What Greg Gard said about officiating in Wisconsin’s loss to Indiana

BLOOMINGTON, IN – Wisconsin had the ball and the lead with 20 seconds remaining in overtime against Indiana.

With two costly whistles, the Badgers lost both of those things en route to a heartbreaking 78-77 loss in overtime against the Hoosiers on Feb. 7 at Assembly Hall.

The first was a charge on Wisconsin point guard Nick Boyd with 15.1 seconds remaining that gave Indiana the ball with a 77-76 deficit.

Then as Lamar Wilkerson was driving against Wisconsin’s John Blackwell, the officials called Blackwell for his fifth foul. Wilkerson then hit the game-tying and go-ahead free throws, leaving the Badgers with time for only a heave with 2.8 seconds remaining.

Wisconsin coach Greg Gard did not mince words about the officiating in the final moments in his postgame press conference.

“I haven’t seen the second one, but the one there at the end [on Boyd] – I’ve never seen anything like that,” Gard said in response to a question from the Journal Sentinel. “I don’t know. I mean, they’re trying to foul. They actually fouled us three times coming up the floor.”

The officiating crew of Michael Reed, Michael Irving and Larry Scirotto obviously did not see it that way, though.

“Offensively, we were driving away from the basket,” Gard said. “And I don’t know. I don’t understand that call. So I’ll get more clarification. Never seen that type of call be made before, so I guess there’s a first for everything.”

From what Gard saw on the last play in real time, he liked Blackwell's defense on Wilkerson.

"I thought Blackwell did a really good job of walling him up," Gard said. "I'll see whether he just fell down, and they blew the whistle, or if there was actual contact."

The foul-heavy final minute punctuated a game where the officiating crew let both teams play with plenty of physicality. Neither team attempted a free throw until the second half. Four of UW’s six fouls in the first half were strategic in the final defensive possession of the first half.

Asked if the officiating at the end of the game was consistent with how the rest of the game was called, Gard said “no” without any equivocation.

“It’s a hard game to ref, but that wasn’t a hard call,” Gard said.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What Greg Gard said about officiating in Wisconsin’s loss to Indiana