Wisconsin basketball lacks 'level of toughness' against BYU
The 28-point loss is tied for the most lopsided defeat the Wisconsin Badgers have suffered in the Greg Gard era
Salt Lake City, UT — In its first significant test of the season, on the road, against a high-major opponent, Wisconsin basketball faltered. A rematch against the program that ended UW’s season eight months ago did not leave Wisconsin fans with any more positive feelings as the Badgers left the court inside the Delta Center after losing 98-70, tying UW’s widest margin of defeat in the Greg Gard era.
For what it’s worth, head coach Gard and the Badgers did not walk off feeling proud of their performance either.
“There’s a lot of things that are gonna have to be fixed,” Gard said. Obviously, we’ll go through the film, but what I didn’t see enough of—how we didn’t respond. That’s my biggest takeaway from this game.”
A 13-0 run by BYU in just under four minutes ripped away a slim Wisconsin lead early on, but it was all Cougars the rest of the way. On rare occasions, the Badgers made a push, but between shots not falling and, as Gard explained, a lack of UW response, BYU controlled the game throughout the afternoon.
Badgers never find three-point shooting stroke
After leading the Big Ten in made threes a season ago, Wisconsin had picked up right where it left off to open the season. Through its first four games, UW made 49 shots from beyond the arc, its most at that point of a season since at least 2002.
That three-point shooting prowess did not show itself on Friday. Players up and down head coach Greg Gard’s lineup struggled from deep. Austin Rapp, who made the second-most threes among all freshmen nationally a season ago, the forward went 0-5 from deep against BYU. On the Utah Jazz’s court, Rapp frequently shot from beyond the NBA three-point line, rather than stepping up to shoot from the NCAA’s threshold.
Rapp was not the only Badger who struggled from three. Nolan Winter and Nick Boyd were blanked on four attempts each. John Blackwell made only one of his five three-point tries. One of Winter’s misses came after Wisconsin cut what had been a 16-point BYU lead in half. The open look could have cut the deficit to five with less than three minutes before intermission, but, instead, the Badgers never led after the first 3:30.
Braeden Carrington, who shot an impressive 4-5 from beyond the perimeter, was the only Wisconsin shooter to make more than one triple.
“You can say, ‘well, we didn’t make shots,’ but if you have a level of toughness about you, you’re going to make—you’ll find a way to make shots,” Gard said, alluding to the message he delivered to his team after the game.
Gard insisted that, on a night Wisconsin shot below 40% from the field, only 65.4% from the free throw line, and combined to shoot just 7-29 from beyond the arc, the shots themselves were not the main problem.
Wisconsin basketball ‘can’t shell up and be mentally weak’
On a night that BYU scored 98, recording 1.38 points per possession, stopping the ball, rebounding, and defending the Cougars’ offense without fouling was of much greater concern for Gard and Winter after the game went final. Gard noted that there will be “technical things” for his group to improve, but his top concern was Wisconsin’s lack of a response in the face of a challenge.
“I didn’t like how we responded from a toughness standpoint,” said Gard. “We got a little—we got out of character. We did some undisciplined things on both ends of the floor.”
Winter heard his head coach’s criticism and turned it up another notch. Despite posting his third double-double in five games, with 14 points and 14 rebounds, the junior forward laid responsibility at his own feet.
The seven-footer noted that even when shots are not falling, “we can’t shell up and be mentally weak.”
“I got to be better on the boards,” Winter added. “Everyone’s got to be better on the boards. I think that was one of our biggest issues tonight. But, I think it was more just having that physicality throughout the whole game.”
Even in the matchups where Wisconsin showed signs of success, like against preseason All-American and potential first-overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, AJ Dybantsa, it was far from perfect.
“We did a decent job on Dybantsa; he was three for eight [from the field],” Gard noted. “But we put him at the line 12 times.
The 2025 McDonald’s All-American made 11 of his 12 foul shots and scored a total of 18 points.
Next, Wisconsin travels to San Diego to compete in the 2025 Rady Children’s Invitational tournament. The Badgers open tournament play on Thanksgiving against the Providence Friars.
“We’ll prepare for Providence as we go through the week, but I think the biggest thing is, hey, how do we respond?” Gard explained. “Take the coaching, take the film work. Show all the things we did well. Shows a lot of the things we didn’t do well, and then bounce back on the court tomorrow afternoon and get back to work.”
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