Kamari McGee's ejection fuels No. 16 Wisconsin basketball's win at seventh-ranked Purdue

Kamari McGee’s ejection fuels No. 16 Wisconsin basketball’s win at seventh-ranked Purdue

Posted by author February 16, 2025 Basketball

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WEST LAFAYTETTE, IND. – The picture said it all.

Inside the Wisconsin locker room at Mackey Arena on Saturday the members of Badgers men’s basketball team stood around by Kamari McGee. Some had their arms folded. Others flashed the Wisconsin “W” with their fingers.

So often this season McGee has sparked the team though either his play or his attitude.

Saturday his teammates picked him up after he was hit with a Flagrant 2 foul and ejected in the first half of the Badgers’ 94-84 victory over Purdue.

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“We were like ‘Hey bro, we’ll get this game for you’, when we saw him in the locker room,” graduate guard John Tonje said. “He was obviously having a tough time. Obviously he wants to be out here with his family.”

McGee’s ejection came at a critical point in the first half. Sophomore guard John Blackwell had picked up his second foul at the 6-minute 46-secon mark and spent the rest of the half on the bench. Graduate center Steven Crowl got his second foul 25 seconds later.

Immediately after that McGee was ejected.

The senior guard drew the foul with 6:20 left in the first half as he was chasing Purdue point guard Braden Smith. Smith came off a screen and took a handoff from 6-9 forward Trey Kaufman-Renn.

During the exchange, McGee collided with the 6-9 forward, his right arm catching Kaufman-Renn in the midsection/groin area. The foul was immediately reviewed and ruled a Flagrant 2, which according to the NCAA rule book means the contact was deemed “not only excessive, but also severe (brutal, harsh, cruel) or extreme (dangerous, punishing), while the ball is live.

There was plenty of disagreement over the call on social media, but that didn’t help McGee, who had to follow the rest of the game from the locker room.

“I haven’t seen the video,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said. “I didn’t look at it at halftime. I didn’t look at the board or anything, I was having more conversations about what had happened the previous possession on the other end when I felt like our guys were like bowling pins, falling down and getting knocked around.

“It’s within the rules (to make that call). This is a really hard game for any (officiating) crew. That is why we had a really strong crew on this game. It’s a hard job to do. But when they gave me the explanation that’s the letter of the law. Its not up for debate. We needed to move on.”

Wisconsin did.

In McGee’s absence redshirt freshman Jack Janicki received extra minutes. He played a career-high 17 minutes and scored a career-high 11 points while getting his most extensive in-game experience as a point guard.

After McGee’s ejection the Badgers closed the first half with a 14-6 run, cutting a nine-point deficit to one at halftime by scoring on seven of nine possessions.

The run set the stage for an explosive second half that featured 72% shooting and 58 points.

Perhaps it’s coincidence that the Badgers outscored Purdue by 17 points after McGee’s ejection. Maybe it’s not.

“Actually McGee getting ejected threw more gas on our fire and really united us,” Gard said. “I probably talked less in these huddles today than I have all year because they were so engaged and so instrumental and instructive with what they wanted to do and what they thought was working on both ends of the floor. I’m just happy for them because they bonded together.”