Wisconsin basketball faced a dramatic day on Tuesday when Wisconsin State Journal columnist Jim Polzin released an article surrounding a 37-minute audio file that the newspaper anonymously received via email.
The audio clip was a secretly recorded meeting from back in February of Wisconsin basketball’s seniors confronting head coach Greg Gard about their relationships, their season, and more. The meeting occurred the day after a 77-62 Wisconsin loss to Iowa at the Kohl Center on February 18.
Explosive quotes surrounding the player-coach relationships came to light due to the anonymous, secretive recording of a private team meeting.
Among a number of quotes from the seniors was Aleem Ford telling Gard that, “I don’t know if I would want my son to come here or if I would tell people to come here and play for this program because I wouldn’t want anyone else to go through what I went through.”
Walt McGrory, who has since transferred to South Dakota, told Gard, “I don’t know if I’ll ever talk to you again after this.”
Whoever secretly recorded the meeting only released around 37 minutes of a 2-hour exchange. The Wisconsin State Journal reached out to players and to Gard for comment and context surrounding the rest of the meeting and the season, and an unnamed player mentioned that there was an emotional apology from the Badger head coach.
“He sat there, he listened and there was not one dry eye in the entire room at the end of everything. The biggest thing that he did at the end was he apologized again and he was in tears and he said, ‘It’s not your fault, it’s my fault.'”
This afternoon, Gard released a statement surrounding the audio and the aftermath:
Statement from head coach Greg Gard pic.twitter.com/nz3QAPeqtU
— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) June 22, 2021