After an 85-82 victory over the Washington Huskies, the Wisconsin Badgers turned around and one-upped themselves with a 91-88 overtime win over the Illinois Fighting Illini on Friday, advancing in the Big Ten Tournament.
Wisconsin faced some big-time adversity, trailing by 15 at one point in the second half, but they rallied and found a way to win behind 69 combined points from John Blackwell and Nick Boyd. Now, the Badgers will face off against the Michigan Wolverines on Saturday for a chance to make
the Big Ten Championship Game.
After the game, head coach Greg Gard spoke with the media as he broke down the win and looked ahead to Saturday. Here’s everything he said, courtesy of Big Ten Communications.
Opening Statement…
Obviously a tremendous college basketball game. I can’t say enough about the heart and the toughness and the growth that my group has shown from back late in the fall into the 2026 part of the calendar and how we’ve matured and have tremendous toughness to us to be able to come back from 15 down. It speaks to the character of these guys and the willpower of them.
Illinois is a terrific team. Brad’s got a terrific team. Both games have been overtime, and they’ve damn near been the same score. I think it was 91-89 at Champaign. So just two really, really good teams.
Obviously like yesterday, my backcourt is tremendous. These two guys were terrific, but their teammates also do a really good job of helping along the way with putting space on the floor and the rebounding and those type of things. Obviously a tremendous team win. We’ll get some rest and get ready for tomorrow afternoon.
How this team has evolved since November…
I think it’s a credit to them for how they recognized how we had to improve, and the improvement. There were things on the court, but there were probably as many things in our physical and mental makeup that we had to improve upon and grow through, and they’ve done that. It’s been a joy to watch them come together, the chemistry, the connectivity. It just took us time because it’s a relatively new group. Seven of the top eight or nine are new to our program.
Like I said, it’s just a credit to them for taking coaching, embracing the fact that we had to get better, and they took ownership in it. The results speak for themselves. They’ve done it. They answered the challenge. They followed the instructions of what the coaching staff put out in front of them of how we needed to get better and what it was going to entail, and they attacked it.
They’ve done a terrific job with it. Today’s another example of just the perseverance and resilience that we didn’t have back in late 2025 or early 2026, but they’ve grown immensely.
On how they exploited Illinois in second half/overtime…
I don’t know if you exploit anything. It’s two really, really good teams with terrific players. If you peel back the onion, so to speak, in terms of how they play and how we play, it’s very identical. We both shoot a lot of 3s.
We’re both analytically driven with rim 2s and 3s. We’re both built to do that in terms of the makeup of our rosters.
Our guys were able to continue to find ways to make plays. I thought we rebounded the ball well, better than what we did yesterday, and that was a big piece because Illinois attacks the offensive glass exceptionally well. For us to be able to do it even down two guys from when we played in Champaign, it just speaks to, like I said, the internal fortitude of my group that they were able to find a way.
Like I said, Brad’s got a great team. Hopefully they do really well in the tournament. I think they’re built to do some damage. They’re a hard cover. They’re hard to guard because of how they spread you out. I’m sure we’re hard to guard if I flip the mirror around the other way. Like I said, we’re just able to make some plays on both ends of the floor to get the advantage down the stretch.
On how Badgers outrebounded Illinois…
Rebounding, there’s a point of it that’s physical in terms of size and those things, but I felt a lot of rebounding is what’s underneath your hood, meaning inside of you, and your grit and your toughness. You can rebound against size if you continue to have the fight to you and some toughness.
I thought, other than a couple times, I thought in the second half, down in front, we didn’t check as hard as we needed to on a switch, and Ivisic got a putback. Buy and large, I thought we made their second opportunities relatively difficult. It’s hard because they shoot a lot of 3s like we do, so you’ve got uncharacteristic bounces. You’ve got long rebounds coming out. It’s not necessarily always a defensive rebounder’s fault that we don’t get the ball, it’s just the angle and distance that the ball rebounds at.
But like I said, our pursuit of it I thought and our fight to make sure we minimize extra possessions, I think was exceptional.
On how they’re able to come back consistently from double digits…
Thankfully it’s a 40-minute game, so we have more time. I think a lot of it ties into what I’ve talked about here in terms of how our resilience and toughness and perseverance have grown. Our ability to turn the page within possessions, meaning something doesn’t go well, we don’t dwell on it. I’ve said all along they turn the page
better than their head coach does at times. That happens from possession to possession, half to half, game to game.
They handle adversity much better than they did back in November, December, early January. It’s a long game. We had 75 possessions today. If two or three in a row don’t go your way, let’s work to get it back in the next two or three knowing you’ve got a lot of time left to play.
With our pace of play and our ability to score — I think in the game today just overall, the 3-point line, you can eradicate a lead or catch up or lose a lead in a short amount of time because the possessions can happen quick, and you bang in a few 3s.
Momentum’s never neutral. It’s either with you or against you. You’re constantly fighting to have it on your side, and when you don’t, you can’t pout or dwell about things not going your way. This group has done a terrific job of growing into that identity.
On how they can get rest of offense going…
Hell, when your two guys score 69 of your 91 points. Look at Rapp, four assists, no turnovers. Bieliauskas four assists, no turnovers. There’s eight buckets that they assisted on. Rapp and Carrington didn’t shoot the ball particularly well from 3. I thought Bieliauskas turned down a few. We kept talking about he had some opportunities to pull the trigger on them.
When you have two guards like that and their ability to make plays and Nick has, what, six assists. So you ride the hot hand, you ride the game — the game is a guard’s game, especially this time of year. To be able to have two really, really good ones like we do, I’d be an idiot not to put the ball in their hands more often than not.
On what Badgers need to do vs. Michigan…
They’re a terrific team. You’ve got to make shots. You’ve got to be able to guard. Mara is a handful. Lendeborg is a handful. You go up-and-down the list. Point guard Cadeau. They’re well put together in terms of the pieces fit really well together, how they play off one another is exceptional. They can hurt you inside. They can shoot 3s. They make it hard because of how they defend, and Mara can take up a lot of space in the paint.
So you have to be — I think we made 15, 16 3s in Ann Arbor. We’ll have to get our rest tonight and start diving through film. I know the assistants have been working ahead of that. And then get ready as we prep and rest up over the next, I don’t know, 20 hours or so.
