Greg Gard talks last play of regulation, tough loss to Michigan

Coach Greg Gard said Wisconsin played about as well as it could for much of Sunday’s game with Michigan, holding a 3-point lead with just over 2 seconds to play in Ann Arbor. Center Hunter Dickinson somehow gathered in an inbounds pass from Terrance Williams II and nailed a triple to send it to overtime, keeping U-M’s NCAA Tournament hopes off life support. 

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They were very much alive when Michigan pulled out an 87-79 overtime win.

Several questioned why Wisconsin coach Greg Gard decided not to foul on the play. He said he’d do it the same way if he had it to do over.

“Not in that situation, no, because it was going to be catch-shot,” Gard said when asked if he thought about fouling. “You’re risking [it] … or you foul on the floor. We made a play on the ball we shouldn’t have made … we shouldn’t have made a play on the ball on the pass.”

The Badgers went for the inbounds pass, but guard Jordan Davis was unable to secure the ball on the inbounds pass. Dickinson gathered it, spun, dribbled, and drilled the 28-footer. 

From there, Michigan pulled away in overtime for the win.

“Stay between him and the rim,” Gard said when asked what he wanted on the final possession. “That’s the only way he gets an open look at the ‘3’ is if we don’t come up with it and take a chance on it.

“These guys battled their butts off. I couldn’t ask any for any more from them. And we were trying to foul up the floor coming up the last 7, 8 seconds. I’ll look through the tape to see what we need to do to get a foul … obviously to the borderline of tackling. Before that, we were fouling up three. We didn’t foul hard enough, apparently.”

He’ll find the positives on film, he added, but it was tough in the aftermath. Still, Gard noted, they were down 10 or 12 and lost point guard Chucky Hepburn but continued to battle.

“There are a lot of good things that happened today. The last two seconds of regulation or whatever its not one of them,” Gard continued. “We’ve got to learn from that and not make those same miscues in crucial times.

“We hit a rut there. We couldn’t finish in the first half in the paint, which put us in a deficit there at the end of the first half. But they’re very perseverant. They’ve not flinched at all, and that’s been our constant reminder. You’re doing good things. We’ve got to continue to clean up some little things. The parity and the margin of error we know is small. It came down to 2.whatever seconds today where you’ve got to find a way to close it out.”

And Dickinson and sophomore guard Kobe Bufkin made it tough, as did frosh point guard Dug McDaniel (20 points).

Bufkin finished with 26 points, Dickinson 23. Bufkin got to the rim at will in the first half but had to earn his points in the second after Wisconsin adjusted.

“Early I thought we let him get to his left hand too much,” Gard said. “… The physicality — that was one of the things at halftime we talked about, being more physical, not only in the beginning of those actions but also with the ball screens and the handoffs. We were a little more engaged in the second half for the most part, took away some of his space which made him a little more uncomfortable.”

With Dickinson, they were “too spread out” in the first half in allowing him to dominate in stretches, Gard added. They moved him off his spot more in the second half. 

“Being more physical in that regard,” Gard said. “Hunter is a good player. I don’t want to take anything away from him. He made some plays when he needed to.”

Especially the biggest one to send it to overtime.

If Michigan makes the tournament and Wisconsin misses it — and Sunday was a big blow to their chances — that shot could well be the reason.

“We’ll look through tape and look for other things we could have done,” Gard said. “But other than that last couple seconds, I thought we put ourselves in good position to finish it out.”