Nolan Winter Gives Emotional Response Following Wisconsin's 76-66 Loss to Villanova
MILWAUKEE — It certainly wasn’t an NCAA Tournament loss that ended his season. It wasn’t even a defeat in Big Ten Conference play. Wisconsin (7-4) wasn’t dragged by some mid-major opponent on its home floor. However, you wouldn’t have known any of that by looking at Nolan Winter following Friday’s 76-66 overtime loss to Villanova (9-3) in the Milwaukee Hoops Showdown.
With tears in his eyes, sometimes unable to mutter out the words he was looking for, the junior forward gave a passionate, heartfelt response after the Badgers dropped back-to-back games and put together their fourth uninspiring effort before January.
“This team is full of winners,” he said. “I know I’m a winner. To go through losses and trials like that, it’s not what I hold this team to be. I know that we’ve got more in the tank. I know what it means for us to wear ‘Wisconsin’ across our chest. To go out there and not show the effort that the state of Wisconsin deserves, the program deserves…it sucks.”
“We’re gonna bounce back.”
Wisconsin trailed by as many as 15 to Villanova, who came out and smothered the Badgers from the jump. UW began the game 9-of-24 shooting and finished with a season-high 16 turnovers while only getting to the free throw line 10 times, including zero attempts in the opening 20 minutes. The Badgers would get their act together over the final 12 minutes and change, ending regulation on an 18-6 run to push the game into overtime, only to fall flat in the extra session, in which the Wildcats scored an easy 20 points.
Friday goes down as already the fourth double-digit loss of this young season for Wisconsin, who began the year ranked No. 23 in the Associated Press Poll and had much higher expectations after returning star players, Winter and junior guard John Blackwell, as well as what seemed to be a nice haul from the transfer portal.
Winter finished with one of his best performances in a UW uniform, scoring a game-high 23 points (9-12), while grabbing 11 rebounds, dishing out three assists, and recording two blocks in 43 minutes, including the bucket that pushed the game into overtime.
However, all Winter had to show for it post-game was a lot of pain, but perhaps his speech will rub off on the rest of the locker room.
“You see his love for the university,” said senior guard Nick Boyd, who scored 19 points (7-17) and contributed five rebounds and four assists in 42 minutes. “I definitely understand the pride. His effort today — when I first listed in the portal, they said, ‘Nolan Winter is coming back.’ This is a guy I want to play with. He showed that today.”
Yet to grab a resume-building win this season, Wisconsin won’t get the chance for the rest of non-conference play as the Badgers finish out the slate against Central Michigan and UW-Milwaukee. While there will be plenty of opportunities in January and beyond during Big Ten Conference play, UW currently sits all the way back at No. 68 in the NCAA Net Rankings, which have sizable implications on a team’s NCAA Tournament hopes.
Wisconsin Greg Gard, who was sitting to Winter’s right, didn’t seem panicked or flustered by yet another disheartening loss. If anything, he left Fiserv Forum more encouraged by Winter’s statement to the media. But will it be enough to light a fire under a Badger team that has very little show for itself through 11 games?
“It means they care. It means winning matters,” said Gard. “I think in today’s day and age of everything going on in college athletics and the individualism that gets attached to whether it’s portal or NIL, we lose sight of that winning matters and that (losing) stings, and it burns.
“From a coach’s standpoint, that’s good. That tells me they care. I think that’s a good sign.”
