Greg Gard and the Wisconsin basketball program didn’t know until roughly 30 minutes before tipoff against Northwestern that Badgers starting point guard Chucky Hepburn wouldn’t be available to play.
“I was told Chucky tried to get it to go a little bit and tried to warm up,” Gard told reporters. “Then I was told about 30 minutes before the game that he said he couldn’t go. Obviously, the health of our guys is always first and foremost, so I completely leave that up to our trainers and our medical people.”
It was the first time that Hepburn missed a game during his Badgers career after making 100 consecutive starts for Wisconsin basketball.