"Raise your hand if you fouled out": Wisconsin HC Greg Gard gives a hilarious postgame speech after Big Ten semifinal win against Purdue
The Wisconsin Badgers recently sneaked into the Big Ten title game with a slim 76-75 win against the Purdue Boilermakers. It was a hard-fought game for head coach Greg Gard and his boys all throughout, as they did everything they could to try to stop the Boilermakers and ended up fouling their opponents too much.
As such, at the end of the game, Gard entered the locker room to celebrate and asked his players to raise their hands if they'd fouled out in the gritty win:
Here`s what Gard said to his players:
"I've been part of a lot of amazing battles in this league, in this tournament, the NCAA tournament. That may be one of the best I've ever seen. And it's you guys sticking together, coming together, picking each other up. And raise your hand if you fouled out, there was a lot of y'all."
The video, posted on X by Wisconsin`s official Big Ten Network page, has already garnered 819 likes at the time of this writing.
Greg Gard`s words were absolutely not out of pocket, and it`s not hard to see why. Wisconsin recorded 28 total fouls opposite to Purdue`s 17, leading to a total of 32 free throw attempts for the Boilermakers and just nine attempts for the Badgers. It was an extremely massive difference, which perhaps lends more credence to the magnitude of Wisconsin`s win, which pushed them forward into the Big Ten title game.
As for Purdue, the loss is not going to put that much of a dent in their record. They remain among the best teams in the nation heading into March Madness, though the loss did make sure that Wisconsin`s chances of making it to the Big Dance are as high as they can get.
How Wisconsin beat Purdue
At the start of the game, the Badgers came out of the gate slow on the offensive end. This forced them to rely on their defense, which is something they`ve done well against in-conference opponents all season. Their fifth-ranked offense in the Big Ten helped hold Purdue to below their year-long conference averages in FG and three-point shooting.
The game was tied at 62 with just under two minutes of play remaining. It would remain so for over a minute with no team scoring, until Zach Edey broke the deadlock with one close to the basket to make it 65-62 for the Boilermakers with 46.8 remaining.
Next play down, it took Wisconsin around half a minute once more to score on Chucky Hepburn`s drive to the basket to cut it to one with 6.5 seconds left. Purdue scored once more on a free throw to get it to 66-64, then Hepburn drove fearlessly again to the basket for the game-tying basket as time expired.
The game remained close in OT again and went down to the final shot for the last time, with Max Klesmit getting his chance to step up. He hit the game winner on a floater in the lane, and all that Purdue could muster at the end was a desperate half-court heave from full court to end the game.