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Biggest takeaways from Wisconsin Badgers' 92-82 win over Ohio State

Wisconsin puts five players in double figures as the Badgers win their fourth straight over Ohio State.
Benjamin Worgull|
Wisconsin guard John Blackwell scored a game-high 22 points in the Badgers' 92-82 victory over Ohio State on January 31, 2026.
Wisconsin guard John Blackwell scored a game-high 22 points in the Badgers' 92-82 victory over Ohio State on January 31, 2026. | UW Athletics

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MADISON, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin doesn't want to be known as the comeback kids, but the bruises the Badgers took earlier in the season have helped a group become a little more calloused to seeing the scoreboard tilt the opposite way.

Wisconsin fell behind by double figures in all three games of its final extended homestand of the season and found a way to erase all of them. While UW couldn't close the door against USC last weekend, the Badgers tied the school record for largest second-half comeback against Minnesota and clawed back from 11 down in a little more than five minutes on Saturday.

"The biggest difference between the last couple of games when we started out slow was our encouragement in the huddle," said senior Nick Boyd, one of five Badgers who reached double figures in Wisconsin's 92-82 victory against Ohio State at the Kohl Center.

"The first timeout, just encouraging each other to keep going and keep getting to where we needed to go in terms of the offensive end, and make it a little tougher on defense. The positivity, the encouragement, the focus on just pointing to each other rather than trying to point the finger. Obviously, it paid off."

Wisconsin's conference mark of 8-3 matches the second-best 11-game start under head coach Greg Gard, trailing only the 10-1 start from the 2016-17 season, and puts the Badgers in a good spot heading into their mini bye week, allowing them to rest up before playing five straight Quad-1 games.

Here are my takeaways from the Kohl Center.

Rapp's shooting helps open the offense

The scouting report told Ohio State head coach Jake Diebler that Austin Rapp was shooting just 28.2 percent from three-point range on the season, a number that dipped to 26.7 percent in conference play.

Still, Diebler said Rapp was listed to the Buckeyes as "a guy who could really shoot" on the report. Imagine his surprise when Rapp was able to get off six of his threes in the first half.

"We didn't expect him to go off like that because we respected what he's able to do," Diebler said.

Rapp took advantage of the breakdowns in a way he hasn't all season for Wisconsin, scoring nine straight points for the Badgers that included threes on back-to-back possessions that showed his confidence with his shot.

With the shot clock dangerously close to expiring, Rapp took dead aim and hit a three-pointer from the elbow that fully erased the early deficit. On the next trip down the court, Rapp grabbed the long offensive rebound, calmly dribbled behind the three-point arc, and hit a shot that gave UW its first lead.

"I shoot the same shot every time," said Rapp, whose 19 points represented his most against a power-four opponent this season and his most off the bench this year. "I've been going through a little bit of a slump lately, but I still trust my shot and so do my teammates. My teammates are finding me and keep encouraging me to shoot it."

He's not kidding, as six of Rapp's seven buckets in the first half were set up by his teammates.

"In the second half, I turned one (shot) down, and Nick got on me because I (need to) keep letting it fly," Rapp said. "Encouragement from my teammates also helped me with that, just making sure to stay ready and keep shooting."

Starting with Rapp's three at the 6:12 mark, Wisconsin scored on the final 10 possessions of the half to take a six-point lead into the locker room, playing with an inside-outside balance that Diebler said caught the Buckeyes out of position. Three of those possessions were perimeter makes, but the majority were Wisconsin pushing the ball into the lane and converting at the rim.

Four times Boyd got into the lane on the stretch to score at the rim or draw a foul to get to the line, getting credited for six points off driving layups. The only shot UW missed over the final 6:12 was a Braeden Carrington missed three, which Nolan Winter cleaned up for a second-chance layup.

Rapp didn't score in the second half but still stood out to Gard for doing other things that haven't been his strength all season. He ripped an offensive rebound away from senior Bruce Thornton in the second half to extend a possession, handled switches on to Ohio State's guards, chesting up to block dribble penetration, playing defense with his feet and not his hands, and even forced a shot-clock violation.

