In the penultimate game of their regular season, coming off of a tough loss to Michigan State, Wisconsin was able to keep up a yearly tradition.

The 74-67 win over Minnesota on Wednesday night was the Badgers’ ninth in a row in the series.

A run by Minnesota in the second half tested their hold on the game, but they ultimately prevailed, on the back of John Blackwell’s 25 points.

“One thing about this group is they’ve developed a toughness to them and a callousness to them. When things aren’t clicking completely, they’ll find other ways to win,” coach Greg Gard said after the win.

Here are my three biggest takeaways from Wisconsin’s win over Minnesota.

Once is a mistake, twice is a choice, and three times would’ve been a pattern.

The Badgers nearly suffered a late-game collapse against Minnesota, which would’ve been their third in the past four games.

Their lead against Oregon evaporated, and a tight game against Michigan State turned into a beatdown. There was a point on Wednesday where it seemed like the Badgers were heading for more heartbreak.

For almost three-quarters of the game, Wisconsin was in control of a game they were supposed to control.

Then the Gophers caught fire. Backup guard Brennan Rigsby led the charge, hitting a 3-pointer, two free-throws and converting an and-one dunk. Dawson Garcia finally began to contribute, scoring his second and third field goals of the game.

Within two-and-a-half minutes, Minnesota completely erased an 11-point deficit.

“That was really the only flurry where I thought we were defensively disjointed,” Gard said.

This was the fork-in-the-road moment. The Badgers could have mentally wilted the way we saw against Oregon and Michigan State. But they didn’t.

It quickly turned into a classic Big Ten rock fight. Blackwell threw some blows. Garcia answered. It was a back-and-forth affair for about six minutes.

Enter Carter Gilmore and Jack Janicki.

Gilmore drew contact every time he touched the ball, making four quick free throws and a jumper. Janicki made three tough baskets in near succession, slicing through the Gopher defense with more ease than any of the team’s other guards.

Wisconsin eventually regained their control of the game, winning 74-67.

But it all started with the work of Gilmore and Janicki, two bench players who nobody was sure would even be on the court in the final minutes. This is what March is all about.

While Wednesday night featured enough issues to keep the team humble, the Badgers must feel a sense of pride in how they seemed to make progress in learning from their recent meltdowns.

Coming off of the late-game disaster against Michigan State, fans may have wanted the Badgers to open Wednesday with one of their signature 3-point barrages.

Or, at the very least, some sort of energy.

But in typical Badger fashion, they eased themselves into Wednesday night’s action. Neither team took control of the game to start.

Then John Blackwell checked back in.

After missing three of his first four attempts from 3, it seemed like Blackwell simply got frustrated and decided to stop leaving his scoring up to chance.

He started driving, at and through Minnesota’s defense. The sophomore guard scored nine points within the final 10 minutes of the half — two layups, five free throws.

More importantly, the rest of the team seemed to turn up their aggression after watching Blackwell’s run. It was as if they saw him and thought, “Oh yeah, we can do that.”

Nolan Winter drove and made some layups early in the second half. Then it was Gilmore’s six free throws in the middle of the half that helped build the lead. Finally, John Tonje put the nail in the coffin in the final minutes with some free throws of his own.

All in all, the Badgers went 21-of-24 from the line, including 16-of-19 in the second half.

“John did a lot for us tonight, he was big. Obviously with Tonje being in some foul trouble and not really being in a great rhythm, and Max being out, there’s a little bit more that he has to bear, and he did a good job of it,” Gard said.

Blackwell finished with a team-high 25 points on 8-for-21 shooting. He shot poorly, especially from 3 (2-for-9), but his sheer aggression created momentum that the rest of the team had no choice but to follow.

Despite the messy nature of his performance, this is what star players do. They put the team on their back and find a way to win, bricks and all.

Rarely are scouting reports as simple as they were for the Badgers on Wednesday night.

Their primary job on defense? Limit Dawson Garcia. Everything else should be manageable.

And that was what they did. One of the Big Ten’s best scorers, and players, finished with 14 points on just 6-of-17 shooting.

Garcia was rendered an afterthought in the first half, attempting just four field goals and making one of them. He didn’t make another shot until almost halfway through the second half, to which a few buckets quickly followed.

Unfortunately for Garcia, this short burst was immediately followed by Wisconsin’s own run to end the game.

Most of his shot attempts and makes came in the waning minutes, when he seemed to finally remember that he was the best player on the team.

The fifth-year senior was clearly bothered by the size of Steven Crowl and Nolan Winter. But it was Gilmore’s tenacity off the bench that proved especially bothersome and impactful.

“Really good job on Garcia, to hold him to 14 points on 17 shots,” Gard said.

“I thought Gilmore was, quite frankly, maybe our best matchup against Garcia, just because of his strength and ability to move, and he’s more experienced.”

