University of Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard knew which way the topic of conversation was going to lean.
The Badgers had just finished blowing the doors off UCLA in an 86-70 victory in the conference tournament quarterfinals at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, tying the tournament record with 19 three-point makes.
While that certainty generated a lot of buzz and attention, Gard wanted to highlight how important it was that the Badgers locked down UCLA’s offense far more effectively than they did two months ago in Los Angeles.
“The job we did defensively, I felt, was just as important, if not more important, of how we were able to keep them out of rhythm, that our perimeter did a really good job of ball pressuring, getting into the ball,” Gard said. “Our bigs did a good job of being able to help them and get reattached to their bigs. Obviously, when you make shots like that, it makes the game easier.”
Wisconsin (25-8) made it look simple against the Bruins with its ball movement, perimeter shooting, and balance on offense. Wisconsin finished with 22 assists, the program’s second-highest total in a Big Ten Tournament game (25 vs. Maryland in 2024), tied the tournament record with 19 three-pointers, and put four players in double figures.
However, Wisconsin held leading scorer Tyler Bilodeau to two points on 2-for-7 shooting and kept UCLA largely out in sync. UCLA’s starters were 5-for-21 from the field in the first half, and the Bruins finished 32.4 percent (22-for-68) from the field and 30.0 (9-for-30) from the perimeter.
Through two Big Ten Tournament games, Wisconsin is holding its opponents to 42-for-122 (34.4 percent) from the field, a big reason why it is advancing to Saturday’s semifinals to face top-seeded Michigan State.
“We got steps to get better,” guard John Blackwell said. “I feel like we did a pretty good job on their main guys. We’ve got to keep going and getting better every day.”
One of the big sticking points from Wisconsin’s January loss to UCLA (22-10) was the Badgers allowing little-used 7-foot-3 center Aday Mara to take over the game. Gard, center Steven Crowl, and others admitted Mara wasn’t high on their pregame scouting report, but the sophomore tore up UW’s ball-screen defense and went 7-for-7 from the field and 8-for-10 from the foul line.
Wisconsin was better prepared in round two. Crowl, Nolan Winter, and others made him a non-factor by bodying him away from the basket and limiting him to four points on four shots.
“I think we did a better job on him,” Gard said. “We made his catches a little harder. We were around him a little bit more with some help. He was able to get us on the offensive glass. He got at least five. I just thought we were more physical. We had more of an edge to us on the defensive end than what we had back in January.”
The pick-and-roll game that was so efficient in the first matchup was nonexistent Friday, as the Badgers limited UCLA’s ball movement (13 assists on 22 buckets), took away the rolls to the rim (20 points in the paint), and avoided the careless reaching fouls that plagued them two months ago.
Things could have gotten trickier in the second half. Crowl picked up two fouls within the first 69 seconds and a fourth foul at 10:53. Winter was assessed a dead-ball contact technical foul 30 seconds into the half and picked up his fourth at the 9:09 mark.
In both instances, Wisconsin had to go smaller at the four and five with Xavier Amos and Carter Gilmore and reaped the benefits of it.
UCLA had cut the deficit to 12 when Crowl went out at the 18:51 mark, but Amos fought for an offensive rebound on the next possession and fed the ball to Blackwell on the perimeter, resulting in a made three-pointer and a foul for a four-point play. It was the start of a 12-2 run for the Badgers.
When Amos checked back in following Winter’s fourth foul, his block helped start a break that McGee finished with a layup.
Amos had eight points, three rebounds, three blocks, and two assists, while Gilmore had two points, three rebounds, and three assists. They connected late in the second half when Gilmore backed down William Kyle outside the paint, hit a cutting Amos with a bounce pass in the lane, and watched him finish through reserve Trent Perry at the rim.
With their level of play, Crowl and Winter didn’t need to check back in after their fourth fouls.
“We’re harder to guard too when we’ve got essentially two 4s in Gilmore and Amos on the floor together,” Gard said. “We’re a little faster. We’re obviously not as big, but in terms of ball movement, body movement, the mobility picks up, and we’re harder to keep up with.”
Things always look better when shots go in for an offense, and they fell in bunches early for the Badgers (61.5 percent shooting in the first half, 12-for-19 on threes). That wasn’t the case 12 days ago when Wisconsin faced Michigan State. The Badgers shot a season-worst 33.8 percent from the field and 15.8 percent from three.
Blackwell was 7-for-19 in the game, and John Tonje was 3-for-13 in the loss. On Friday, Tonje had a game-high 26 points on 9-for-10 shooting, while Blackwell had 18 points on 6-for-11.
To advance to a second straight tournament title game in search of the program’s first tournament title since 2015, the Badgers know they need to be sound in both disciplines against a Spartans team that has won eight straight Quad-1 games.
“We’re not satisfied because we’ve still got more games to be played, and I feel like our defense could be better,” guard Kamari McGee said. “We played a good defense today, but I feel like we can step it up a notch, too.”
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