Greg Gard laments Badgers late-game approach: ‘We stink when we’re not’ aggressive

The Wisconsin Badgers struggled to finish on Saturday, dropping a 77-73 overtime game to the Oregon Ducks that marked arguably their worst loss of the season.

It was an uncharacteristic game for the Badgers, as they blew a 16-point lead in the second half, where turnovers proved to be costly, especially down the stretch where Wisconsin failed to get a field goal over the final 3:16 of regulation.

For a veteran-laden team, Saturday was the situation that Wisconsin usually wanted to be in: having the lead with the clock running down. The Badgers entered the game as one of the best free-throw shooting teams in the country, which usually bodes well for late-game situations.

However, they never even got the chance to attempt a free throw in the second half, turning the ball over four times in the last 2:02 to allow Oregon to climb back in, despite facing a double-digit deficit for a good portion of the game.

What did head coach Greg Gard have to say about his team’s disappointing finish after the game?

“Credit goes to Oregon for making us be very uncharacteristic, specifically the last eight minutes or so,” Gard acknowledged. “I thought for even most of the second half, we were not nearly as aggressive as we have been. Even what we were in the first half. I mean, the stats bear it out.

When you don’t shoot any free throws, you have 17 turnovers, 11 in the second half. You turn the ball over like that when you just. It’s a lack of aggression, it’s a tentativeness that I felt we didn’t play on our toes and keep the throttle down like we had in the first half. And again, that’s credit to Oregon. We didn’t attack the pressure. We got us to walk the ball up and play slower. So we’ll learn from this and quickly turn the page for Tuesday night. But obviously really disappointed in the last, you know, most of the second half, but specifically the last six, seven minutes.”

That lack of aggressiveness haunted the Badgers, as they didn’t attack the rim and, specifically, center Nate Bittle, who had three first-half fouls and none in the second half.

“I watched so many guys catch the ball and not look at the rim, not be ready to shoot the ball,” Gard continued. “And again when you play tentative and you’re not in your attack, aggressive mindset like we have been for a long time, then you have a tendency to fumble and bumble and throw the ball where you shouldn’t throw it, throw the ball that somebody’s not ready for it. Those things start adding up. So I think it was all on us. So those are the things we can’t get into.

“Being a tentative, nonaggressive team. We’re really good when we are aggressive and obviously we stink when we’re not.”

After a first half where the Badgers relied on Steven Crowl and John Tonje to set the tone offensively, neither had a major second half, as the former took just two shot attempts, while the latter went 2/6 from the field in the period.

the USC Trojans.

“John [Tonje] had 20 shots. So the key with John is he needed to get the free throw line more, and he only shoots two,” Gard said. “And those were obviously in the first half, as all of ours were. I thought we settled for too many things at times, and we got him taking tougher shots, and then we got fours and fives that are turning down shots. And that puts the pressure back on John to have to take a tougher shot when the rest of us aren’t as aggressive as we need to be.”

The Badgers have a chance to reset on Tuesday as they’ll host the Washington Huskies, who have struggled in their transition to the Big Ten, and it is essentially a must-win game to keep them as at least a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament projections and in the Big Ten regular-season picture.