talked about in the locker room and then the start of the overtime. Obviously, Lindsey hits two threes, and I think we gave up 11 points in the first five possessions, and trying to claw back from that. But for me, the solace I’ll take is that 20 minutes in the middle that we have to build upon, because that’s the type of team we need to be from a defensive standpoint. And we’ve got to get more guys playing to that level. Like, you know, these two guys to my, to my left and the other guys that were on the floor with them. So we’ll learn a lot from this. As I told them, nobody’s feeling sorry for you.
“We have to continue to get better. I’ve seen teams come through, you know, way harder challenges. I did like how we responded in the second half, but we got to put the 40 minutes of that together, and then we’ll be inching closer to where we need to be.”
On the emotions from the team after the game…
“I think it’s good. It means they care. Means winning matters. And I think in today’s day and age of everything going on in college athletics and the individualism that gets attached to whether it’s portal or nil, we lose sight of that. Winning matters, and that stings and it burns. And so from a coach’s standpoint, that’s good. That tells me they care, which they do. So I think that’s a good sign.
On Nolan Winter’s performance…
“Well, that iron five or whatever you want to call them, or six with [Hayden] Jones involved there at some [point] in the second half, they set the standard. So anybody that wants to be on the floor supporting and helping those guys understand what the standard is. So the rest of our frontline guys gotta [step up]. I’m not asking Nolan to hold back or slow up and let everybody else catch up to him. No, the bar’s been set. And those younger guys, those new guys, there’s some combination of both. They’re young, and they’re new. They gotta step forward, and they gotta mature and grow and improve at a fast rate, and they see what Nolan’s doing. That’s the example, that’s the standard. Meet this. Meet the standard.”
On overtime struggles…
“I think to a degree [we got away from our game offensively], but we gave up back-to-back threes. So then you’re in a position where you’re playing a possession game, knowing there’s not going to be a lot of possessions. They’re going to milk some clock if they have a lead. So I felt we didn’t stay with our [game]. The same thing defensively, like we had done the 20 the previous 20 minute,s and then that caused just giving up threes or giving up some points in overtime cause you to get out of character offensively and not stay true to who you are.
“So I thought in the overtime, specifically, the bigger concern is that we got away from some things defensively. I’ll have to look through the tape and go possession by possession. I know it was 11 points in the first five possessions, and we had to foul in that situation. So we can’t allow a defensive miscue or something to force us to do something out of character offensively. And, so you say, all right, don’t make defensive mistakes and give up easy baskets or things that you’re trying to take away. So we’re still in a learning process or a learning period of not allowing that to affect us from an emotional [standpoint]. And that’s a maturity thing that we can’t. Even though they are correlated, you can’t let something that goes wrong affect you on the other end and get you out of what has made you successful.”
On how to get consistency for 40 minutes…
“I think it’s a combination of all those things, understanding what the standard is. And as I told them in the locker room, now you’ve seen it. We’re not chasing a ghost anymore. We know what it looks like, and I also know you can do it. So now it’s a matter of doing it again. It’ll be again tomorrow when we practice and get ready for Monday. So it’s do it again and then do it again. And I thought we made some steps defensively in practice over the week, things that we worked on. And it showed me in the second 20 that, ‘okay, we’re capable of doing it.’
“Maybe not everybody is yet, but I found a group there of five or six guys that lived up to the standard, and now we gotta get others to live up to that standard, too. So, I don’t lower the standard to meet where they are. They have to improve to meet where the standard needs to be for in this program.”
On how Nolan Winter responded after Nebraska loss…
“Yeah, I think he’s practiced consistently. He’s a competitor. It bothers competitors when you’re not successful because they put a lot of time into their craft, you know, and they have great pride in representing a team and playing for their teammates and with their teammates. So, like I said, winning matters to Nolan, and that’s good to see.”
On John Blackwell’s second half…
“I thought he was more, more aggressive in attacking, and his rim finish percentage still is [low]. I think he was 2 for 6 or 2 for 8 at the rim. And he’s got to be 5 for 6 or 6 for 8. He’s got to be able to convert on those. So I thought his shot selection was better. Obviously, the two fouls in the first half get him out of rhythm, but I thought he refocused, reset at halftime, and came out and was [at his best over] the last four halves, not including the overtime. That’s the best I’ve seen him in that second half. So hopefully he’s back on the right track. But I thought he did a good job of resetting at halftime after the first half was not up to his standard, and came out and gave us a boost in the second.”
On if there was a lack of aggressiveness on offense…
“I mean, we were non-aggressive on the defensive end too, and I think that translates when you’re not aggressive on the defensive end, and you’re allowing whoever [to score], whether it was, I don’t think it was Lindsey, because I don’t think he hit one in the first half. But for Perkins, we allowed guys just to comfortably get shots off. We lost Hodge on a switch on that when you’re not an aggressive defensive team, and I’m not talking about picking up full court and that type of stuff, but in tune, alert, and aware. I thought the second half we were more alert and aware, and we covered up things, and it usually goes hand in hand.
“When you’re not aggressive defensively, then you’re kind of wishy washy offensively too, and you’re not in attack mode, you’re not in an aggressive playing with an aggressive mindset. Second half, we played with a more aggressive mindset, and we got shots to go in. We got better, better shots. We were at the rim more. We got to get more than 10 free throws. We’ve got to be able to do it for more. I don’t think we shot any, and then we shot none in the first half, which told me our lack of aggression.
“But the defensive component, how we just allowed Villanova to play real comfortable in the first half, was the thing that I felt it showed the lack of aggression. In the second half, we were able to turn the round and show how we can be, and that’s how we need to be. So they did themselves a favor by setting the standard or showing that we can do it. Now we gotta build upon that. That’s what I’ll pull from the tape is the first, and it’s almost a tale of two halves, and we have to be that team that was out there in that second 20 more consistently.”
