Wisconsin basketball coach Greg Gard on a surprising swing play, "really good" Maryland
Wisconsin's coach talks about Maryland and how the Terps edged his No. 17 Badgers.
DeShawn Harris-Smith had just missed a layup midway through the second half against Wisconsin, a situation in which the Maryland sophomore might've hung his head in the past. But this time, he stayed confident and knocked down a big three that swung the game, sparking a 9-0 run that gave Maryland a lead it never relinquished on the way to an 86-78 win over the No. 17 Badgers on Wednesday night at Xfinity Center."You play the percentages. He's four-for-whatever, right? Four-for-the-year?" Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said afterward. "I thought we loaded pretty well. Credit to him to step up and knock it down when he had that much space. If you're going to play the odds, a guy that's 4-for-22? Now 5-for-23, so he's climbing."
So are the Terps (17-5 overall, 7-4 Big Ten), one of the hottest teams in the country after winning six of seven, including a pair of top 20 wins over Wisconsin and at Illinois.
It was Harris-Smith's first made three since Jan. 2 against Washington, and it was a momentum-grabber.
"It was a big shot at the time. When you're trying to get Gillespie under control and you have to worry about Miguel and Rice, and then you have the two big guys. It's a credit to him for knocking it down. More than likely if there's five guys on the floor, that's the guy we're probably going to say, 'Make him have to shoot it.'
Wisconsin entered as the nation's best free throw shooting team at better than 85 percent but missed six of 21 free throws.
"Against a really good team on the road, you obviously have to take care of the ball, which I thought we did a much better job of in the second half. Not as well in the first half. Then you have to be able to make some plays and make some shots. And we shot at the [free throw] line uncharacteristically poor tonight compared to what we have all year," Gard said.
"And that's a credit to Maryland in terms of, they made things more difficult for us. Offensively. Then obviously [Ja'Kobi] Gillespie and the guards are really good players. And their two big guys are a load inside. They made some shots. Even Gillespie, we had the ball screen under control there, and he banks in a three. But good players do that -- they make plays when things are on the line."
On the start of the second half: "I didn't think we started the second half really well. Because we gave up a three to [Selton] Miguel to start it, then we fouled a three-point shooter. We gave them confidence and momentum early. But I thought we made shots, it's as simple as that was. I thought the stretch where it got away from us, we had three or four possessions in a row where we missed some pretty easy looks, some of them point-blank, some good looks from three. And then they were able to answer -- I think it was 57-56 at one point. Then they hit back-to-back threes and got some separation.
On a big play: "There was a stretch of four or five possessions where we needed to keep pace. And we had a chance to take the lead -- the charge was big, on [Steven] Crowl. It was the right call. But we would've had a layup there to go up one, I believe at that time. And it goes back the other way. Just little things like that when you get in these types of games, specifically on the road. You have to be precise possession after possession. If you have too many miscues it comes back to bite you."
