The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team needed a strong response more than it needed another holiday tournament win.
After getting run out of the gym by BYU, the Badgers walked into the Jenny Craig Pavilion and looked like a completely different group. They played faster, tougher, and looked sharper in almost every area that got exposed in Salt Lake City, dominating Providence 104–83 in the semifinals of the Rady Children’s Invitational to move to 5–1 on the season.
If the BYU loss was a hard reset for the Badgers, this felt like a glimpse of what this version of Wisconsin looks like when it leans into its identity.