The Wisconsin Badgers won a big road game against the Northwestern Wildcats for their sixth quad-1 win. It was another week of splitting the games and going 1-1 after losing to Maryland earlier this week in College Park. Greg Gard was pleased with his team's ability to take a deficit at half-time and turn the game around for a win on the road. He had a lot of positive things to say about his veteran-led team.
Wisconsin's coach Greg Gard says Wisconsin was able to win on the back of their veterans
Fifth-year senior Carter Gilmore may get the storylines with his ability to knock down a few big shots to keep Wisconsin in it, grab an offensive board, and then eventually lead the Badgers to victory. However, this team is full of veteran players: John Tonje and Steven Crowl are graduate students, and Kamari McGee and Max Klesmit are seniors. This leadership in the second half was huge.
"The experience helps you [come back]. I think the maturity of this group showed when things weren't going well. They didn't fraction, the huddles were positive... our experience helped, we didn't panic. "Greg Gard
That group of seniors and graduate students (including Gilmore) combined for 60 of Wisconsin's 75 points. Gard gave a ton of credit to his veteran leadership. He also said that this is the sort of game that helps generate experience; when talking about the end of the game, he said, "This experience will help us [going forward]."
While the Badgers are 2-2 in their last four games, they have seemingly found ways to grow in each game. They are an elite team and one of only three teams in the Big Ten without a quad-2 or worse loss. This game against Northwestern was another reminder of how resilient this team can be, and with some big road games coming up, they will need it again.