How Wisconsin assembled college basketball’s best backcourt with Nick Boyd and John Blackwell

CHICAGO — John Blackwell was working out by himself during his first day back in Madison over the summer when he saw his newest teammate on the other side of the gym. Blackwell had heard good things about Nick Boyd, but he wasn’t about to turn on the tape for incoming transfers when he could get his own first impression. Blackwell approached Boyd and asked if he wanted to play one-on-one.

“He was kicking my ass at first,” Blackwell said at the 2026 men’s Big Ten tournament. “Then I started to get into a rhythm. I knew from then he was going to be really good.”

Boyd had played with a lot of great guards in his previous stops at Florida Atlantic and San Diego State, so he wasn’t going to be easily impressed. It took the heat of a one-on-one battle against his new teammate to win him over.

“I went up big on him and then he came all the way back and beat me,” Boyd said. “I went home with scratches on my back and stuff like that. I remember thinking, damn, he’s actually nice.”

Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard liked the idea of pitting his two best players against each other. When Wisconsin started full team workouts in August, he split up Boyd and Blackwell on separate teams for scrimmages. Teammates remember them going at each other relentlessly, and couldn’t wait to see what they could do on the same team.

Wisconsin beat Illinois in overtime, 91-88, on Friday to punch their ticket to the Big Ten tournament semifinals. Michigan is next up, but not even the consensus No. 1 team in the country should feel comfortable going against Boyd and Blackwell. The Wisconsin duo believes it’s the best backcourt in the country, and they proved it in their ridiculous comeback win against an Illini team with Final Four aspirations.

Illinois led by 15 points with just over 11 minutes left. The United Center was rocking with plenty of orange shirts dotting the crowd, but the Badgers weren’t about to let them start celebrating early. Boyd and Blackwell took over from there, splashing shot over shot to continue to trim the deficit.

Wisconsin scored 48 points in the second half to send the game to overtime. Boyd and Blackwell scored 41 of them. Overtime opened with driving layup by Boyd, then a Boyd floater. Blackwell added some free throws that iced the improbable win.

Boyd ended the game with 38 points, six assists, and five rebounds on 12-of-20 shooting from the floor. Blackwell had 31 points and six rebounds on 9-of-17 shooting from the field. ‘The Killer B’s” had 50 out of 61 points for Wisconsin after halftime to turn a certain loss into another matchup with Michigan.

Boyd and Blackwell were just as spectacular in Wisconsin’s first win at the Big Ten tournament, an 85-82 thriller over Washington. They combined for 57 points in that afternoon, and had Washington coach Danny Sprinkle openly wondering if they were the best backcourt in America after the final buzzer. The comeback win over the Illini only adds more proof.

Boyd and Blackwell are opposites in many ways. Boyd is on his third school in five years, and he never stops talking trash on the court. Blackwell is more considerate with his words. He committed to Wisconsin as a three-star recruit back in 2022 as the lone power conference school to offer him, and he’s been loyal to the Badgers since.

Boyd played in the 2023 Final Four at Florida Atlantic for current Michigan head coach Dusty May. After May bounced following the next season, Boyd went to San Diego State, the team FAU lost to in that Final Four. He helped the Aztecs make the NCAA tournament last year, but he felt like he had more to offer.

What drew him to Wisconsin?

“I think, no doubt the toughness,” Boyd said after the win. “My uncle was like, man, you need to go to the cold. You’ve only been in hot places. That’s something I learned to embrace.”

The Badgers needed a replacement for John Tonje, who turned his only season in Madison into a Second-Team All-American campaign. Tonje was one of the best players in the country last season, and it would have been understandable if Wisconsin couldn’t hit the jackpot in the transfer portal for the second straight year. Blackwell was ready to be the leader of the team after averaging 15.8 points per game as a sophomore last year, but he quickly saw that Boyd was going to be special in his own right even if his game wasn’t all that similar to the bigger Tonje.

“The way he got downhill, the way he was playing physical, he was shooting a lot more threes in practice,” Blackwell recalls of Boyd. “I was like man, we can be sharpshooters.”

Wisconsin put two elite guards together with three other shooters on the floor at all times. The scary thing for their future opponents is that the Badgers just beat a very good Illinois team without anyone else shooting well. Without co-star big man Nolan Winter in the lineup on Friday, Wisconsin shot just 10-of-41 (24 percent) from three, and still had a huge comeback win.

Michigan knows exactly how good Wisconsin’s backcourt can be. The Wolverines were 14-0 when the Badgers came to Ann Arbor in Jan. and suffered their first loss of the season. Boyd and Blackwell combined for 48 points in that win. If they can beat Michigan at home, they can beat anyone.

The Badgers don’t have much margin for error. If Boyd or Blackwell has an off-night, they could struggle to score. That hasn’t happened very often this season, though, and it’s produced the country’s No. 9 offense, per KenPom.

Guard play wins in March. Try to find a better backcourt duo than the one in Wisconsin, and you’re going to be looking for a long, long time.