4 thoughts on Wisconsin basketball's 97-93 road win over No. 15 Purdue

Wisconsin knocks off No. 15 Purdue 97-93 at Mackey Arena behind 18 made 3-pointers, closing the regular season without Nolan Winter.

Wisconsin guards Nick Boyd and John Blackwell flash the name on the front of their jerseys toward the Purdue crowd during the Badgers’ road win at Mackey Arena. Photo credit: UW Athletics.

Greg Gard and the Wisconsin men’s basketball team closed the regular season on an impressive note.

The Badgers (22-9, 14-6 Big Ten) went on the road to Mackey Arena and knocked off Matt Painter’s No. 15 Purdue Boilermakers 97-93 on Saturday, doing it behind a season-high 18 3-pointers and an offense that produced 1.52 points per possession to secure their third top-15 road win of the season. They did it without one of their most important pieces, too.

“A tremendous college basketball game between two terrific teams,” Gard said. “I think we got Purdue’s best, and I think Purdue got our best.

“We were matching blow for blow, shot for shot. Our guys were really calm and confident, and obviously our ability to move the ball offensively — creating 19 assists on 29 baskets — was huge. When you make 18 threes, that’s obviously how this team was built. And when this group is doing that, we’re really, really good.”

Here are a few thoughts from Wisconsin’s regular-season finale.

1. Winning at Mackey without Nolan Winter says a lot

Winning at Mackey Arena is difficult under normal circumstances. Doing it without your best interior presence against a Purdue team known for its size and rebounding ability makes the task even tougher.

But that’s exactly what Wisconsin managed to do.

Junior forward Nolan Winter, who suffered an ankle injury against Maryland, did not travel with the team. That left a major void in the frontcourt for a Badgers team that typically leans on his size, rebounding, effort, and ability to pull defenders away from the basket.

So Wisconsin adjusted.

Instead of trying to replicate Winter’s presence, the Badgers leaned fully into their spacing and perimeter shooting. The result was a shooting clinic. Wisconsin knocked down 18-of-34 3-point attempts (52.9%), stretching Purdue’s defense to its breaking point and opening driving lanes late in the game.

Austin Rapp stepped into the starting lineup for his first start since late November and delivered. Rapp finished with 17 points, three rebounds, and three assists, while freshman forward Aleksas Bieliauskas added 16 points and went 4-for-5 from beyond the arc in 36 minutes. Will Garlock was sprinkled in for five minutes and provided another interior presence.

The frontcourt combination wasn’t about replacing Winter — it was about adapting without him. And it worked. The Badgers are now 11-0 this season when Rapp scores in double figures, a small but telling indicator of how important his offensive production can be when Wisconsin needs another scoring outlet. His in-season development has been encouraging and is looking like a potential building block for the program’s future.

Now the question becomes when Winter might be able to return to the lineup, though early indications suggest that timeline could be sooner rather than later.

“All of our feedback early on from our medical people is that they’re very satisfied with the progress he’s making each day,” Gard said. “We felt it was best to leave him back, because I think he had four different recovery and rehab treatment sessions today.

“We’ll see how he responds. Every day has been another step forward. We feel much better than we did when it happened. All the evaluations were good from that standpoint. Now it’s just a matter of getting back to where he feels he can be. I don’t have a time frame, but all indications are that it’s making very good progress.”

2. This team’s growth over the season has been impressive

If Saturday felt like the product of months of progress, that’s because it was.

Gard said as much afterward, describing the game as a reflection of the journey this group has taken throughout the season.

“I think this game was a microcosm of the journey that this team has been on,” Gard said. “The biggest improvement has been on the mental side. Mentally tougher, mentally handled adversity better. Turning the page on bad halves. They have become calloused. Tougher physically, but also tougher mentally.”

Gard emphasized something that often gets overlooked in the current era of roster turnover.

Teams still develop.

“In this day and age, everybody wants instant gratification,” Gard said. “Everybody talks about a portal championship that gets handed out in April or May. But it’s still about teams getting better during the season.

