When Greg Gard arrived with Bo Ryan at the University of Wisconsin, Michigan State was amid three straight Final Four runs and was the king of the Big Ten with four straight conference titles. It made it easy for Gard and Ryan to figure out which program it needed to emulate to chase championships.
“You say, okay, who’s been winning at the highest level, and what do we have to do to be able to compete with them?” Gard said. “The toughness and playing hard, that’s expected. That’s not an exception. No matter who we have on our roster, we expect them to play hard. I don’t want to use the word culture. It’s the expectation. As a coach, if you ever want one thing said about your teams, it’s that they play hard because playing hard will cover up for maybe other miscues that you have or hiccups you have here and there.”
There weren’t many miscues down the stretch for Wisconsin on Saturday, just out-toughing and out-playing the Big Ten regular season champions to make the critical plays in a 77-74 victory at Indianapolis’ Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Advancing to the conference championship game against No.3 Michigan, the Badgers (26-8) committed one turnover in the final 15 minutes, executed two critical blocks on the final two possessions, cleaned the mistakes that crippled them in the first matchup with the Spartans (27-6), got exceptional offense from senior John Tonje and timely buckets from others in crunch time.
After avenging regular-season losses in the quarterfinal and semifinal, Wisconsin will have the chance to avenge one more loss with an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line.
“I think it’s a great opportunity,” guard John Blackwell said. “The two teams we just played, UCLA and Michigan State, obviously got us at their place. Then these two teams playing right now, they both beat us. So it’s a great opportunity to get our revenge and the championship. We know how it feels to get to this point. Now we’ve just got to finish the job.”
Here are my takeaways from Wisconsin’s semifinal win.
John Tonje, Blackwell, and Kamari McGee laid out the Michigan State game plan minutes after dispatching UCLA in the quarterfinal: the Badgers couldn’t be afraid to attack the paint.
Michigan State holds teams to 28 percent from three – best in the Big Ten – and had a hand in Wisconsin going 5-for-32 in East Lansing earlier this month. With UW unlikely to drop 19 three-pointers for the second straight day, the Badgers had to be willing to attack the lane. Tonje followed through on the plan with a Wisconsin Big Ten Tournament record 32 points.
Unlike Friday, where 18 of his 26 points came from the perimeter, Tonje was only 4-for-10 from the perimeter, but his willingness to attack allowed him to generate most of his 14 free throw attempts. He made his first 12, including four in the final three minutes to kept the lead at three points. His toughest bucket came off the dribble, knifing into the lane and fighting through contact to finish off the glass.
“I thought we did a pretty good job on him most of the way, and he cut loose a little bit,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. “That’s what great players do.”
After going 3-for-13 from the floor, 1-for-8 from three, and 4-for-4 from the line in the first meeting, Tonje went 8-for-15, 4-for-10, and 12-for-14.
“Obviously, you learn from your past mistakes, and I think the coaching staff really prepared us and showed us a better game plan for this time around, just things that we could have done better as a team,” said Tonje, who added seven rebounds and two assists. “I think me and the guys really just bought in today and just kind of saw those looks, saw things open up when we were able to execute what the coaches gave us.”
Tonje could have taken the stress out of the final possession with a made free throw, but the 91.8 percent free-throw shooter missed both attempts with six seconds remaining. He made up for it by getting his right hand on the ball as Spartans guard Jeremy Fears Jr. started to attempt a half-court shot to tie the game.
“I tried to just make a play on the ball,” Tonje said. “We would give up a foul in that scenario, but he was in the act of shooting. So I’m just glad I was able to get that deflection at the end.”
Tonje is the first player with a 30-point game in three wins over Top-10 teams in a single season since UConn’s Kemba Walker in 2010-11. With 76 points in three tournament games, Tonje is tied for ninth in all-time single-tournament scoring.
“Offensively you try to put him in positions of success, and it comes also with his teammates around him to be able to spread the floor and share the ball,” Gard said. “He’s earned every accolade he’s getting, and he’s one heck of a player. More importantly, he’s an even better person, and that’s why it fits so well with our team and why the transition, and even though it will be one season, has been so good. Because he’s the right type of person in our program.”
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With 7:57 remaining, Tonje had 28 of Wisconsin’s 57 points, and only one player had more than five. Tonje only attempted one field goal the remainder of the game, but two of his teammates carried the offense.
Blackwell was 1-for-7, and Carter Gilmore needed to play the five due to Nolan Winter‘s foul trouble. Down the stretch, the duo combined for 13 points, three rebounds, two assists, one block, and one turnover.
“That’s part of this team that everyone can step up on any given night,” said Gilmore, who finished with 10 points, five rebounds, five assists, and three blocks. “We’ve been lucky to do that here in the past couple games, just have different guys step up in different times. Especially in these tournaments, when you’re getting down here in March and playing multiple games back to back, guys are beat up, tired, injuries nagging here and there. So to be able to have the depth and guys that can step up at any given moment, make plays, make shots, and do the right thing, it’s super helpful and going to be very important here in March.”
