Wisconsin basketball Senior Night win dampened by key injury
A dominating victory was plenty of fun for fans inside the Kohl Center, but Wisconsin basketball now awaits news on its injured star
Madison, WI — On a senior night to remember, capped by a hug shared between Wisconsin basketball head coach Greg Gard and his son Isaac, a moment the head coach described as similar emotionally to his eldest daughter’s wedding, the Wisconsin Badgers handily dispatched the Maryland Terrapins, but lost a starter to injury along the way.
Wisconsin (21-9, 13-6 Big Ten) cruised to a 78-45 victory over Maryland (11-19, 4-15 Big Ten) with an impressive two-way performance. Although UW has been known for its offensive prowess this season, it was perhaps its defensive effort that was most impressive on Wednesday night. The Terps’ 45 points were the fewest allowed by a Badgers team in Big Ten play since a 51-49 win over the Penn State Nittany Lions on February 5th, 2022.
Both UW’s offense and defense are at risk of taking a significant step back, however, as a key contributor who has started 67 consecutive games for Wisconsin, exited the court before the final buzzer sounded on Wednesday.
Nolan Winter injury update
With seven minutes remaining, Winter corralled an offensive rebound following a missed three-pointer by UW guard Braden Carrington. Winter made an impressive put-back layup, but fell to the floor hard.
The Badgers big man was unable to leave the floor under his own power. After spending extended time grabbing his left ankle, Winter’s teammates and team training staff assisted the Lakeville, Minnesota native to his feet and into the team tunnel.
“We’ll know more tomorrow,” Gard said in a post-game interview when asked about Winter’s status. “Early indications, hopefully we avoided the worst.”
Avoiding ‘the worst’ presumably means Nolan Winter would at least be available for an NCAA Tournament First Round 15 or 16 days after suffering the fall. Still, do not count Winter out for a return this Saturday against Purdue or next week in the conference tournament.
“Nolan’s a fighter. If Nolan has the ‘go’ to play, he’s playing. Whether it’s one leg or two legs, he’s playing,” Wisconsin guard John Blackwell, who surpassed Jon Leuer and moved into 20th place on UW’s career scoring leaderboard on Wednesday, said. “We’re gonna keep battling for Nolan how he battles for us.”
In his three seasons with the Badgers, Winter has not missed any of Wisconsin’s 103 games. Previously, Winter has rolled his right ankle, but this, according to Gard, is the first instance that his starting center has rolled the left.
“When you do that the first time, there’s always an extra amount of pain,” Gard added when specifying which ankle Winter injured. “But we’ll see. He was in decent spirits in the locker room and stuff. So he’s already doing treatment, and we’ll see what we learn tomorrow and then have a path forward to get him healed up.”
How Wisconsin basketball responds to Nolan Winter injury
Wisconsin has already had its front court depth tested throughout this season. Sophomore forward Austin Rapp has missed five games this season, first missing time due to an ankle injury and later to an illness. The Australian forward has come into his own as of late, making 3+ three-pointers in three of his last four appearances inside the Kohl Center.
The potential absence of Winter’s stalwart presence down low, however, could present a more significant challenge. UW may have to rely on Rapp and a trio of true freshmen to play even more significant roles.
“He’s a very important part of our team, and to see him go down is not the best,” Rapp said of Winter’s injury. “But we know he’ll fight; he’ll get back as soon as he can. But for us guys to step up when he did get hurt—you know me, [Aleksas Bieliauskas], Will [Garlock] had some good minutes—shows the development of the young guys coming up and showed we can do it too.”
With the victory solidly in hand on Wednesday night, Gard was able to give extended run to some of his younger players. True freshman center Garlock played over seven minutes in the second half. Gard called those “good minutes” with quality experience for a player that might be asked to do more if Winter is unable to play.
“We got a lot of guys who can step into that and play in different lineups,” Gard said of the increased role other players might have in Winter’s absence. “You know, playing small ball, we did some of that tonight. I think Bieliauskas has gotten better. I think the experience of Will [Garlock] as a true five.”
At other times this season, Gard has employed a small-ball lineup, employing Jack Janicki in the front court. With Janicki unavailable due to a broken wrist, Gard’s options are more limited in that department, but true freshman Hayden Jones could be asked to fill in.
“I think we’ve had a next man up mentality, just picking our brothers up,” Blackwell said of the potential ripple effects in the rotation. “Like, as we know right now, [Janicki]’s out, so next man up is Hayden. I think he did a great job of picking [Janicki] up, picking his production up.”
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