Gard: Badgers didn’t have ‘same mentality’ or aggressiveness vs. Ohio State

MADISON, WISCONSIN - JANUARY 31: Nick Boyd #2 of the Wisconsin Badgers drives to the basket on John Mobley Jr. #0 of the Ohio State Buckeyes during the second half of the game at Kohl Center on January 31, 2026 in Madison, Wisconsin.

(Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images) | Getty Images The Wisconsin Badgers had a disappointing 86-69 loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes on Tuesday, falling behind early and never recovering en route to one of their worst defeats of the year. Wisconsin struggled early on the defensive end, as the Buckeyes caught fire from three, and never really saw their offense get into a groove.

They couldn’t hit shots beyond the arc, struggled from the free-throw line, and turned the ball over uncharacteristically. After the game, head coach Greg Gard wasn’t pleased with his team’s efforts, which were far different from what the Badgers showed in their two wins last week over Top 10 teams.

“When we threw the ball up, I thought right from the beginning we did not have the same mentality to us, aggressiveness to us, physicality to us,” Gard said, via 247Sports’s Nick Osen. “Ohio State, they were much more aggressive, much more physical than we were. Set the tone early and they were able to get that lead. “But I didn’t like how, like I said, how we started from both ends of the floor.

So I thought we were just not as, we didn’t have the same fight to us that we’ve had over the last two, three weeks.” While the Badgers have been a team that has generally played at a fast pace, they had just five fast break points on Tuesday as Ohio State was able to slow the game down. “I didn’t think we played with good pace,” Gard continued, via Osen. “I thought we got stagnant at times.

I didn’t think our guys ran and were able to push the ball in transition like we have. And then when we did, we haven’t thrown the ball around that to nobody with 12 turnovers in a long time.  So, like I said, both ends of the floor. I just thought we were not as engaged and not focused on the things that we had to do to come in here.” “They’ve got talented players, and they’ve played well.

They’ve had a lot of close games. So they obviously have a terrific point guard. But to have those guys, you know, [Devin] Royal and [Amare] Bynum, knock down threes, puts more of a pressure on your defense to get stretched out. And then you let a guy like Bruce Thornton play downhill.

And he’s alone when you have to play one-on-one downhill.” There were a variety of issues the Badgers must fix, especially against another slow-paced team like Iowa, which comes to town on Sunday afternoon. The Hawkeyes are also coming off a major win, upsetting the Nebraska Cornhuskers at home, so that matchup will be another tough one for the Badgers. Wisconsin has shown us it can beat any team in the country.

But they’ve got to be more consistent, which wasn’t the case on Tuesday. The Badgers were uncharacteristic in Tuesday’s loss. The Badgers were uncharacteristic in Tuesday’s loss.