Everything Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard said after the Badgers’ road win vs. Minnesota

Wisconsin basketball (23-7, 13-6 Big Ten) pocketed a narrow 74-67 win over Minnesota (15-15, 7-12 Big Ten) on Wednesday night in Minneapolis.

Fueled by sophomore guard John Blackwell’s 25 points and career-best 11 rebounds, the Badgers fended off a Golden Gophers’ second half comeback to return to the win column. The much-needed result followed the team’s recent disappointing road loss to the Michigan State Spartans.

While Blackwell certainly set the tone, bench contributors Carter Gilmore and Jack Janicki executed when it mattered most. The two combined for 14 second half points, 12 of which arrived in the final eight minutes of play. With program veteran Max Klesmit sidelined due to injury, the Badgers may not have emerged victorious without Gilmore and Janicki’s timely contributions.

Star wing John Tonje also dropped 18 points and seven boards in 27 minutes of action for Greg Gard’s team, while Steven Crowl finished with 10 points and three rebounds. Wisconsin’s 21-of-24 mark from the charity stripe also enabled the team to overcome a poor 22.7% clip from beyond the arc.

While it may not have been the most visually appealing win this season, the Badgers claimed an important rivalry triumph and evaded a catastrophic drop in national hierarchies. Wisconsin remains at No. 10 in KenPom and No. 14 in the NCAA’s NET with an overall impressive NCAA Tournament resume.

After the contest, UW head coach Greg Gard took some time to speak with the media. Here’s everything he had to say regarding the critical road win:

Opening statement

“It’s obviously an important game for us, first and foremost of what we’re still chasing. Then obviously it’s important for our guys that are from here and the alums and all those that we have in this area. I thought we were good at times. I thought we were much better in the second half at taking care of the ball, which was important. And getting to the free throw line and being able to find a way to handle and counter all the switching. That was where the fouls racked up on their part. So really good job on [Dawson] Garcia, to hold him to 14 points on 17 shots. All three guys I thought for the most part did a pretty good job on him. You get on the road and find a way to close it out. We were able to do that and get stops when we needed to. And score, obviously, to extend that lead once they had caught us. That was really the only flurry where I thought we were defensively disjointed, was in that flurry where they got two or three threes in a row before that 12-minute media timeout. Happy for our guys and obviously our group, and now we’ll get back and get ready for regular season.”

On Jack Janicki’s impact

“It’s the first time playing here for him. He’s a freshman. I thought even early was going too fast, he was wound up. He’s always playing with a lot of energy and playing fast. But I thought he over-pursued some things early. He was going a little bit too fast. He settled in. His activity obviously was huge in terms of buckets, deflections, things he does, with his activity. That’s probably the best word I can come up with for him right now. And we needed him, with [John] Tonje in some foul trouble. He had to play a lot of minutes and he was able to produce and help us.”

On Wisconsin’s bench play

“It was huge. It was big for [Carter] Gilmore specifically. I’m yelling shoot and he shot-fakes and drives it into a one-legger [jump shot]. He knew what he was doing. Both those guys, I think giving us a boost off the bench from a scoring standpoint. I thought Gilmore was, quite frankly, maybe our best matchup against Garcia just because of his strength and ability to move. He’s more experienced. For the most part, we did a decent job on Garcia, who’s a really good player. And on the bench, those two guys and were important for us.”

On importance of win for Big Ten Tournament seeding

“That’s important. Obviously we continue to push for higher seedings in the in the NCAA Tournament. I think first and foremost, above all that, was this was just the next game. And we don’t make a big deal about it being Minnesota. I mean, just like I don’t say anything different when we play Michigan or Michigan State with [John] Blackwell or Nebraska with [John] Tonje. It’s the next game. We know it’s always been a hard-fought game, and they’ve been playing pretty well. Winning at Nebraska is not easy. And they beat Michigan in here. They beat Oregon in here. Our guys understood what we were in for tonight and, especially on their senior night, we had to play really well and fight and scrap. It wasn’t always pretty. It wasn’t smooth. But the one thing about this group is they’ve developed a toughness to them and callousness to them that when things aren’t clicking completely, they’ll find other ways to win.”

On Wisconsin valuing shot selection and taking care of the ball

“I didn’t think we handled the physicality well early. I thought we let it bother us. We were driving and playing off one foot and driving and being loose with the ball, sometimes going too fast, sometimes trying to thread a needle and throw it and just keep moving the ball. We were trying to precisely pick apart the switching at times, and it made us a little stagnant. When you get stagnant, you get hesitant. When you get hesitant, typically you make more mistakes. That was a main message at halftime. Be strong with the ball, play off two feet, chin it, and let’s get the shots we need to get. And we did a much better job obviously the second half taking care of it.”

On John Blackwell’s composure

“It was important. It was huge. Specifically with how we can spread people out and move people, to be able to attack some of those closeouts and attack some of those gaps. John [Blackwell] obviously did a lot for us tonight. He was big, with [John] Tonje being in some foul trouble and not really being in a great rhythm and Max [Klesmit] being out, there’s a little bit more that he has to bear. He did a good job of it.”

On Wisconsin’s late-game plays on offense

“That’s just guys playing. That’s not a called play. That’s not a set. That’s just playing basketball within our system. The spacing is good. They understand if you overplay it or are getting pressured, put pressure on the rim and it’s up to the ball handlers to find them. Are we playing off two feet? Are we delivering it where it needs to be? That comes with experience. Janicki hit Blackwell on one, someone else hit Blackwell on the other one. But that comes organically from guys just playing well off each other and the unselfishness and the understanding of how to play without the ball, which sometimes is a lost art in today’s world. It’s so ball-in-your hands dominant. That the ability and recognition of when to back-cut and how to do it and how to get separation is something that we obviously drill and work on. But you have to be able to do it when the lights are on in the heat of the moment, which our guys did a good job of it.”

On scoring and defending when the shot clock approaches zero

“Switching can lead into that sometimes. And sometimes when the shot clock is winding down, the crowd has a tendency to get anxious for the offense. But the defense also gets a little more amped up. Like we gave up one to Brennan Rigsby on an out-of-bounds play, where we almost had him on a five-second call, and all of a sudden he breaks loose under the basket. We got a little too anxious running out with him to the three-point line and got outside of him, and he back cut us to the rim. It’s a time and a feel thing type of thing. That’s again, just understanding how to play. If you have an opportunity to slip. Some of them are scripted. Some of them happen organically, in terms of the slips to the rim and those things on out-of-bounds plays.”

On Kamari McGee’s play

“He was important. He made a mistake or two. He went under on Lu’Cye Patterson in the second half when they got three’s going a little bit. And he was the first one to recognize that we need to change that and start going back over. He’s just a steadying voice. He’s a calming voice. He’s a leading voice in those timeouts. Whether we were trying to extend the lead, they made a run back at us to get a tied. He just stays the same and understands the little things will help us win this game. Even though he’s the littlest guy on the floor, he talked about rebounding ad- nauseam in the timeout. It’s good that he can contribute even though he doesn’t score. He made a lot of contributions that help us tonight.”