In a game that figured to be a toss-up, the Wisconsin Badgers asserted themselves as the real UW in the Big Ten with a 90-73 dominating over the Washington Huskies. It was a fantastic response by the Badgers after they were embarrassed in their last game against Oregon, leaving the Huskies red-faced.
After shooting a poor 14-of-45 from behind the three-point line against Oregon, the Badgers improved their three-point accuracy against Washington.
Wisconsin connected on 17-of-38 three-point shots in Seattle. We know how much Greg Gard loves to use the three-point shots in this offense, but the Badgers will be a tough out in March when they are setting up good three-point shots and not settling.
Moving forward, the Badgers, a projected seven-seed in both CBS’s Bracketology and Joe Lunardi’s ESPN projection, have two more regular-season opportunities to bump up to a sixth seed in the NCAA Tournament. They must avoid a massive letdown performance against Maryland next Wednesday on Senior Day before taking on Purdue at Mackey Arena on Saturday.
Here are three standouts from Wisconsin’s win over Washington.
Braeden Carrington
If Carrington’s three-point shooting performance did not put his name into the Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year, I do not know what will. On Saturday, Carrington led all Badger scorers with a career-high 32 points off the bench and shot 9-of-15 from three-point range.
It was the first time a Badger player scored 30 or more points off the bench since Rob Wilson’s game against Indiana in the 2012 Big Ten Tournament. Those nine three-point field goals made are a new school record.
Nick Boyd
Boyd continues to etch his name among the best starting transfers in the Greg Gard era. The senior point guard led all Badgers starters with 22 points on 11-of-20 shots, with 14 of those points coming in the Badgers’ stellar first half.
In addition, Boyd matched his career-high with nine rebounds against the Huskies. It was Boyd’s 18th game of 20+ points, placing his name among some Badger greats.
Nolan Winter
It was another solid game for Winter, finishing one rebound shy of another double-double. The junior forward scored 13 points on 5-of-10 shots from the floor, including 3-of-5 from three-point range, and tied Nick Boyd with nine rebounds on the day.
His last three-pointer even got a strong “Let’s Go Badgers” chant going at Alaska Airlines Arena.
