Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard comments on Michigan State's win over the Badgers

Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard comments on Michigan State’s win over the Badgers

Posted by author March 3, 2025 Basketball

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Wisconsin basketball has slowly but steadily been pursuing Michigan State all year in the standings, giving themselves a chance until they could finally face the Spartans. Unfortunately for the Badgers, they, like multiple other ranked Big Ten opponents, fell prey to MSU on Sunday, losing to the Spartans 71 to 62.

After the game, Wisconsin coach Greg Gard spoke to the media about the loss. You can see what he had to say below.

On the loss

‘Obviously the last six, seven minutes we really inflicted some damage to ourselves with some turnovers and that’s obviously credit to Michigan State. Tom’s got a really good team, as I thought coming in… Obviously the offensive rebounding, the timely ones where we got them to miss late in clocks and they’ve been doing that to a lot of teams all year so a lot for us to learn from, when you go 5-for-32 from three… I thought we had some good looks, some open looks for the right guys, part of that’s Michigan State’s defense, they’ve defended well for the vast majority of the year. Even with the 5-for-32 I thought we were in position, but then the turnovers and a couple offensive rebounds on their end… But like I said, he’s got a really good team, and it’s a good college basketball game, I just wish we could have played better the last six or seven minutes.’

On Tom Izzo

‘I haven’t been staying here as long as Tom has but I go back quite a ways, 25 years, I know he’s been here 42 now. You know, great respect for him, I think you build your program, as we did, when we got to Wisconsin in 2001, and you know at that time they were the king of the mountain in the Big Ten, and that set the bar really high, so it was always for us building our program defensively… The thing I appreciate most about Coach is he’s withstood the test of time. 42 years, 30 years the head coach, now the most wins in Big Ten history. That’s not going to happen. In today’s era, coaches aren’t going to be here that long. It’s a tribute to Tom, it’s a tribute to Michigan State… He’s great for college basketball.’

On MSU’s defense

‘I thought we had some pretty good looks, heck even the last one McGee had in the corner. You know Michigan State does that to you too, I thought they did some good things with protecting the paint and closing the shooters… You know, we’ve played without Max before… We’ve dealt with that, so it’s not about lineup, it’s about our execution. Credit to Michigan State’s defense.’

On Jase Richardson

‘He comes from some pretty good genes right, stock’s pretty good from his dad. He’s listening to Coach Izzo. That’s one thing I appreciate about my guys is they are very coachable and they listen, and I think Michigan State players are doing the same thing for Coach Izzo, and for a young man like Jase to come in here and come in with more questions than answers and take coaching like he has, I’m sure Tom appreciates it and it shows with how he’s played.’

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