5 thoughts from Wisconsin basketball's win vs. Milwaukee
A handful of takeaways as Wisconsin now looks ahead to Purdue on Saturday.
MADISON, Wis. — The University of Wisconsin basketball team closed out its regular-season, nonconference competition, and 2025, with a win over an in-state foe.
An opponent that didn’t have to travel far to Madison but also didn’t really have a break from its last contest.
Wisconsin (9-4, 1-1 Big Ten) now holds a two-game winning streak heading back into Big Ten play after an 80-60 victory over Milwaukee at the Kohl Center on Tuesday. The Badgers hosted the Panthers and coach Bart Lundy a day after the Horizon League program defeated Purdue Fort Wayne.
“Obviously, Bart’s got a good team, and I thought that watching film,” Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard said. “I think they’re going to do very well in their league. And obviously, to be able to fit this game in, it was the window that we had, either last night, tonight or tomorrow night.
“And with their league playing games here between the holidays, it was the only window we had. We had to fill once we found out the Big Ten was not giving us a game here in between the holidays. And so it’s a credit to them to still want to play the game and do that.”
Here are some thoughts from the win, along with full postgame interviews with Gard, guards Nick Boyd and Zach Kinziger and center Will Garlock.
Wisconsin basketball postgame interviews
Not a great shooting night to start for both teams
That was a horrendous first half of shooting. Wisconsin connected on 12-of-30 shooting (40%), while Milwaukee was stone cold in hitting 9-of-34 (26.5%) field goal attempts.
The two teams combined for 3 of 28 from 3-point range (2 of 14 for Wisconsin, 1 of 14 for Milwaukee) heading into the locker room.
Both teams improved overall in the second half (Wisconsin 59.3%, Milwaukee 41.4%), though they still struggled shooting from deep. Each team made 2 of 8 (25%) from 3-point range during the final 20 minutes.
“Obviously, you always want to shoot it better, but to be able to find other ways to score when you’re not raining 3s is a good sign,” Gard said.
