The photo of Greg Gard used for this story is from the Dec. 7 win by the Wisconsin Badgers over the Indiana Hoosiers. As you and everyone else in the Big Ten know, Gard and UW have been through a lot in the intervening three months leading up to Saturday’s regular-season finale.
Wisconsin didn’t have Micah Potter for that Indiana game — he was still two weeks away from making his season debut. Wisconsin had Kobe King, who would not be on the team two months later. Wisconsin was 4-4 entering that Indiana game and would not win its first road game of the season until after Christmas in Tennessee against the Volunteers. Wisconsin improved in early January but fell on very hard times in late January, losing back-to-back road games at Purdue and Iowa and watching Brad Davison get suspended for the Michigan State rematch on Feb. 1, with King having left the team.
Wisconsin was 5-5 through 10 games this season. The Badgers were 6-6 through their first 12 Big Ten games.
Wisconsin has lost only five times since that 5-5 start in late autumn, and the Badgers are now 13-6 in the Big Ten, riding a massive winning streak dating back a full month, to Feb. 5, the time of their last loss (in Minnesota).
Several coaches deserve Big Ten Coach of the Year recognition. To me, Pat Chambers deserves this award the most. If you were to tell me Greg Gard deserves it already, hey, that’s a perfectly sound argument. I would not fight you. However, given the wildness and unpredictability in the Big Ten season this year, Saturday is a real prove-it moment for Gard: If he wins, by golly, I would have absolutely zero problem with him beating out Chambers for Big Ten Coach of the Year. If Wisconsin wins the Big Ten title and gets a No. 1 seed for the Big Ten Tournament — which it would do if it beats Indiana — I would be completely fine with Gard winning the award outright. If he loses, I think Chambers has to be the choice, but if Wisconsin wins, it might be hard to argue AGAINST Gard winning the award.
It was already great that Gard turned this team around in early February, but the journey all the way to the top of the Big Ten would give Gard a massive, 24-karat achievement which would outshine what Chambers has done in reviving Penn State basketball.
It’s a complicated Big Ten Coach of the Year race, but the solution to the award is simple: If Gard can win the league title, any real argument against his COY candidacy melts away.