The Wisconsin Badgers are taking on the Illinois Fighting Illini on Tuesday, looking to bounce back from their loss to the Indiana Hoosiers over the weekend. That one was a tough, emotional loss, given
how Wisconsin fell short at the end with close calls after a strong comeback effort on the road.
Nonetheless, Wisconsin will need to move forward as they face a top-10 team on the road on Tuesday with the Fighting Illini, who were on an 11-game win streak before their three-point loss to the Michigan State Spartans over the weekend.
Against Indiana, the story was much of the same for the Badgers: a slow start derailed them, forcing them to make a tough comeback to try and win the game. What went wrong for Wisconsin in the first half?
“In the first half, I thought we could have done a better job of keeping the dribble out of the paint,” head coach Greg Gard said after the game. “We got beat off the dribble. We got spread out at times. So, I mean, their points in the paint, they had 22 of the 36 in the first half, were in the paint. And obviously, again, it’s a little devil’s advocacy if you squeeze too much, you’re letting shooters get more room and more rhythm.
“And obviously, we tried to negate that. But we needed to be better and more physical. I think when we did, when we were really good, even though we had similar defensive concepts, we were more physical, and that negated what they were doing offensively.”
Wisconsin was far improved on the defensive end in the second half, which was a key part of their comeback. Even in overtime, they were in lockstep defensively for the most part. But the dribble penetration came far too often in the first half and, as Gard said, the team wasn’t physical enough early on.
But there is a different gear to this Badgers team that we’ve seen over the past month. They’ve made double-digit comebacks in five of their last eight games, winning four of those, with Saturday’s being the exception. What did Gard make of the comeback effort against Indiana?
“Toughness has grown within them since the first of the year that they didn’t have consistently in 2025,” Gard said. “And that puts us in a position [where] when things don’t go well, it doesn’t always get perfect. They continue to battle, and they did a terrific job of battling back today. But you got to be able to make one more play.”
Of course, much was said about the final minutes of the game, where a pair of controversial calls directly impacted the Badgers in the one-point loss. Still, Gard wasn’t willing to use that as an excuse after the game.
“There’s a lot of other things that went on in that game that we could do better to not put ourselves in that position where it came down to a last possession,” Gard said. “But you learn from it. I don’t brush off the learning experience and just chalk it up to the last possession that didn’t, you know, a mysterious call. And we have to learn from it, and we’ll pull the things that we did well, and we’ll pull the things that we have to get better at. And then you turn the page and get prepared for next [game].”
Wisconsin’s got quite the challenge on its hands with a highly efficient Illinois team that has won some big games. They can’t get off to the slow starts that they’ve been dealing with. Defensively is where they’ll really have to stand out early on, as the Fighting Illini are the best team in KenPom offensive efficiency.
Tip-off is slated for 7:00 p.m. at the State Farm Center on Peacock.
