In a recent online coaches clinic with the National Association of Basketball Coaches, Wisconsin Head Coach Greg Gard was asked how the Badgers not only have success as a program, but also sustain that success. His answer began with a single word: culture.
So how has the program built a culture that allows the Badgers to sustain success on a national level? It starts with the players and the kind of person that UW brings into their program. “Great leadership from our upperclassmen,” said Gard when asked about what makes Wisconsin’s culture a success. “When you have good upperclassmen leadership like we have had that makes it much more sustainable. We’ve typically relied on getting old and staying old and that is how we have been able to sustain our success.”
This past season, the Badgers went through more on and off the floor than maybe another team in program history. There were a ton of tests for this group of leaders to pass, and according to their Head Coach and to the results at the end of the year, they passed them with flying colors. “Every season has its journey and stories to be told…specifically this past year, in the time I have been a head coach, was one of the better player-led groups in terms of how they handled their maturity and took ownership,” said Gard when asked about this championship season.
In terms of the more specific x’s and o’s side of the game, the Badger culture is to not try and overcomplicate things. Throughout the Gard and previously Bo Ryan eras, the goal has been to make the complicated seem simple. “Sometimes the game gets overcomplicated,” said Gard when asked about his coaching philosophy. “We as coaches have to fight that, it is a simple game…the fundamentals never change.”
One of the fundamental simplifications that Gard spoke about in his virtual clinic was the idea of “more and better vs. fewer and poorer.” That distinction is how Wisconsin basketball breaks down shot attempts. They want more and better shot attempts, and they want to give up fewer and poorer shot attempts. Everything that this team practices on a day-to-day basis can be boiled down to that simple phrase.
According to the answers that Gard gave on Wisconsin’s culture and sustained success, the Badger way is about “getting old and staying old,” and being led by experienced upperclassmen who have been taught to keep the game simple. The Wisconsin way may differ from a large portion of the college basketball landscape, but it certainly has provided results in Madison.