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The Wisconsin Badgers (24-11) lose a heartbreaker to the High Point Panthers (31-4) in Portland, 83-82.
I believe in God……and I believe he hates all of Wisconsin sports.
I’m dead inside. Seriously, why do I even care. It’s all so pointless. Tournament over. Sports are the worst. Just no point in even caring anymore.
There’s no excuses. The Badgers couldn’t finish with the guys that were so clutch and finished all season long, Nick Boyd. All the credit in the world goes to High Point. What a soul crushing loss for the Badgers. Very hard one to take.
In general, I thought Wisconsin played a solid game. Of course there’s always some things you can nitpick and things are always magnified this time of year.
I am sick for Nick Boyd. While I think he unnecessarily tried to do too much and force a bit down the stretch, his performance today – and all season for that matter – he deserved a better fate.
I’ve been saying this for the past 6-7 weeks that John Blackwell looks like he’s playing with one foot out the door to the NBA and his second half effort today proved that. Blackwell had a good offensive performance in the first half, but he mightily struggled in the second half and finished with five turnovers – a few of them were completely inexcusable for a Junior and someone of his caliber. For reference, High Point as a team finished with six turnovers.
When we needed JB the most, a complete fail.
Wisconsin had a 70-62 lead with 7:08 remaining, the pace was dead and the Badgers had them right where you would have wanted them. But four consecutive empty possessions with some iffy/missed shots and it was a ball game to the wire.
I wish Nolan Winter wasn’t on a pitch count today, because the team was simply better when he was in, especially on the defensive end. It was a huge factor that he was only able to go 21 minutes.
The amount of money I could have made in my life betting on Wisconsin sports playoff collapses. Truly an unbelievable phenomenon. The fact I haven’t developed an immunity to brutal playoff losses is just absurd. You’d think they’d just be routine at this point.
The life of a Wisconsin sports fan:
Having said all this, I’m really proud of this group. This squad kind of struggled to find themselves in November and December, but once January hit they played as well as anyone in the country.
So many highs this season: road wins at Illinois, Michigan, Purdue – home win vs Michigan State – Big Ten tournament win over Illinois. So many lows this season: December loss to Villanova in Milwaukee, road losses at Indiana, Ohio State and Oregon. Now the ultimate gut punch, a loss to High Point and a first round KO in the Big Dance – hurts the most and the longest.
For you mentally challenged individuals that want Greg Gard fired – there is a 0.0% chance he gets fired this offseason. He’s going to reload this offseason in the portal and recruiting class and be good again in 2026-27.
I’m not sure why the Anti-Gard crowd wants to “Luke Fickell” the basketball program to irrelevance.