What stood out from Wisconsin basketball's 96-76 win over Marquette
Wisconsin men's basketball hosted Marquette at the Kohl Center. Here's what stood out from the Badgers’ 96-76 win over the Golden Eagles.
There are games in the I-94 rivalry that feel like momentum swings for the in-state programs. Then there are games like Saturday at the Kohl Center, where the Wisconsin men’s basketball team spent 40 minutes reminding everyone why the road to bragging rights still runs through Madison.
The Badgers didn’t just beat Marquette. They handled them from the moment the ball went up, rolled through every counterpunch, and walked out of the building with a convincing 96–76 win over the Golden Eagles.
They’re now 7–2 on the season, unbeaten at home (6-0), and still haven’t dropped a home game to Marquette since 2017. In fact, the 20-point win was the program’s largest in the rivalry since 1952. If you’re tracking inflection points in this season, you can go ahead and pencil this one in.
“Basketball is a game of mistakes, and you just try to be the team that commits the fewest,” Greg Gard said postgame. “But I want our guys to be aggressive. I don’t want them to be tentative. So, with that aggressiveness, there are going to be some mistakes at times — just so that we don’t repeat them time after time. You’re going to make a mistake; make a different one. But I liked our aggressiveness consistently.
“For the most part, we were locked in and in the right position defensively. We shut off a lot of what they tried to do, but we can always get better.”
It was a performance in which just about everyone with a Wisconsin jersey left a mark. John Blackwell set the pace with another 30-point outing, but he wasn’t the only one who had it going. Andrew Rohde turned in his most productive scoring night of the season, finishing with 17 points. Nick Boyd kept the momentum rolling with 15 of his own, while Nolan Winter and Aleksas Bieliauskas each recorded a double-double.
Here’s what stood out from Wisconsin’s win over Marquette.
John Blackwell’s Ascending Into Stardom
The headline, as it tends to be these days, belongs to John Blackwell. He delivered his third 30-point outing of the year and the fifth of his career.
This wasn’t a random outburst either. Blackwell dictated the entire game. Of his 30 points, 20 came before halftime, including a stretch where he essentially took ownership of the offense and built the cushion Wisconsin would lean on the rest of the way. Blackwell finished 8-of-17 from the floor, knocked down six three’s, converted eight free throws, and rounded out the performance with three assists, a steal, and a rebound.
“When you’re on top of the scout, you’ve got to find different ways to score,” Blackwell said. “You’ve got to be mentally prepared, and I just learned from guys that if you’re a scorer and that’s your job, you have to be consistent with it. I think these guys do a good job of finding me in the right places and playing off me. We have a very unselfish team.
“If it’s my night and I’m rolling, they try to look for me and find me. If it’s not my night and it’s someone else’s, I’m trying to look for them and find them. I think it just comes and flows. I’m blessed to be part of this team.”
Through nine games, Blackwell is averaging 21.0 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.8 assists, while shooting 43.3% from beyond the arc, and he’s been held to single digits only once all season. He’s operating at a near-All-American level as a scorer, and the next question is whether this pace can hold. Either way, it’s already obvious Blackwell made the jump Wisconsin needed from him.
“He’s such a humble kid, but he’s a consummate worker, he’s a great teammate, and he’s gotten better,” Gard said. “He didn’t come in with aspirations of something that he wasn’t... He’s continued to add to his game. His body’s improved. He’s leaned up, got more muscle mass, and he’s worked on ball handling. He’s worked on his shooting. The impressive thing about JB is that he’s steady — never too high, never too low.”
The Frontcourt Handled Its Business
Nolan Winter continued what’s been a remarkably consistent start to his season, recording his fifth double-double with 13 points, 13 rebounds, and a block. He’s now hit 10 or more boards in six of nine games, and the level of physicality he’s playing with wasn’t always a forgone conclusion heading into the year. Winter’s offense took a little time to stabilize, but his presence has never wavered, and Wisconsin’s needed exactly that.
“He’s consistent now, or more consistent than he’s been,” Gard said. “At this point in his career, he should be, because he’s more mature. He’s got a lot of experience, he’s played minutes, and he’s stronger. He knows that his body is an important part of his consistency. He’s got to take care of it.
“He’s got to continue to get stronger. He’s not at the finish line by any means in terms of what we’re doing in the weight room, but the confidence that comes with the strength and the right type of weight has been important for him because he can play longer stretches.”
Then came the bonus: freshman Aleksas Bieliauskas putting his own stamp on the afternoon with the first double-double of his young career. The 6-foot-10 big man finished with 11 points, 10 boards, and a block on 4-of-4 shooting. Every rebound mattered. Every roll had purpose. Bieliauskas and Winter gave Wisconsin a frontcourt that completely controlled the game’s interior.
“I think this game really helps me with my confidence,” Bieliauskas said. “I’ve scored in the last three games. On the trip, I didn’t score any points, but I know my role. It’s definitely different from what I used to, and this game definitely helps me. The guys are giving me the ball, and I’m hot.”
