Greg Gard calls for more aggressive play from Steven Crowl

After No. 6 Wisconsin fell to Nebraska, Badgers leader Greg Gard pointed out some flaws in the game of forward Steven Crowl.

The Badgers forward is immensely talented, but his disappeared against the Cornhuskers, scoring only one point. That’s something Gard believes can’t happen, and he wants to see Crowl be more aggressive in the coming weeks as Wisconsin looks to make a run.

“Absolutely,” Gard said, regarding if Crowl needed to get more opportunities. “I thought he was not aggressive enough. He’s got to be more aggressive. Whether they’re double-teaming him or not, he’s got to play with more force inside, and I didn’t think, honestly with anybody in the paint, we didn’t play the way we needed to play, how we have been playing.

“It’s one thing if they’re doubling. There was times we just weren’t aggressive in the paint.”

It’s not like Crowl hasn’t proven to be capable in the past. He’s averaging 11.4 points and 7.8 rebounds per game on the season. Gard just wants to see him takeover every now and then, and he’ll have an opportunity in Wisconsin’s next game.

Time will tell if Wisconsin and Steven Crowl are able to take it to the Purdue Boilermakers on Sunday, but that’d be a heck of a way to get back in the saddle for the Badgers.

Greg Gard on Nebraska loss: ‘I thought we got completely away from what makes us good’

Moreover, Greg Gard was not happy with his team’s 80-72 overtime loss in Lincoln on Thursday. He felt like his team did several things during the game, especially late, that didn’t represent who they are or what they’d been doing to win games so far this season.

“I thought we got completely away from what makes us good,” said Gard. “The shots that we settled for at times? Then, obviously, turning the ball over? Gambling defensively when we didn’t need to gamble? Just doing some very uncharacteristic things.”

In the win for the Cornhuskers, Nebraska completed the largest comeback since they became a member of the Big Ten back in 2011. It was an improbable outcome that led to yet another court storming for their fanbase after a second victory over a Top-10 team this season.

Many things lead to the kind of collapse like the one that Wisconsin had inside Pinnacle Bank Arena. The way all of those uncommon aspects compounded, though, is what did them in. That will likely be what haunts Gard the most as he must now prepare his team to respond in a matchup between them and Purdue as the best of the conference this weekend.

On3’s Sam Gillenwater contributed to this article.