One can debate the foremost achievement of Wisconsin Badger head coach Greg Gard from the past decade of college basketball, which is actually a half-decade since Gard has been the head coach in Madison for roughly half a decade (just under five years, to be more precise). Badger fans could come at this question from different angles, and if you wanted to say that this 2020 Big Ten championship is his greatest achievement, I would not fight that. I would not put up an argument.
I will, however, offer a different answer to this question. I would submit — during this week of what would have been the Sweet 16 at the 2020 NCAA Tournament — that Gard’s greatest achievement so far at Wisconsin relates to the Sweet 16 itself.
You know that in 2014 and 2015, Wisconsin made the Final Four. The Badgers were an elite program in those two seasons. Yet, after Sam Dekker and Frank Kaminsky left the program, everyone wondered if the momentum of those two Final Four seasons would be sustained. Then came Bo Ryan’s abrupt and messy exit from the Wisconsin program. Greg Gard inherited a big mess at the end of 2015, midway through a complicated college basketball season. Who knew back then that the Badgers would find so much stability and continued success? It was not a sure thing at the time, and one could end the discussion right here by noting — correctly — that Gard’s ability to stabilize the Wisconsin program could be viewed as his ultimate accomplishment. That’s a very good answer, and I wouldn’t push back against it.
However, I think the answer ought to be a little more specific than that general assessment. I think Gard’s ultimate triumph over the past four-plus years in Madison is that he enabled Wisconsin to make four straight Sweet 16s, building on the two Final Fours Ryan made.
By getting to the Sweet 16 in each of his first two seasons — 2016 and 2017 — Gard forged a remarkable achievement which put Wisconsin alone in college basketball.
Know this: Because of what Gard did in 2016 and 2017, it became a fact that from 2014 through 2017, only ONE college basketball program made the Sweet 16 in all four seasons: Wisconsin. In those four seasons, no other program could make the same claim. Bo Ryan’s two dominant years, followed by Greg Gard’s two resourceful years, gave Wisconsin an unmatched place in major college basketball.
Greg Gard’s greatest feat as UW head coach is open for debate. Many fine answers exist. I will point to the Sweet 16 — on this Sweet 16 week in 2020 — as the source of Gard’s ultimate achievement.
We will see how the next several years change our perception of this (if at all).