The Wisconsin Badgers had an impressive comeback on the road against the Indiana Hoosiers this weekend, coming back from a double-digit deficit to send the game to overtime. In the final five minutes, Wisconsin was either leading or tied for the entire period up until the final two seconds, when two Lamar Wilkerson free throws gave Indiana a one-point lead to win the game.
Wisconsin has been in a number of close contests, going 3-1 in games decided by five points or less up until Saturday’s loss.
But the ending to this one was far different than any other matchup, with officiating being a deciding factor.
I broke down several controversial calls after the game in the final five minutes, but no two were bigger than the final two calls that gave Indiana the ball and the go-ahead free throws. With 15 seconds left, Wisconsin broke Indiana’s press and evaded the Hoosiers defense, although it looked like several Indiana defenders fouled or were attempting to foul Nick Boyd as he dribbled away from the basket.
Ultimately, no foul was called there, and Boyd pulled away and looked to protect the basketball, but was whistled for an offensive foul as Conor Enright came up to defend and potentially foul him. Then, with the game on the line, John Blackwell was whistled for a foul on Lamar Wilkerson with two seconds left as both players were losing their balance on a drive to the basket.
Blackwell had walled Wilkerson up well as the Indiana guard tried to shake free, but did appear to step on the latter’s heel as he was falling down. Still, Wilkerson appeared to travel before that contact was made and was already out of control, which made that call controversial as well.
What were head coach Greg Gard’s thoughts on the final two whistles?
“I haven’t seen the second one, but the one there at the end, I’ve never seen anything like that,” Gard said after the game regarding Boyd’s foul. I don’t know. I mean, they’re trying to foul. They actually fouled us 3 times coming up the floor and then called [an offensive foul]. We were driving away from the basket.
“I don’t know. I don’t understand that call. So I’ll get more clarification. I’ve never seen that type of call be made before, so I guess there’s a first for everything.
Did Gard feel the calls at the end were consistent with the rest of the afternoon?
“It’s a hard game to ref, but that wasn’t a hard call.”
As for the Blackwell call, the Badgers head coach felt his guard picked up the switch and defended well as Wilkerson tried to get downhill, but wasn’t able to see a second look after the game whether a foul was the correct call.
“Well, we would try to get a stop there at the end, and I thought we did a good job of switching on Wilkerson,” Gard said. “I haven’t seen that clip yet. I thought Blackwell did a really good job of walling him up. I’ll see whether he just fell down and they blew the whistle or if there was actual contact.”
Wisconsin definitely had a good end to the second-half, engineering yet another double-digit comeback, but those last five minutes will cloud everything about that game. Now, the Badgers will look to keep their foot on the gas and steal a win from the No. 5 Illinois Fighting Illini on Tuesday evening in Champaign amid a stretch of five straight Quad 1 games.
