[lawrence-auto-related count=1]There is a saying in sports that sums up this past February and March for Badger basketball: winning solves a lot of problems. I hope the problems that Badger fans have with Greg Gard have been largely solved. The title of this article should not actually be “is” so divisive. This should be a past tense problem. With that being said, here is why that problem existed in the first place.
Before Wisconsin rattled off eight straight wins and won the Big Ten regular season championship, there was swirling hostility among Badger fans surrounding Gard. The longtime assistant to Bo Ryan faced harsh criticism even when winning at a high level. The question that a large portion of fans wanted to know is why?
In my opinion, the first part of the answer as to why is the most important aspect. How many head coaching jobs open up when in the previous two years (and twelve games into a third year) the program has gone 73-17? UW had a win percentage of over 80% in Ryan’s final three years, a stat that usually does not equate to coaching turnover at the college level. In other words, Gard had impossible shoes to fill. Replacing a legend simply does not happen. You can never replace the love and respect that a specific fan base has for a figure like Ryan, you can only hope to earn a different, unique respect of your own over time.
Being held to Ryan’s standard is an unfair bar, but to make matters even more unfair to Gard let’s remember how this coaching change happened. After the Badger legend had been talked out of retirement following Wisconsin’s national championship game loss in 2015, Ryan returned for the 2015-16 campaign. That season began with a sluggish 7-5 start that included a season-opening home loss to Western Illinois. Then, following a December 15, 2015 win over Texas A&M CC, the Badger head coach retired at his postgame press conference. This is by no means saying that Ryan should not have done it this way. He had the resume to do things exactly how he wanted to do them. It still, however, left Coach Gard in a strange place as he inherited the team.
Gard struggled early, going 2-4 in his first six games at the helm after the sudden transition. It was a confusing time for Badger basketball fans, and an easy outlet for frustrations was Gard. He was now filling the shoes of a legend, had taken over the program in the middle of a season where the team was already struggling, and had failed to provide an immediate spark. Then, as Gard has done at a high clip in Madison, he began to win. Up until the beginning of this season, the former UW-Platteville head man was 80-47 (.62 win percentage) as the head of the Badger program.
The common argument was that he was doing it without his own players, which was true then. That led into the narrative that Gard and his staff struggle as recruiters. Then Wisconsin recruited two excellent classes in 2020, and in 2021. Oh, and about the winning with Ryan’s players argument? Gard just navigated overwhelming adversity to steadily guide the Badgers to eight straight wins this past February/March with his own players. Those players have also developed tremendously over the last couple of years.
Gard was destined to be divisive because while many have looked at the situation he inherited as the dream for a new coach, that dream scenario comes with dream-like expectations. From replacing a legend, to taking over mid-season and struggling early, Gard had a marathon ahead of him to win over Badger fans. Hopefully, the finish line was last month when the Badgers celebrated a Big Ten Championship in a Kohl Center parade.
There are certainly many more goals in front of Gard and his staff, but up to this point he has passed tests with flying colors. Gard has answered every question so far, and Badger fans should come together to support a team and a coach that should have Final Four aspirations next season.
