MADISON, Wis. – It’s too early for Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard to start thinking about seeding in next month’s Big Ten Tournament or anything beyond the 40 minutes his team is guaranteed to have when it faces Indiana tomorrow night.

But from a pure momentum standpoint, Gard doesn’t sugarcoat that a win at Assembly Hall could considerably help his program.

“Hell yeah!” Gard exclaimed. “An ugly win is better than a pretty loss every time.”

There have been few pretty things to look at this month when the Badgers (18-9, 10-6 Big Ten) have left the friendly confines of the Kohl Center. Starting the month blowing a 19-point lead in an overtime loss at Nebraska, the Badgers have lost road games to teams currently in a tie for ninth, tie for 11th and last place in the league.

As the Badgers prepare for Indiana (14-13, 6-10), they will try to repair three areas that have betrayed them. A 34.0 percent three-point shooting team, UW has gone 27 for 87 (31.0 percent) from the perimeter. UW has allowed 33 transition points, five more than they do in victories.

UW has allowed opponents to shoot 20.4 free throws per game on 15.7 fouls, but the Badgers have averaged 18 fouls and 22.5 free throws.

“A lot of calls don’t go your way on the road,” point guard Chucky Hepburn said. “You just got to put your head down and fight through the adversity and keep grinding.”

UW has been caught flat-footed in multiple road games this season, happening as recently as Rutgers building a nine-point lead in the opening minutes and as far back as UW’s first true road game at Providence.

“If you are going to go out and win on the road, you’re not just going to outshoot them or outskill them or out-execute them, you got to be tough,” assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft said. “You got to have some grit to you, some toughness to you. It’s got to be so present all the time. When you go on the road, that’s something you can always lean on and be able to come on top on the road if you do those little things well.”

Wisconsin is 3-7 on the road and hasn’t won a road contest since beating Minnesota on January 23. It fits in with the narrative of the league this season, as 13 of 14 teams in the league have a losing record on the road and 10 have lost twice as many as they’ve won.

The only outlier is Purdue, which is 6-5 away from home and leads Illinois by 2.5 games in the league standings. The Boilermakers have a 3.5-game cushion over Wisconsin and Northwestern.

It’s more of an indicator that balance in college basketball is at an all-time high. Thirteenth-place Ohio State fired coach Chris Holtmann on February 14, a day after it lost at Wisconsin, and the Buckeyes have responded by beating Purdue at home and winning at Michigan State in a span of a week.

Creighton won by 19 at home over No.1 Connecticut, which had just beaten Marquette by 28, and then the Blue Jays got pummeled at St. John’s, which came in having lost five of seven.

It’s a reason why the Badgers aren’t looking too far ahead amidst the chaos.

“It’s about being consistent to finish as well as we can,” Gard said. “Play well for 40 minutes and finish here strong as we go into the postseason.”

Wisconsin’s 91-79 victory over Indiana at the Kohl Center on January 19 gave the Badgers their 24th win in the last 28 matchups with the Hoosiers, including 11 of the last 13.

The Badgers shot 59.6 percent overall, going 10-for-21 from three-point range and 25-for-29 (86.2 percent) at the foul line, benefiting greatly from sophomore center Kel’el Ware missing the game with a foot injury.

Ware has posted at least 16 points, eight rebounds, and two blocks in his last three outings. The Oregon transfer has averaged 15.1 points, 9.4 rebounds (third in the Big Ten), and 1.7 blocks per game. He is shooting 57.0 percent (138-of-242) from the floor and 41.2 percent (13-of-31) from the 3-point line.

In Saturday’s loss to Penn State, Ware and fellow sophomore forward Malik Reneau, who scored 28 in the first meeting against UW, combined to score 43 points on 16-of-25 (64.0 percent) from the floor and 11-of-14 (78.6 percent) from the line.

“He’s a presence at the rim,” forward Tyler Wahl said of Ware. “He can get off the ground quick, he can block shots, he’s a lob presence out of the pick and roll, so we got to make sure we’re not giving them clear runs to the rim. When we’re inside, just doing the usual when we’re going against a big guy like that, got to pump fake, got to pass it out if he crashes and just make the right play.”

Getting a week off between games for the first time since late December, Wisconsin took Wednesday and Saturday off but made sure to stay engaged. The Badgers ran through multiple simulated in-game and late-game situations to prepare for a closing stretch that include two Quad-1 games vs. No.13 Illinois (March 2) and at No.2 Purdue (March 10).

“You can’t create them all, but we have created a lot of them for them,” Gard said. “(It’s) trying to help them understand time and score and what you can do with x-number of seconds.”

Notes: Junior guard Kamari McGee got out of the boot last week and is starting to do more in shoes. The Badgers don’t have an exact target date for his return, which will be dependent on how his foot responds to the rehab and increase in load … Gard said junior Markus Ilver “continues to stay in his lane” with what he can and can’t do offensively, but adds that his increased physicality and maturity has opened some more minutes for him … Wisconsin will honor former assistant coach Howard Moore prior to Saturday’s home game against Illinois. Moore continues to go through rehab due to complications from a May 2019 car crash that killed his wife and daughter. “For that to be able to happen and for the group of people who are behind that to have a Howard Moore day is really special,” Gard said. “Looking forward to seeing everybody come back here. All those former players and everybody who can make it back from that era for his family and friends.”

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