Tag: Greg Gard

Do you think the title of this piece is sophomoric or juvenile or somehow unprofessional? I can completely understand if you do. However, sports are emotional, and while editors and writers generally like to think of themselves as reasonable, levelheaded people who are good at “calling balls and strikes” and being objective, let’s remember that we ALL have a bias. There is no true “bias-free zone” when offering analysis or interpretation of events.

We, as individual writers, bring our own worldview and our own experiences to each column or article we produce. We saw certain events unfold at certain times in certain ways; we were struck by those events from a unique angle and with a unique level of resonance only we, as individuals, felt. No one else had the exact same feeling. Very similar, sure, but not exactly. Our collections of life experiences belong only to ourselves, not any others.

From these individual experiences come debates or tensions or arguments in which we might feel strongly led to make a bold public declaration. Writing here as a news analyst and opinion-giver who tries to provide perspective on Wisconsin Badger football and men’s basketball, I usually aim to provide information and context on what is happening in the UW program and also the Big Ten. Most articles explore the bubble picture or (in football) the postseason or Big Ten West outlook, or will look at which player needs to improve or which facet of the team must be developed.

Once in a while, though, there will come a time to make a very authoritative statement, because something in the bloodstream of public commentary annoyed or irritated me, and it’s not productive to withhold these feelings entirely — most of the season, sure, but not completely. There are times when one has to put thoughts on paper (or a computer screen), even if some people won’t like reading them. Sometimes, one has to invite controversy — not as a regular way of doing business, not as a regular point of emphasis in writing about sports, but because the public debate has become unproductive and needs a readjustment.

We have reached that point in Wisconsin basketball.

I need to say this after the Badgers upset Michigan State with an undermanned roster: Greg Gard shut up the haters. He did.

The Kobe King saga, and all the tensions and recriminations which flowed from it, immersed Wisconsin fans in a nasty tug of war this week between the pro-Gard and anti-Gard camps. That’s just reality. I saw it on social media. I see it not just when I discuss Wisconsin hoops, but when Milwaukee-based reporters and other website commentators discuss the team. It’s time to put my foot down and say it:

Greg Gard deserves a lot more respect than what he has been receiving.

You might immediately reply, “BUT LOOK AT HIS SYSTEM! HIS TEAM ALMOST BLEW ANOTHER LEAD! WHY DIDN’T HE HAVE A BETTER RELATIONSHIP WITH KOBE KING?”

Those are all fair points. Gard does have his weaknesses, and I have NEVER tried to tell you he is the best thing since sliced bread, a walking God who never makes mistakes.

Gard has his flaws and limitations. I have been willing to point them out, especially Micah Potter’s minutes. If you have been following this space since I joined Badgers Wire last fall, you know this.

I have been writing about college sports for pay since 2000. That’s 20 years in this business. I started out as a green kid who blurted out hot takes left and right. I had to learn that if I wanted to call for a coach’s head when he performed poorly, I had to also give him credit when he did well. No one likes a homer sunshine pumper, but no one also likes the person who is a negative scold who always focuses on what’s wrong.

There is a larger discussion to have on this, and we will have that discussion in the coming days, believe me, but for now, can we just acknowledge this:

Wisconsin played VERY HARD for Gard on Saturday, on a day when it could have given up hope and decided to tune out its coach. That could have happened, and if it had, I’d be writing a very different column.

You see, that’s the whole point about sportswriting: I might have certain opinions about various people or topics, but if the facts of the day, the actual events of an important game, refute my previously held notions or inclinations, I have to write that my views changed. I have to write what I see in accordance with the actual story. I can’t look at events which refuted my beliefs and insist that my thought process or working thesis still holds up.

Greg Gard will almost certainly make the NCAA Tournament this year, in SPITE of all the crap which has gone on, in spite of the Howard Moore tragedy, in spite of Micah Potter being ineligible for 10 games, in spite of King’s departure and Brad Davison’s one-game suspension. Gard has clearly not lost his team; just the opposite. Every Badger went balls to the wall for him on Saturday, beating a Michigan State team which led UW by 25 points 15 days ago in East Lansing.

We can still criticize Greg Gard for all the times — and there are PLENTY of them — when he falls short. Can we give him a trucking BREAK, though?

Today, I think he earned it. Haters, shut up, will ya? Let’s have a more reasoned discourse instead of trying to run him out of Madison.

This Saturday’s game for the Wisconsin Badgers against the Michigan State Spartans has become a lot more interesting than it already was going to be… but not for the right reasons.

With Kobe King now off the team (by his own choice) and Brad Davison suspended for one game, Wisconsin might be limited to a seven-man rotation unless Greg Gard wants to play some players who have barely played this season. Gard’s lineup combinations represent a very important set of choices he must make in this game, but that isn’t the biggest set of choices facing the Wisconsin coach, who has endured a week straight from hell.

