Wisconsin head basketball coach Greg Gard was pleased with his team's ability to be resilient on the road in their big conference win over Rutgers 75-63. He started the press conference with how hard of a place it is to play; it said that it's tough to come in and play at Rutgers, "to be on the left side, it's going to be a rock fight at times."
Rutgers handed them a loss last time that Wisconsin game to town, and it was a big agenda item to not let them do it again. Last season it was about as painful of a loss as the Badgers experienced during the season because it was the fourth loss in a row on a downward skid. Gard and the Badgers started the season hot, and that going to New Jersey loss was indicative of the wheels coming off in the second half of the season. While Wisconsin was able to beat them later at home, it was too little too late.
Gard was much more pleased with the result tonight, noting, "I thought we showed grittiness and toughness when things didn't flow as smoothly as they can sometimes for us offensively; we had different guys step up and make plays. We were able to withstand their run at us in the second half and then to get separation and put it away. We know we are always in for a battle when we come here. Life on the road in the Big 10 is very difficult, so when you can get road wins and lead wire to wire like we did, I felt it was a really good team win."
Greg Gard sees areas of drastic improvement even in a big win.
Gard, in his normal style, though, wasn't overwhelmingly pleased. He wants to see improvement in a few major areas. He felt that most of the turnovers were self-inflicted, and that needs to stop. He felt the frustrations mostly came from the team "not playing on two feet." He wants to see more offensive rebounds, and his team has room for improvement going forward. This Badgers team is looking much better after Christmas break, and now they have to head home and take on Minnesota on Friday.