Tag: Big-10 Basketball

By Paul Wickham Schmidt

Courtside Sports Exclusive

March 2, 2022

Preseason “experts” predicted that the Wisconsin Badgers, returning only one starter (G, Brad Davison), would finish well down in the Big-10 — 10th place, or even 12th out of 14 squads. Last night, Coach Greg Gard’s gang proved the doubters wrong with a stirring, hard-fought 70-67 win over the #8 Purdue Boilermakers (24-6, 13-6)  before a capacity home crowd at the Kohl Center!

Wisconsin led for most of the game. But, behind stars Jadon Ivey (22-5-5) and Zach Edey (17-9-0), the Boilers went on a 14-2 run to take a one-point lead with 7:42 left. The Badgers rallied and appeared to have things in hand when Brad Davison (7-4-0) was fouled with 16 seconds to go and the Badgers up 67-64. Davison, the B-10’s best free-throw shooter (88.2%), had hit 25 in a row, and was in position to make it a two-score game.

 

But, shockingly, he missed the front-end of a one-and-one. Edey rebounded and when Ivey hit a tough 3-point shot to tie it at 67 with 11 seconds to go, overtime looked to be in the offing. But, freshman guard Hepburn (17-0-2, 0 turnovers) wasn’t having it. When his 3-pointer hit the glass and banked in with 1.5 to go, the game effectively was over. A last second desperation pass by Purdue was intercepted by forward Tyler Wahl (19-2-2) to seal the deal, as the crowd stormed the court and Gard prepared to cut down the net.

In addition to Hepburn’s heroics, likely B-10 player of the year Johnny Davis (16-8-1) was key in the second half, although he couldn’t match his previous 37-point performance against the Boilers. 

Wahl continues to be one of the most under-rated players in the conference if not in the country. He led the Badgers with 19 points, adding two rebounds, two assists, five steals, and two blocked shots. Again, he was consistently able to “post-up” the taller Edey and Purdue and made clutch shots in the paint. He plays like he’s 6-11, not 6-7. He’s also a great defender and perfectly ready to hit the floor to get after loose balls.

Wisconsin has now won 15 games in a row that were decided by 6 points or fewer. With a victory over Nebraska (9-21, 3-16) in Lincoln on Sunday, the #10 Badgers (24-5,15-4) will be the outright conference champs for the first time since 2015. While that might not seem like a difficult task, the last place Huskers are not necessarily an “easy out.” They have won their last two, including a 78-70 victory over #23 Ohio State last night.

No matter how it comes out, Gard should be the B-10 Coach of the Year for the job he has done with a team that everyone predicted was “bound for nowhere!”