In 20 minutes on the floor, Rapp was whistled for only one foul.

"He's had his ups and downs," Boyd said of Rapp. "We tend to forget he was just a freshman last year, and he jumped right up to the Big Ten. That comes with a lot of difficulties. He's been able to navigate through that. That's been more impressive than anything he's done on the court."

"It's just confidence. We've all been in his shoes before coming to college and playing against high-level players, where you just got to adjust. It starts with your mindset and confidence, telling yourself that I believe I can get a stop, and no matter what, I'm going to keep competing and fighting to the end. He's been able to do that."

Wisconsin's backcourt wins round one

Diebler called his backcourt combo of Thornton and John Mobley Jr. one of the best in the country, a tandem that led the Buckeyes in scoring and had shouldered a lot of the offense. Thornton entered the weekend shooting over 54 percent in conference play, averaging 19.0 points with 6.1 rebounds per game. Mobley Jr. was looking to become the first Buckeyes player in 13 years to score at least 20 points in five straight games.

Boyd and John Blackwell showed they are a pretty good tandem, too.

Not only did Wisconsin's combo each reach 20 points for the sixth time this season, taking advantage of driving lanes that became more open as the game wore on thanks to Rapp's shooting, but the Badgers kept Mobley out of rhythm as he dealt with foul trouble in the first half.

After only scoring 10 points in the paint in Wednesday's win over Minnesota, Wisconsin stayed on the attack, going downhill, energy plays as Blackwell called it, considering the Badgers have been grinding with four games in the past 10 days.

The result was 42 points in the paint, a combined 12 two-point makes for Boyd and Blackwell, 10 points scored from the fast break, and 13-for-13 from the free-throw line.

"They have two great guards, and we tried to attack them as much as we can," Blackwell said. "The best way to guard guards like that is score the ball a lot and see them on the bench."

Blackwell's willingness to stay aggressive was evident during a three-second stretch in the first half. As UW was starting to claw back from its slow start, Blackwell hit a three in front of the Ohio State bench. Knowing the inbounds pass was going to go to Thornton, he jumped the ball to register the steal and hit a contested layup. Those quick five points helped cut the deficit down to three.

"The offense just comes when you are playing hard, playing defense," Blackwell said.

Reserves step up to guard the perimeter

Senior Andrew Rohde was a late scratch when he felt his sore right wrist was going to hinder him from playing how he wanted to play. That player decision made Gard go with sophomore Jack Janicki in his first career start and keep Carrington as a spark off the bench.

Gard said Wisconsin needed to be velcroed to Mobley Jr. with how the Buckeyes utilize his ability to change speeds at a moment's notice, seeing him bolt off screens and escape to open spots on the floor to hit shots. It made it imperative that the Badgers weren't late on their exchanges off their switches.

"Jack is an experienced, physical defender," Gard said. "He's guarded guys like that before."

Carrington found his offensive footing in January, averaging 9.8 points per game and shooting 20-of-44 (45.5 percent) from beyond the arc. He was just below those numbers Saturday (7 points, 2-for-6 3FG), but his defensive hustle stood out.

Ohio State looked to have an easy lay-in to the cut lead to six late in the second half, but Carrington's hustle down the floor allowed him to block center Christoph Tilly's layup attempt to start a fast-break opportunity the other way. UW cashed it in when Nolan Winter easily finished Nick Boyd's no-look pass at the rim to push the lead back to 10.

"(Our guards) understand our rules better (than earlier in the year)," Gard said. "The rules have become more instinctive for them. They're not having to think about it. They understand how we chase shooters, how we guard ball screens. We're playing more physical than we did ... It's a combination of how we need to do things and flat-out being tougher and having a mindset that you're not going to let guys score and take that personally when that happens.

"They understand how important that end of the floor is. As much as everybody likes our offense and giggles about that, the other end is very, very important."

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Benjamin Worgull
BENJAMIN WORGULL

Benjamin Worgull has covered Wisconsin men's basketball since 2004, having previously written for Rivals, USA Today, 247sports, Fox Sports, the Associated Press, the Janesville Gazette, and the Wisconsin State Journal.

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