WEST LAFAYETTE, IN – John Blackwell said the Wisconsin Badgers are “not quitters and we’re the villains” as his teammates surrounded him during an NBC postgame interview after the Feb. 10 win over then-No. 7 Illinois.
In a different raucous Big Ten environment in a different state, the Badgers were again the villains – complete with boisterous boos from Purdue fans irked that UW players were not off the Mackey Arena court in a timelier fashion.
The Badgers did not show any quit either as they dethroned No. 14 Purdue, 97-93, despite missing two of their top eight rotation players in a game that was a “microcosm of the journey this group’s been on.”
“I think it’s a testament to the character of the guys in that locker room of how much they believe in each other,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. “And the next person is going to step up. Our staff did a phenomenal job of game preparation for two days, and obviously the players did a phenomenal job of executing.”
It was Wisconsin’s fourth top-15 win of the 2025-26 season and boosted its overall record to 22-9 and its Big Ten record to 14-6 to conclude the regular season. Here are three things that especially stood out at Mackey Arena:
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Wisconsin’s 3-point shooting helps spread floor, negate Purdue’s talented frontcourt
The Winter-less Badgers were undoubtedly at a disadvantage down low, as the Boilermakers had a 34-22 advantage in points in the paint, 20-10 advantage in second-chance points and 34-22 advantage in rebounds.
But Wisconsin more than made up for that with its otherworldly perimeter shooting.
Wisconsin’s 18 3-pointers against Purdue were its most in a game this season and third-most in a game in program history. (The only games with more 3-pointers were in 2024-25 against Iowa and UCLA.)
The 3-point barrage came from a variety of sources, too, as all six UW players to be on the court for at least 10 minutes made at least one 3-pointer. John Blackwell led the way with five 3-pointers en route to finishing with a team-high 25 points.
Aleksas Bieliauskas and Austin Rapp – UW’s starting frontcourt duo in Winter’s absence – each hit four 3-pointers as they effectively spread the floor. UW guards Braeden Carrington and Andrew Rohde each had two 3-pointers, and Nick Boyd had one.
“When you face a team where everybody can shoot threes, your ability to guard the basketball has to be pretty good,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “Because when you struggle there and they break you down off the dribble to go along with schematically stretching you out, now it really causes problems for you.”
The 12 threes in the first half in particular were the most ever for the Badgers in a first half and tied for the program record for 3-pointers in any half. Those shots helped turn a nine-point deficit somewhat early in the first half into a five-point halftime lead.
“You could talk about the threes and how many we made, but you got to look at how they were created,” Boyd said. “Two feet in the paint from everybody, and when you’re shooting horse shots like that, kind of like a 50-50% chance they go in.”
Wisconsin had 19 assists on 29 made field goals, and four UW players had at least three assists. The Badgers had a rough stretch with four turnovers in a three-minute span, but they otherwise took care of the ball well and finished with an enviable 12.5% turnover rate.
“Our spacing was bad,” Gard said, looking back at the early turnovers. “We were on top of each other. We were too close. We adjusted some stuff on where we were putting the ball screens, and it gave us better spacing. And then you obviously surround playmakers with shooters, and then good things happen.”
Wisconsin’s Nick Boyd-John Blackwell duo delivers in another premier game
The March 7 upset win over Purdue was another reminder of how hard the Badgers are to topple when Boyd and Blackwell are both at the top of their respective games.
Blackwell’s 25 points were on 7-of-13 shooting, and Boyd amassed 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Boyd – in his 19th 20-plus-point performance – turned his scoring threat into opportunities for his teammates with five assists.
“Nick obviously was creating and put a lot of pressure on that defense,” Gard said.
The Badgers are now 9-0 when both Blackwell and Boyd score 20-plus points. Those nine games include all four wins against teams ranked in the top 15 of the USA TODAY coaches poll.
Boyd and Blackwell combined to score 48 against then-No. 1 Michigan, 49 against then-No. 7 Illinois, 53 against then-No. 10 Michigan State and now 48 against No. 14 Purdue to conclude the regular season.
“I think we’re the best backcourt in the country,” Blackwell said. “Consistently, when it comes to big games, I think we just get it done. I think we just try to stay on the relentless attack.”
Why Greg Gard still takes pride in Wisconsin’s defense vs Purdue
Wisconsin’s defensive numbers will hardly look great on the box score.
The Badgers allowed Purdue to shoot 51% overall and 44% from 3-point range. The Boilermakers averaged 1.368 points per possession, and no Big Ten team has allowed them to score more in a single game in 2025-26. (Indiana and Maryland also gave up 93 points.)
Purdue’s trio of Fletcher Loyer, Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn combined to score 60 points on 23-of-45 shooting. But for as bad as many of the numbers may look, Gard saw plenty of positives from his defense in UW’s 97-93 win.
“Man, defensively, they had to work for stuff to get,” Gard said. “And they got in the bonus early in the second half, and we did a good job of guarding for the remainder of the half without putting them at the free-throw line too much.”
It also was a matchup of Purdue’s relative strength as a team against Wisconsin’s relative weakness. The Boilermakers rank second nationally in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency, and the Badgers rank 55th in adjusted defensive efficiency.
“It’s an elite offensive team,” Gard said. “Much like us, you got to pick your poison. There’s things you can take away. You try to find tendencies. But they surround really good bigs in [Oscar] Cluff and Kaufman-Renn with a phenomenal point guard and shooters and a terrific environment in here.”
It was all part of Wisconsin’s 14th Big Ten win, sixth Quad 1 win and what Gard described as a “tremendous college basketball game between two terrific teams” to conclude the regular season.
“We got Purdue’s best, and I think Purdue got our best,” Gard said.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: How Wisconsin Badgers knocked off Purdue without Nolan Winter, Jack Janicki
Reporting by John Steppe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
