A mammoth win for 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.
