March 7, 2026; West Lafayette, Indiana, USA; Wisconsin Badgers guard Nick Boyd (2) drives toward the basket during the first half against the Purdue Boilermakers at Mackey Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jacob Musselman-Imagn Image Wisconsin has been the fifth seed in the Big Ten tournament the past two seasons and advanced to the title game both times.
The 23rd-ranked Badgers (22-9) will look to advance from the top 5 spot for the third straight time when they begin tournament play with a third-round matchup against 12th-seeded Washington (16-16) on Thursday afternoon.
The Huskies advanced Wednesday with an 83-79 overtime win over 13th-seeded Southern California. Washington, led by Zoom Diallo with 22 points and 11 assists, Wesley Yates III and Qimari Peterson each with 15 points, and Hannes Steinbach with 10 points and 11 rebounds, overcame a 13-point deficit in the second half.
“When we get down, this is a team of character,” Washington coach Danny Sprinkle told Peacock after the game. “Adversity hasn’t defined us all year. We’ve had players quit, we’ve had injuries and these players continue to fight.”
The Huskies fell behind by three points early in overtime, but took a 7-0 lead on Peterson’s 3-pointer to put Washington up 80-76 with 59 seconds left. Diallo went 2/2 from the line in the final seconds and Steinbach made 2/2 to seal the win.
“Zoom has been amazing,” Sprinkle said. “He had four fouls in the last 12:30 of the second half. I think he had a double-double in the second half. That was awesome. Everybody stepped up. …
“The last five minutes of regulation, really eight minutes of regulation, and overtime, it came down to stops and guards, no fouling, and we found a way to go on and win.”
The Badgers beat the Huskies 90-73 in Seattle on Feb. 28, with Braeden Carrington coming off the bench to score a career-high 32 points and hit a school-record nine 3-pointers.
“We don’t have to make (17) threes like we did in the first meeting,” Sprinkle said. “We didn’t play that game with any energy. Give Wisconsin credit. They played great, but hopefully we play with a lot more energy (Thursday).”
Badgers coach Greg Gard and his staff had to prepare for multiple potential quarterfinal opponents.
“They all put their heads together and kept coming to me about how we wanted to adjust the game plan from player to player, game to game,” Gard said of his assistant coaches. “It took us a little while to get things going in the right direction, but it has made us much more efficient and effective.”
All-Big Ten second-team selection Nick Boyd leads the Badgers with averages of 20.1 points and 4.0 assists per game. John Blackwell, who was selected to the All-Big Ten third team, is scoring 18.4 points and 4.8 rebounds per game.
“They have two of the best guards in the league and both could have easily been first-team all-league, so they will have a burden on their shoulders,” Sprinkle said of Boyd and Blackwell.
–Field level media
