Recruiting is certainly important. No one needs an explanation of that fundamental reality in collegiate athletics. Yet, it is so easy to fall in love with the number of stars next to a recruit’s name. Those stars do not guarantee success. Coaches might have to recruit at a certain level to survive in this cutthroat business, but they ultimately make their money based on how well they get players to perform together as a team… and on how well they develop players’ skills and instincts.
Player development is where good coaches separate themselves from mediocre ones. Quality coaches will not only identify the weaknesses and imperfections in a player’s game and help that player shore them up; quality coaches will then explain to the player how an improved skill set can fit into team play — offense and defense — and meet the needs of the team’s system. Player development, when viewed in this larger context, is the central source of excellence: Players don’t just improve individually; they integrate their improved skills into the flow of the game, making teammates better as well. When every player is developing, the team is flourishing.
Enter the 2020 Wisconsin Badgers.
Greg Gard is developing every player. You can see it on the court.
Brad Davison was struggling in early February. He has been excellent since the off week Wisconsin had from Feb. 9-15, when there was no midweek game on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Davison has been a different player, showing that Gard used the off week to polish his game.
D’Mitrik Trice has become so much better at feeding teammates the ball while minimizing turnovers. He has also come out of his shell and dropped 28 points on Michigan. He is ripening into a much more complete player.
Brevin Pritzl has come alive in February. Gard has plainly said that Pritzl is playing his best basketball of the season.
Micah Potter has steadily gotten better with increased minutes, something we talked about a lot this season.
Aleem Ford has blossomed in the past month.
Players are developing everywhere you look. In some games, their improvement is manifested by their increased scoring capacity (Ford) or improved shooting (Davison). In other games, you can see an improved floor game (Trice versus Minnesota on Sunday) or a beefed-up low-post presence (Potter versus Michigan this past Thursday).
This is hardly the most talented team Greg Gard has had at Wisconsin. Early in the season, it seemed this group had a relatively low ceiling.
The Badgers are bursting through that ceiling, making a run at the Big Ten championship, just one game behind Maryland with a tiebreaker in their pocket against the Terrapins.
Player development is the number one reason Wisconsin is in this position.