The 2024-25 college basketball season has come to an end for the No. 12 Wisconsin Badgers, but the way it concluded for them was far from satisfactory. Wisconsin basketball closed out its schedule in an embarrassing 86-75 home loss at Kohl Center in Madison on Saturday at the hands of the unranked Penn State Nittany Lions.

The Badgers had a topsy-turvy ride toward the end of the regular season, going 2-3 in their final give games, a stretch that also saw Greg Gard's team lose to unranked Oregon Ducks at home and to No. 8 Michigan State Spartans in East Lansing.

Their inconsistent performance down the stretch hurt their chances of winning the Big Ten regular season title, as the Badgers ended up with a 13-7 conference record — good for just No. 4 in the league.

The Badgers are very much likely still going to dance in the NCAA tournament, given their overall body of work in the regular season, but Gard knows his team needs to change its ways if Wisconsin basketball is to go deep in the upcoming Big Ten tourney — and in March Madness.

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“Like I told them, we’re lucky. We get to play again,” Gard said after the loss to Penn State (h/t Jim Polzin of the Wisconsin State Journal). “But from here on out, if you play like this, you won’t play long.”

It's also worth noting that the Badgers have missed the services of one of their best players of late, with starting guard Max Klesmit missing three-straight games, including the date with Penn State. Another starter, Nolan Winter, seemed to have suffered an injury against the Nittany Lions, as he played in only 13 minutes due to a shoulder issue.

“We have no one to blame but ourselves, myself included,” Gard shared. “I’ve got to continue to push buttons and find ways, and we’ve got to get healthy.”

Wisconsin basketball now heads to this year's edition of the Big Ten tourney with a 6-7 record in Quad 1 matchups and 9-1 in Quad 2 games. Among the Badgers' biggest wins of the season was against the No. 9 Arizona Wildcats in November and versus the No. 7 Purdue Boilermakers in February.