“This group has gotten connected and grown together, even with so many new guys. They’ve taken coaching, they’ve bonded, and I think you’re starting to see what happens when that comes together. This team’s gotten better, and it’s still getting better. I don’t think we’ve peaked yet.”

This group has done exactly that.

The pieces didn’t snap perfectly into place during the non-conference slate. But as the season progressed, players began settling into their roles.

Nick Boyd has improved his balance between scoring and facilitating. John Blackwell has grown into a true co-star alongside him in the backcourt. Those two needed to learn how to play together for Wisconsin to become the best version of itself. Rapp has responded after being benched earlier in the season and has shown the defensive growth the staff needed to see. Bieliauskas has carved out a clear role. Braeden Carrington has become a reliable scoring threat off the bench and a dangerous 3-point shooter who is a threat to let it fly from anywhere.

And over time, the rotation has finally come together. It hasn’t always been perfect. The highs have been incredibly high, and the lows have been pretty low at times. But on a nightly basis now, you’re starting to see the version of this team that’s capable of rising to any challenge. And right now, Wisconsin is playing its best basketball heading into the postseason.

3. Boyd and Blackwell are a dangerous backcourt duo

Guard play wins in March.

Wisconsin’s backcourt is among the most dangerous guard combinations in the country, capable of carrying a team deep into postseason play.

Gard pointed to the evolution of the partnership between Boyd and Blackwell as one of the biggest reasons for Wisconsin’s maturation.

“Those two guys have grown together,” Gard explained. “If you peel back just the team component, and look deeper, the functionality and compatibility of Blackwell and Boyd together has grown immensely since November, and that’s a piece of our ascent here as we go forward.”

Saturday was another example.

Blackwell, who had been in a bit of a slump, picked the perfect time to break out of it, finishing with a game-high 25 points on 7-of-13 shooting while attacking Purdue’s defense and scoring efficiently throughout. Boyd added 23 points, including 18 in the second half, and took over down the stretch by scoring 11 of Wisconsin’s final 13 points.

That kind of late-game shot-making changes everything. Boyd’s quickness getting into the lane, his toughness, and his ability to finish around the rim put constant pressure on the defense, which in turn opens up so much for the shooters spaced around him. You can’t replace it.

It’s also worth mentioning that Boyd’s Big Ten season has been historically productive as well. His 415 points in conference play rank as the second-highest total in program history, trailing only Michael Finley’s 417-point conference campaign in 1992. That’s no small feat.

When Boyd and Blackwell are both operating at that level, Wisconsin’s offense becomes difficult to contain. If that’s the version of the backcourt that shows up in the postseason, the Badgers could be a tough out.

4. Another strong regular season for Wisconsin

The victory also placed Wisconsin in some notable company.

The Badgers finished the 2025-26 regular season with 14 Big Ten wins, just the sixth time in program history that the program has reached that mark. Four of those seasons have come under Gard.

That’s not a coincidence.

Gard has now been at the helm for eight of the 20 highest single-season win totals in Wisconsin basketball history. And while critics will always point to the lack of a deep run in March, there’s no denying the consistent level of winning the program has sustained under his leadership.

This season might be one of the more impressive examples of that. The two-time Big Ten Coach of the Year has put together plenty of strong coaching jobs over the years at Wisconsin, but turning this group into what it has become is impressive in its own right, given how many new faces had to learn how to mesh together along the way.

The Badgers own road wins over Michigan, Illinois, and Purdue, plus a home win over Michigan State, for a total of four victories over top-15 opponents in the span of two months. That résumé reflects a team that has grown significantly from the version that took the floor early in the season, which is good news for Wisconsin as it now turns its attention to Chicago and the Big Ten Tournament.

With the regular season complete, the focus shifts to postseason basketball. And if the Badgers — who finished No. 16 nationally in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency — can pair a healthy Winter with the version of Boyd, Blackwell, Carrington, and Rapp that have emerged late in the season, Wisconsin suddenly looks like a team capable of making real noise in March.

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