Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard appeared on 100.5 ESPN Radio’s Wilde and Tausch Thursday morning to talk through the Badgers season among many other topics. The topic of the NCAA transfer portal came up, as the portal has become almost like college basketball free agency in recent years.
Gard made it clear that he is not a fan of how the portal operates in certain cases:
“It’s part of the era we’re in. Is it good? In small instances, yeah, if there are situations where the player or student-athlete feels the change is in his or her best interest,” Gard said. “My fear and I think a lot of coaches fear, what are we teaching these young men and women where anytime there’s a little sliver of adversity, we go to where we think the grass is greener? We just turn and change courses.”
The transfer portal is already off and running in 2021, with Wisconsin guard’s Trevor Anderson and Walt McGrory already landing in the portal.