A Greg Gard quote from early in the season continues to ring true

After the Wisconsin Badgers got throttled by the Nebraska Cornhuskers in a game in which the Badgers clearly didn't show up to play, Greg Gard said words that continue to haunt this team. He spoke to the media and said, "When we choose to be bad, we're really bad."

The Wisconsin Badgers are an all-in or all-out team, it seems. Sometimes they may flip in the second half, but this team now has a pattern of showing up flat. They've recovered in some of those games and came out with the victory; other times, they've only made the problem worse. Oregon is another example of this haunting quote.

Wisconsin can be really good or really bad and they chose wrong against Oregon

Related: 3 frustrating reasons Wisconsin floundered against Oregon on the road

Many fans stayed up late to watch Wisconsin deliver a poor product. The tip-time was 10 pm CT, and fans eager to see the Badgers take down an inferior opponent (a three-win Big Ten team) were sorely disappointed to watch Wisconsin jack up threes and have no flow to the offense in the first half. Wisconsin players truly believed they could beat Oregon without trying, didn't they?

The second half didn't get better; in fact, to take Greg Gard's quote, the players chose to be really bad. They started turning the ball over more, in stupid ways, driving into the lane with three defenders. Throwing up weird threes and letting Oregon score pretty much at will.

Many fans just turned it off with the feeling of, well, this team chooses to be really bad again. And that's a problem. This is a team that can fly with anyone but also wrestles in the mud with anyone, and that's not good come March. For any given night, the energy and physicality of this team will determine their ability to win a tournament game. And if what we saw against Oregon happens again, the Badgers will get blown out of the gym.