The most important choice Gard has to make in this game isn’t whether Micah Potter plays his usual 15 minutes or 23. The most defining decision Gard must make in this game is how he treats the moment. He can make two fundamental choices. One isn’t necessarily the more correct choice; the point of emphasis here is that Gard has to juggle competing tensions and goals. He has to weigh the immediate urgency of the occasion against the long-term growth of this team.

Again, this is not a setup in which one answer is clearly better than the other. This is about being realistic and ambitious at the same time, trying to hold both sides together.

Here is the explanation of the fundamental competing tensions at work for Wisconsin heading into Saturday in the Kohl Center versus Sparta:

This is a moment in which Wisconsin plays a very important game, but without a lot of needed resources. The Badgers aren’t slightly shorthanded; they are severely undermanned. Gard will have to give extended minutes to players he currently (or recently) doesn’t trust to play extended minutes. Davison is such a tireless, high-energy defender, and since other Badgers will have to compensate for Davison at the defensive end, it is hard to see where Wisconsin will find enough offense. Players who will be asked to carry out tough defensive assignments aren’t likely to score in bunches at the other end of the floor.

Yet, this is a big game for the Badgers. A win would remove any and all bubble talk, solidifying UW’s place in the NCAA Tournament. Some people might ask the following question: Should Wisconsin simply punt this game and look ahead to the hated Golden Gophers of Minnesota on Wednesday night? Give Potter 30 minutes, perhaps. Let him sink or swim against a good team and give him a lot of film to study so that he can develop for the rest of the season. Give Trevor Anderson a huge workload. He probably won’t handle it well, but giving him a graduate-school-level education against a Tom Izzo defense might help his offense evolve in February and March.

Does that seem reasonable? It leads to the heart of this discussion.

I think it’s a false choice, actually, to say that Wisconsin should either try to win this game, OR — on the other hand — give less experienced players some minutes, accept a 15-point defeat, and try to win in The Barn next Wednesday.

I think Gard can do both… but it would mean sacrificing a set way of doing things, which is so often the toughest thing for a coach to do.

The problem here is that Wisconsin basketball — a lot like Wisconsin football — has a time-tested way of going about its business. The Badgers, in both hoops and football, have carved out a very clear and obvious identity. Wisconsin football is about smashmouth power running and ball control. Wisconsin basketball is about hard-nosed man-to-man defense, fighting through screens and staying with cutters. Dick Bennett, Bo Ryan, and now Gard adhere to certain notions and representations of what winning basketball looks like. It is hard to break from that, and more precisely, it can be seen as weakness — a concession, a surrender — to break from that.

Yet, when a team is down to seven regular players (plus bench-warmers who might be considered for extra minutes), a coach is faced with a choice: Do I maintain my identity in the face of impossible circumstances, or do I try to teach my players alternative strategies to cope with the unique needs of a particular situation?

Here is what I am getting at: Greg Gard doesn’t HAVE to stick to his methods against Michigan State. He could, and to be sure, the decision would be reasonable. Play the less experienced players; eat a big loss; but develop the team for the rest of February with six whole weeks left until Selection Sunday. That is a perfectly realistic and fair way to approach Saturday. Wisconsin can give up one game so that the roster learns and grows for the many other battles which lie ahead. I can respect that.

However: What if Gard is willing to — GASP! — throw a junk defense at Michigan State? I know, I know — it seems like blasphemy and sacrilege at Wisconsin to do that. However, isn’t this PRECISELY how the Badgers can play Micah Potter 10 to 15 more minutes per game and minimize his defensive deficiencies? What if Gard slaps a 1-3-1 zone or a triangle and two on the Spartans to protect Potter and save him for the offensive end of the floor?

Gard is the torch-carrier, the man entrusted with continuing Bo Ryan’s ways in Madison… but does that mean he can’t ever pull out a junk defense in a crisis situation? He doesn’t have to play junk defense the rest of the season. Heck, he doesn’t have to play junk defense for the whole Michigan State game — he could bust out these alternative defenses for four-minute sequences between TV timeouts, then revert to normal man-to-man. The larger point is that Gard can be willing to try new things so that he can still try to win this game instead of punting on it and thinking solely about the future.

To be clear one last time, this isn’t about a “right versus wrong” approach. Gard is in an impossible situation against Michigan State. The Badgers will be expected to lose. Gard shouldn’t be buried if UW loses by a large margin. The real key with this team is to evolve and adjust, beginning with that Minnesota game next week. However, viewing this game as a choice between “do everything to win OR punt and move on to the Gophers” is a false one. Wisconsin CAN try to do a little bit of both, but it would require breaking from the mold.

Is Greg Gard willing to do that? The question is worth considering not just for this season, but for his larger tenure in Madison. If he wants to be his own man, not just the guy who received the baton from Bo Ryan, he ought to consider unique solutions to unique problems.