The box score doesn’t adequately reflect Gilmore’s contributions. He was maybe the most important Badger player on the floor after Blackwell. Heading into the postseason with a player as trustworthy as Gilmore coming off the bench is a luxury that the Badgers haven’t enjoyed in years.

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As Luke Fickell‘s third act in Madison draws closer, BadgerBlitz.com will break down Wisconsin’s roster position-by-position ahead of spring camp, which is slated to take place from March 13 to April 24.

BadgerBlitz.com is once again expected to watch any open practices available for reporters to attend. Thus, our position previews continue Wednesday with the offensive line, a unit entering year two under position coach AJ Blazek.

SPRING POSITION PREVIEWS: QBs | RBs | TEs | WRs

Wisconsin loses two starters from its offensive line but returns its starting center (Jake Renfro), right tackle (Riley Mahlman) and left guard (Joe Brunner). All told, the Badgers return 2,542 snaps from last fall.

Of the returnees, Mahlman is likely the best of the bunch. In 2024, he allowed a career-high 19 pressures, per Pro Football Focus, but that only translated into two sacks and across 405 pass-blocking snaps, that’s a pressure rate of less than 5 percent. That’ll play. Getting Malhman to return for his fifth-year senior season was enormous for this offensive front.

Renfro returned to action after missing the entire 2023 regular season and did a solid job at center. Like Mahlman, he was a good pass-blocker but struggled to consistently move bodies in the running game. Regardless, his return for a sixth-year senior season is massive as well, as a veteran presence and communicator at center is so critical for the collective performance of an offensive line.

Brunner became a full-time starter last fall, and performed very similarly to the rest of the offensive line: he was lights out in pass protection, not allowing a single sack across 411 pass-blocking snaps, but he didn’t move many bodies as a run-blocker. The Badgers would pull Brunner from time to time to spark their running game, and it’ll be interesting to see if that’s a tactic new offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes — who played offensive line himself — subscribes to.

That leaves left tackle and right guard as the two starting spots up for grabs, and the primary candidates before spring practice kicks off are Kevin Heywood and JP Benzschawel, respectively.

Heywood played 57 snaps at left tackle last fall, the second-most on the team at the blindside tackle spot behind starter Jack Nelson. That included an extended 35 snaps against Purdue, where he didn’t allow a pressure across 14 pass-blocking snaps. In fact, Heywood allowed just one pressure across 50 pass-blocking snaps across the entire season. The highest-rated recruit in Wisconsin’s 2024 recruiting class has a bright future, and looks slated to slide into the starting role this spring.

Benzschwel, meanwhile, will be a redshirt senior this fall. He played a career-high 58 snaps last season, the majority of which came at right guard. He has the seniority and the experience to where he’s clearly the top choice at right guard.

The Badgers have depth on the offensive line past the starters, but most of it is on the younger side. After the aforementioned five projected starters, Wisconsin has super senior Kerry Kodanko (21 career snaps), redshirt junior Barrett Nelson (19 career snaps), senior Leyton Nelson (27 career snaps), four walk-ons and a whopping nine freshman (four of whom redshirted last season). Of those five true freshmen, only three will enroll early, however: Hardy Watts, Nolan Davenport and Michael Roeske.

Of the two spots along the offensive line that don’t return a starter, both appear to have a clear candidate to fill them. As mentioned, Heywood (left tackle) and Benzschawel (right guard) should be the runaway favorites at their respective positions.

Still, who could challenge each player? Let’s offer some names for each position. Starting at left tackle, players other than Heywood that figure to have a shot include: 1) Barrett Nelson, 2) Leyton Nelson and 3) Emerson Mandell.

Barrett has exclusively played tackle during his career in Madison, and has the seniority as a redshirt junior to feasibly be one of the first reserve tackles off the bench. Leyton figures to be a candidate as well for the same reasons.

Mandell, meanwhile — a fellow Rivals250 recruit in the 2024 class — has the size to play tackle, but he appears more likely to crack the two-deep at guard.

At right guard, the candidates include 1) Mandell, 2) Colin Cubberly, 3) Kodanko and 4) Ryan Cory.

Cubbery and Cory are redshirt freshmen who played a handful of snaps each at guard last season. The senior Kodanko, meanwhile, has just 21 career snaps but could also be Renfro’s backup at center.

It’s often hard to evaluate the play in the trenches during spring ball without full pads, but it’ll be hard to take ones eyes off Heywood this spring.

For one, you can’t miss him. He’s an absolute unit at a listed 6-foot-8, 325 pounds, and that was last season — how does he look after a full year with strength coach Brady Collins?

It also goes without saying that left tackle is one of the most critical positions on the entire team. Jack Nelson gave the Badgers rock solid if not dominant play at that spot for three years. There’s certainly room for improvement, but the floor is also pretty high. Can Heywood raise the bar at the position?

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