Wisconsin basketball HC Greg Gard channels inner JJ Watt after Michigan heartbreaker

After a bit of a rocky start to the season, Wisconsin basketball has been one of the hottest teams in the nation of late as the Badgers roll into the postseason. Greg Gard and company kept that trend going in the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago with an overtime win over Illinois in the quarterfinals and a valiant effort against top-seeded Michigan in the semis.

For parts of that semifinal, it looked like Wisconsin was poised to pull off the upset of Michigan and advance to the title game. Nick Boyd was scoring at will and Austin Rapp knocked down six 3-pointers in the second half. However, those hopes went away at the final buzzer, as Yaxel Lendeborg drilled a game-winning 3-pointer to give Michigan a 68-65 win.

While this is a disappointing loss for Wisconsin, the Badgers still have plenty of momentum heading into the NCAA Tournament. After the game, Greg Gard channeled an old JJ Watt quote about how his Badgers have earned the respect of the rest of the Big Ten and the country, via Matt Fortuna.

“You can look it up, but rent’s due every day,” Gard said.

Gard and company will now await their fate on Selection Sunday, but they have done a lot of work to improve their seeding in recent weeks. The Badgers have a road win over Michigan on their resume along with a number of other quality wins, including the quarterfinal victory over Illinois, so it will be interesting to see where the committee slots them.

ClutchPoints’ latest Bracketology has Wisconsin comfortably in as a No. 5 seed, which would give Gard and company a good chance to make a run to the second weekend with the way that they’ve been playing. After this run to the Big Ten semis, nobody will want to see the Badgers in the first weekend.

The post Wisconsin basketball HC Greg Gard channels inner JJ Watt after Michigan heartbreaker appeared first on ClutchPoints.