Wisconsin Badgers improved toughness, grit helping team sustain recent success

MADISON, WI — The Wisconsin Badgers have shot up the Big Ten standings this month, and their ascension is far from a fluke.

The team has had plenty of success from three-point range while winning six of its past seven games, but the catalyst for Wisconsin's turnaround hasn't just been about making shots.

It has been the development of toughness, resiliency and physicality that has allowed the Badgers to go from a 9-5 with no quality wins to a 15-6 squad that stands fifth in the Big Ten.

That fight was on full display Wednesday against Minnesota, as Wisconsin clawed their way back from a 20-point deficit in the second half to pick up a 67-63 victory over the Golden Gophers.

Wisconsin's toughness sparks 20-point comeback against Minnesota

Wisconsin had its worst offensive half of the season to start Wednesday's game, going 5-for-29 (17.4 percent) from the field in the first half. Their first two-point basket came one second before halftime.

Minnesota was playing with just seven scholarship players and pushed Badgers ball-handlers off their path to the basket while being far more physical in the painted area.

Trailing 35-17 at the break, it would have been easy for the Badgers to just pack it in and admit defeat.

Instead, they rallied around their leaders and delivered the second-largest second-half comeback in program history.

John Blackwell scored 18 points in the second half and knew that wallowing in the miserable 20 minutes of basketball wouldn't do anything.

"We couldn't put our heads down or we were going to lose that game," he said.

Blackwell said head coach Greg Gard challenged the team's leaders to step up in the second half, and that's what happened.

Nick Boyd scored 19 points in the second period and doled out three assists. Nolan Winter logged five points and four rebounds, and put up plenty of fight down low. Even Jack Janicki, who's more of a leader on the defensive end, got involved.

Janicki drew a charge with just over five minutes to play which led to two free throws by Nick Boyd on the other end. He also stole a bounce pass on the baseline with 1:17 remaining that almost surely would have resulted in a Minnesota layup if he didn't get a hand on it.

The team's comeback was just another instance of Wisconsin's newfound grit, as they have now overcome a double-digit deficit in three of their last six wins,

"I think games (where Wisconsin fell behind in the first half) early in the season, we got down a little bit, and we just dropped our heads. But this game, we kept fighting, kept chipping away." Blackwell said. "I think we didn't have that earlier in the year against teams like Villanova."

Trust and communication were central to the comeback effort, knowing that if somebody were to make a mistake on the defensive end, one of their teammates would be there to help.

Wednesday's game wasn't the only time the Badgers were able to use their defense to offset a rough offensive night. That was exactly how Sunday's matchup against USC played out. However, that game ended in a two-point loss.

"For how we shot the ball Sunday, we probably should have lost by 30." Gard said Wednesday. "I thought our fight (against USC) wasn't good enough, but I thought our fight at least gave us a little bit of a chance on Sunday."

In many of Wisconsin's early-season losses, the team's fight wasn't anywhere near the necessary level to succeed in the Big Ten. And while they haven't yet reached the consistency that Gard has hoped for, the Badgers made huge strides.

"We've gotten a toughness to us that we didn't have in November. We got some fight to us," Gard said. "They're not there all the time yet, but we've got more toughness to us than we had, like i said, back in November, early December."

It's that toughness that Wisconsin must lean upon to become a more well-rounded team that isn't as reliant upon scoring a lot of points.

"When you don't play hard and you don't play physical, you end up getting crappy looks. It's amazing how that works where the ball doesn't go in," Gard said. "You play hard, you play physical, man, it makes the ball go in. It's magic."

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