The Wisconsin Badgers had their first exhibition game before the start of the 2025-26 season, losing to the Oklahoma Sooners in an 84-83 game on Friday at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
It was an exciting
game that went all the way down to the wire as Wisconsin tried to fervently come back, but came just short of doing so.
It was a weird game of sorts, as the Badgers didn’t shoot the ball particularly well, while the Sooners shot lights out. Yet, it remained close, as Wisconsin won the turnover battle 16-7, while getting 14 offensive rebounds in comparison to eight for the Sooners.
While it’s only an exhibition game, there’s still much to take away. Here are three quick takeaways from the Badgers 84-83 loss to Oklahoma on Friday.
Rotation
We got a glimpse into what Greg Gard’s rotation would be like on Friday, and it’s pretty much entirely what I had projected earlier in the day.
Aleksas Bieliauskas was the first player off the bench, but that was for an injured Nolan Winter, who had some blood coming out. Still, that showed the big man depth chart, which is consistent with what we had seen and heard from head coach Greg Gard.
Jack Janicki followed, which was expected, and Braeden Carrington, Will Garlock, and Hayden Jones filled out the rest of the 10-man rotation.
Janicki and Bieliauskas had 13 minutes off the bench each, while Carrington and Garlock had eight. Jones only had three, which head coach Greg Gard lamented after the game.
Wisconsin played its starters a good amount of minutes. John Blackwell had 36, Austin Rapp had 33, and Nick Boyd had 31. Andrew Rohde and Nolan Winter followed with 28 and 26, respectively.
Coming into the day, I said I felt Janicki and Carrington were locks to get minutes as the backup wings. I also felt that Bieliauskas and Garlock were ahead in the big man rotation, and Elijah Gray wasn’t available on Friday due to a personal matter, according to the team. Then, among the guards, Jones was the most impressive of the rest, earning the respect from the coaching staff to be in the rotation already.
Those were the five off the bench that played, and that could stay for Greg Gard heading into the season.
The bench shot 4/9 as a whole, including 4/8 from three, with Bieliauskas hitting two threes. The Lithuanian freshman will have to watch his foul concerns, racking up three in 13 minutes. That was a slight problem in the offseason and during the Red-White scrimmage, though his low-volume role eases the issue.
Three-point shooting
As I’ve mentioned earlier this offseason, I expect this team to be a good three-point shooting team, but to also have some streaky days, which will lead to some losses.
Wisconsin’s offense has evolved to the point where they’re still scoring 83 points a game when shooting under 33 percent from deep, thanks to an increased tempo.
On Friday, the Badgers were 10/31 from deep, with the starters struggling. Nick Boyd, Andrew Rohde, John Blackwell, and Nolan Winter combined to shoot 3/16 from deep, with Austin Rapp being the lone positive in the starting lineup.
That’s not good enough, but Wisconsin should also expect better consistency there. The Badgers were only 3/14 from deep as a whole in the first half before hitting 7/17 in the second half, where they averaged over 1.3 points per possession.
Overall, the three-point shooting wasn’t great, but it wasn’t Wisconsin’s biggest offensive problem. The Badgers really struggled at the rim, shooting 7-of-19 on layups. They had good looks, but weren’t getting shots to fall.
That’s all to say, with the inefficiency from deep and at the rim, Wisconsin still scored 83 points. So, there aren’t too many negatives offensively, but rather things to work on for a high ceiling there.
Defense
Of course, when you score 83 points and lose, the defense will be a topic of concern. But, Friday was a weird game.
Oklahoma shot the lights out of the ball, hitting their first five threes and proceeding to shoot 8/12 from deep in the first half. They ended the game shooting 11/20 from deep, while hitting 51.8 percent of their total shots.
Still, Wisconsin forced 16 turnovers (only 21 points off turnovers compared to 17 off seven turnovers for Oklahoma), and saw better progress defensively in the second half, holding Oklahoma to 41.4 percent from the field.
I’m never too concerned about a Greg Gard defense early. The head coach acknowledged how the team puts in much more to learn about the offense earlier in the offseason, so the defensive parts are still coming along. Look at last year. Wisconsin wasn’t as good defensively to begin the year, but had a strong finish to be one of the most well-rounded teams in college basketball.
They have the building blocks there, and the rebounding numbers were impressive on the offensive glass, which was a concern heading into the season. Now, it’s time to see the game-by-game growth there.