Bieliauskas, making his second straight start, played with the physicality this team needs. That presence might give Wisconsin its cleanest path at the center spot, freeing Winter to slide into his more natural spot at the four and allowing Austin Rapp to settle into a bench role. This staff has always had high expectations for Rapp, but what the starting lineup needs right now is a low-usage, anchor inside. The kind of piece that lets Winter stretch the floor and lets Rapp provide some scoring punch off the bench.
“I can’t be more proud of him, of how he’s just stayed the course,” Gard said of Bieliauskas. “He’s tough, he wants to get better. He’s just thirsting for knowledge and instruction. I’m just so happy for him. In a short period of time, he’s progressed and really immersed himself in the team.”
Rapp gave Wisconsin a solid showing, finishing with seven points on 2-of-5 shooting with four assists and three rebounds in just 16 minutes. Will Garlock didn’t add anything to the box score in his five minutes and posted a +/- of -3, but he still gives this team a dependable fourth big who can defend, keep the ball moving as a passer, and eat up minutes.
“Rapp gave us some good minutes,” said Gard. “Thought his passing out of some situations was good and again, for the most part, had an efficient game.”
There are still real questions about this frontcourt, and nobody should pretend the issues are all solved, but the early returns suggest this tweak has moved the group in the right direction. At this point, it’s hard to see a compelling reason for Coach Gard to pivot away from what’s working.
Wisconsin Won on the Margins
On the other side of the ball, Marquette spent much of the afternoon running headfirst into Wisconsin’s defense. The Golden Eagles have leaned heavily on young players instead of transfer veterans, and it has cost them in the form of scoring droughts. That trend didn’t stop here.
They opened 1-for-13 from the field. They didn’t get a post touch to fall until nearly seven minutes in. They shot 31.4% in the first half and never recovered. Over the full 40 minutes, Marquette finished at 42% from the field but only 31% from beyond the arc and managed 1.0 points per possession. By the time Wisconsin walked into halftime up 43–31, it felt like Marquette was scraping just to keep the floodgates from opening.
And then Nick Boyd buried a triple on the opening possession of the second half, and the game broke open anyway. Boyd, a transfer from San Diego State, finished with 15 points, five rebounds, and four assists. Wisconsin’s lead never dipped below double digits the rest of the way.
Senior guard Andrew Rohde competed with the kind of urgency that made it feel like he’d been playing in this rivalry his whole life. The Brookfield native went 6-of-9 from the field and hit 3-of-5 attempts from deep, finishing with 17 points, five rebounds, an assist, and four steals.
It was an impressive reminder of what Rohde looks like when he’s hunting his own offense instead of operating almost exclusively as the connector who sets the table for everyone else — an invaluable role, no doubt. Still, it’s also one that doesn’t always illustrate how much he has in his bag.
“I try to go in the game the same way every time and just let the ball come to me, try not to force anything,” Rohde said. “Things fell into my hands, and I just took advantage of it. I’m playing with great people around me, and guys who can score. So when the ball finds me, and I need to make a decision or make a play, I’m in the right state of mind to do that — just not forcing anything and sticking to the script.”
There were smaller storylines tucked underneath the blowout.
Wisconsin again controlled the glass, winning the rebounding battle 46–33, which moved them to 6–0 this season when they outboard their opponent. The Badgers also had a massive advantage at the free-throw line, hitting 24-of-29 attempts while Marquette managed only 9-of-19.
If you’re looking for indicators of a team starting to show some growth, that’s usually where you start. If you want something to nitpick, Wisconsin took almost six minutes to even attempt a shot in the paint. Turnovers and settling for shots on the perimeter bogged them down early, and there will be plenty of those nights, but the shooting eventually bailed them out, and the interior presence wore Marquette down as the game went on.
None of that changed the reality of the performance.
Wisconsin was better than Marquette at every level of the floor. They were tougher in the lane. They were cleaner in their execution. And when their best player took the game over, the rest of the roster chipped in.
That’s how blowouts happen. It’s also how a team starts to trust the version of itself it keeps seeing in flashes. If the Badgers keep pairing these offensive outings with defensive efforts that actually tilt matchups against better opponents, the discussion about their trajectory changes.
What’s Next
Wisconsin men’s basketball (7-2) will head to Lincoln, Nebraska, to face Fred Hoiberg and the Cornhuskers at Pinnacle Bank Arena. Tipoff is set for December 10 at 8 p.m. CT, with coverage on the Big Ten Network.
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Living in an area where I almost never see the Badgers on television, I appreciate this in-depth analysis of yesterday's game. Encouraging. I like Gard's description. of basketball--a game of mistakes. You have to try to minimize yours and maximize the opponent's.
Well, Marquette often takes recruits that should come to Madison so, it's always a good feeling to win regardless of how poor this year's team is.