Wisconsin Badgers Thread

[Diggr14]

Soft. Move on.. forget they existed. That being said.. gotta fire Gard too. he is part of the problem.

[buckboy]

Yes, because firing Gard wouldn't be a knee-jerk reaction at all.

Smoking hot take.

[Diggr14]

Yes, because firing Gard wouldn't be a knee-jerk reaction at all.

Smoking hot take.

I used to think he was worth retaining. Not after the dumpster fire that was Kobe King and basically a full class of kids he couldnt get to be happy or play together. Reuvers and Potter together was a trainwreck.

Smoking hot take or not. Gard is not the coach Wisconsin needs. He is deficient at leading men, i think that's clear. Dude should be an assistant coach.

[HaroldinGMinor]

Yes, because firing Gard wouldn't be a knee-jerk reaction at all.

Smoking hot take.

I used to think he was worth retaining. Not after the dumpster fire that was Kobe King and basically a full class of kids he couldnt get to be happy or play together. Reuvers and Potter together was a trainwreck.

Smoking hot take or not. Gard is not the coach Wisconsin needs. He is deficient at leading men, i think that's clear. Dude should be an assistant coach.

Where is Kobe King right now? Gonna put that on Gard?

[chonestown]

The coverage on this is absurdly overblown.

Compared to something like Quintez Cephus, this is almost quaint.

Is there academic malfeasance?
Is there criminal activity?
Is there workplace harassment of any kind?
Is there embezzlement or assorted sundry financial shenanigans?
Is there alarming underperformance on the field of play?
Is there tawdry sexytime episodes?
Is there a mass exodus of scholarship team members?
Is there decommits from recruits?

This is a sidebar, albeit an entertaining one. Love too see program giants like Jordan Hill and Riley Dearring speak their piece.

[Kerb Hohl]

I think this is the best set of thoughts on the matter.

https://madison.com/wsj/print_only/columnist/jim-polzin-recording-exposed-cracks-in-the-foundation-of-wisconsin-badgers-men-s-basketball-program/article_f97b1ead-7599-5b27-ae5c-e9cd0f8e28cc.html

I think it's pretty clear that Bo Ryan was a grizzly ****, Gard is a vanilla uncle-at-family reunion type with a polo shirt tucked into his shorts and cell phone belt holster.

Maybe he's trying too much to be Bo Ryan in being a grizzly **** - I'm not sure Bo Ryan would survive at this point anyways given how public his grizzly asshole-ness would be. Some players would just transfer - not because they couldn't handle it...but they'd probably rather just not deal with it.

I guess it was a safe assumption but I'm not close enough to see that he basically is putting on a faux Bo Ryan tough love campaign on players, which is probably fake and less respectable.

The question is whether you can marry being nicer to the players and still get a guy like Aleem Ford go from, "wow, he's a MAC caliber recruit" to a solid, tough (generally), BIG 10 rotation player.

[Kerb Hohl]

Yes, because firing Gard wouldn't be a knee-jerk reaction at all.

Smoking hot take.

I used to think he was worth retaining. Not after the dumpster fire that was Kobe King and basically a full class of kids he couldnt get to be happy or play together. Reuvers and Potter together was a trainwreck.

Smoking hot take or not. Gard is not the coach Wisconsin needs. He is deficient at leading men, i think that's clear. Dude should be an assistant coach.

Where is Kobe King right now? Gonna put that on Gard?

He's apparently trying to get eligible and play with key departure Trevor Anderson at Valpo. Shockingly didn't make the G-League after leaving Nebraska as well. No word on his music career.

[ReasonablySober]

Aren't all these **** players guys that Gard help recruit?

[chonestown]

Aren't all these **** players guys that Gard help recruit?

Aren't all these **** players the same ones Gard coached to a Big Ten title last year?

[DingleJerry]

Spoiler:

I think this is the best set of thoughts on the matter.

https://madison.com/wsj/print_only/columnist/jim-polzin-recording-exposed-cracks-in-the-foundation-of-wisconsin-badgers-men-s-basketball-program/article_f97b1ead-7599-5b27-ae5c-e9cd0f8e28cc.html

I think it's pretty clear that Bo Ryan was a grizzly ****, Gard is a vanilla uncle-at-family reunion type with a polo shirt tucked into his shorts and cell phone belt holster.

Maybe he's trying too much to be Bo Ryan in being a grizzly **** - I'm not sure Bo Ryan would survive at this point anyways given how public his grizzly asshole-ness would be. Some players would just transfer - not because they couldn't handle it...but they'd probably rather just not deal with it.