Gilmore’s assist to Blackwell on a three-pointer since the 10:34 mark of the first half came directly after Coen Carr’s dunk cut into the UW lead. With Tonje on the bench getting a final rest before the closing stretch, Blackwell delivered a three-point play through contact at the rim to put UW up 63-60. UW held the lead for the final 5:55.
On Tonje’s only shot attempt in the closing minutes, Blackwell drew a loose-ball foul on Jaden Atkins. Instead of the Spartans tying the game or taking the lead, Blackwell’s two free throws extended the lead to 74-70 with 31.4 remaining.
“If you’re not making shots, your confidence can’t waver,” Blackwell said. “My teammates are on me about that. All credit to them and my coaches too. Down the stretch, I know the team trusts me to get a bucket, so that’s what I did. It doesn’t matter if the shots aren’t falling early. I just stayed aggressive and keep going at it.”
With Winter limited to 12 minutes with fouls and Steven Crowl logging heavy minutes at 31 (5 points, 8 rebounds), Gard decided to use Gilmore at the five for the second straight game.
“It makes us a little harder to guard,” Gard said of the decision. “We’re a little faster in and out of the ball screens. Like I said, Gilmore can defend and rebound with 5, so I’m not as concerned about that.”
That speed was critical on Michigan State’s penultimate possession. Admitting forgetting that Wisconsin was only up three, Gilmore rotated to the paint as Fears Jr. attacked the lane. With Tre Holloman trailing the play and alone at the top of the key, Gilmore sprinted toward the 34.1 percent three-point shooter and managed to get his fingertips on the shot, which fell harmlessly into Tonje’s hands.
“I realized we were only up three quick, and the pass came back, and I knew I had to get on my horse and try to get a deflection or at least try to alter the shot in some way,” Gilmore said. “I was trying to block Fears at the start and then realized that Holloman was my guy, and I had to sprint back there and just try to make a play or do whatever I could to try to alter the shot any way I could.”
Blackwell has scored in double figures in six of the last seven games, averaging 17.7 ppg over that span, while Gilmore’s five blocks was a career high, and his team-high five assists matched his season high.
The Badgers’ poor shooting at the Breslin Center (33.8 percent overall, 15.8 percent from three) contributed greatly to UW’s nine-point loss, but other factors made things more challenging.
Wisconsin gave up 12 second-chance points on 13 offensive rebounds and 20 fast-break points. The Badgers also committed two turnovers and scored two points over their final nine possessions. UW was more poised in the rematch.
For starters, the Badgers limited the Spartans to 11 second-chance points on eight offensive rebounds. Jaxson Kohler had 16 rebounds (seven offensive) in the first meeting, but the Badgers got him into early foul trouble, and he finished with only seven points and seven rebounds (two offensive) in 16 minutes.
Despite being outrebounded, 37-33, UW gave up only three offensive rebounds in the second half and two second-chance points in the final 15 minutes.
“We knew coming in that it was going to be a battle,” Gilmore said. “We obviously knew all the rules and the little things that they’re going to try to take advantage of and they did last game, and we weren’t going to let them do that same stuff this game. Boxing out was the main thing transition getting the ball up the sidelines, shutting that off, building a wall, but then just executing them — playing harder.
“All the 50-50 balls had to be ours, all the loose rebounds and stuff like that, we had to clean up and run. Especially down the stretch, they do a great job when they go 10 guys deep, they can constantly be crashing. We did a phenomenal job fighting for rebounds and doing the little stuff that took us over the top to get the win.”
The Spartans are fourth in the country in fast break points per game (16.41 ppg) but the Badgers allowed only eight with none coming in the final 10 minutes.
When all the glitz and glamour fall off, the fundamentals get it done and help you stay consistent over the course of seasons,” Gard said. “We didn’t just start emphasizing fundamentals yesterday.”
4 – UW recorded its fourth win over a team seeded No. 1 in the Big Ten Tournament (2004 vs. Illinois in the title game, 2013 vs. Indiana in the semifinals, 2024 vs. Purdue in the semifinals and 2025), improving to 4-6 all-time in such games.
8 – Wisconsin is one of eight teams nationally with at least three wins over AP Top-10 teams this season (No.9 Arizona, at No.7 Purdue) and the only Big Ten team.
9 – The Badgers are in the Big Ten Tournament championship for the second consecutive season and the ninth time in school history. Those nine appearances match Ohio State for the most of any school. UW is 3-5 in title games, last winning the tournament in 2015.
15 – The Badgers now have 15 top-10 wins in 10 seasons under Gard, including nine of those coming away from home (road/neutral).
66 – In three Big Ten Tournament games, Wisconsin has held its opponents to a 36.5 percent clip from the field (66-for-181).
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