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

It’s bad enough to lose a game by eight when you were up by 19 on the road in conference play. It was even worse for No. 6 Wisconsin, though, considering how far that they strayed from their identity in order to let Nebraska come back from a historic deficit.

Greg Gard felt that way towards the start of his postgame press conference following the 80-72, overtime loss for the Badgers 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?” Gard recalled. “Just doing some very uncharacteristic things.”

Wisconsin, who came in at 16-4, led by as much as 19 and by 18 in the second half. G AJ Storr was key to that with 28 points, tied for his second-most on the year, on the night. The Badgers also got on the glass by winning the rebounding battle by seven.

Still, over the course of the second half, Nebraska found their way back into it. The Cornhuskers went on a 23-5 run over a stretch of nearly eight and a half minutes to tie it. Then, after some more jockeying, they managed to get it to overtime.

The ‘Huskers would go on to take the extra period by eight. Brice Williams closed it out with six of his 17 points while Rienk Mast and Juwan Gary combined for seven. As for the Badgers, Storr made their only field goal in overtime as they went 1-7 in the period.

In the end, 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.

Fans storm court as Nebraska upsets No. 6 Wisconsin in overtime

Nebraska trailed by as many as 19 points to No. 6 Wisconsin on Thursday. They went on to defeat the Badgers by eight in overtime, though, for the Cornhuskers’ second win over an AP Top-10 team this season.

Hundreds of fans then stormed the court to celebrate the victory second after the the final buzzer sounded.

UPSET ALERT! 🚨@HuskerMBB takes down No. 6 Wisconsin in overtime ‼️ pic.twitter.com/4nYTD2cGZP

— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) February 2, 2024