I guess it was a safe assumption but I'm not close enough to see that he basically is putting on a faux Bo Ryan tough love campaign on players, which is probably fake and less respectable.

The question is whether you can marry being nicer to the players and still get a guy like Aleem Ford go from, "wow, he's a MAC caliber recruit" to a solid, tough (generally), BIG 10 rotation player.

What's funny/ironic is many of the critiques of him over the years would come back to 'be like Bo', "bo would never allow this and this and this", etc. BAsically saying to be the old school tough guy coach. Yet that seems to be what turned these guys off on him. Maybe it's not so much that he's fake in it, but he hears the chatter and might be feeling pressure etc so maybe is paniccing a bit, idk. Maybe he just needs to fully embrace the modern way of coaching/managing younger people, which seems to be his natural personality anyway. That was one of the main things said about him as an assistant and as a positive for when he took over, that it would be a more player friendly environment, so maybe looser/faster play, bit better recruits/athletes, etc.

[Kerb Hohl]

Aren't all these **** players guys that Gard help recruit?

Like I said, there is something to improve from all of this. Maybe he already has.

If you want to try to drop the hammer that some guys he recruited said they didn't connect with him in a closed-door meeting, I have two questions:

1. Why did nobody of substance leave that wasn't going pro? If this was so irreparable and it wasn't just some guys venting after a losing streak, why is Jonathan Davis suiting up for the Badgers this year?

2. Related, but, why did Tom Izzo, John Calipari, Brad Underwood, etc. - guys that are "player's coaches" lose a ton of players?

Other programs nowadays just say "**** you, bye" if they either feel they need more playing time or don't get along with the coach. One could maybe argue that the Badgers could get with the time and be a transient program like most others...but literally every team, good coaches or bad, lost like 3-4 underclassmen on average this past offseason. Even through all of this, Wisconsin kept their guys. I'm not trying to argue that this means Gard is an unbelievable people person, but I also think it tells you that the content of this article isn't a huge deal. If this was irreparable, he'd have lost 3 key contributors for next year's team.

[jakecronus8]

Gard does indeed deserve to lose his job over this. While i think it’s pretty crappy for the leaks to happen and feel for him as person, it’s clear hes not ripe for this if they want to take another step as a program. On top of that he’s never going to recruit even to the level of Bo. They can do better and should be looking to do so.

[Kerb Hohl]

Gard does indeed deserve to lose his job over this. While i think it’s pretty crappy for the leaks to happen and feel for him as person, it’s clear hes not ripe for this if they want to take another step as a program. On top of that he’s never going to recruit even to the level of Bo. They can do better and should be looking to do so.

It took Bo Ryan 13 years to get to the Final Four.

The Badgers just won the Big 10 15 months ago.

This isn't a plug-and-play program like Kentucky where the next guy should be expected to just continue the highest of highs. Gard should obviously have been expected to keep them respectable/good and build from there again. Bo Ryan isn't handing over the keys to the Cadillac like Coach K would be.

Just sit back and watch this next group. It has the talent to take them to "the next level" and if it doesn't, then I can understand shooting for the moon (and very likely failing miserably).

[ReasonablySober]

Aren't all these **** players guys that Gard help recruit?

Like I said, there is something to improve from all of this. Maybe he already has.

If you want to try to drop the hammer that some guys he recruited said they didn't connect with him in a closed-door meeting, I have two questions:

1. Why did nobody of substance leave that wasn't going pro? If this was so irreparable and it wasn't just some guys venting after a losing streak, why is Jonathan Davis suiting up for the Badgers this year?

2. Related, but, why did Tom Izzo, John Calipari, Brad Underwood, etc. - guys that are "player's coaches" lose a ton of players?

Other programs nowadays just say "**** you, bye" if they either feel they need more playing time or don't get along with the coach. One could maybe argue that the Badgers could get with the time and be a transient program like most others...but literally every team, good coaches or bad, lost like 3-4 underclassmen on average this past offseason. Even through all of this, Wisconsin kept their guys. I'm not trying to argue that this means Gard is an unbelievable people person, but I also think it tells you that the content of this article isn't a huge deal. If this was irreparable, he'd have lost 3 key contributors for next year's team.

Because they're not good enough.

[midranger]

I mean, you can say guys left to play pro, but we all know there aren’t exactly great (any) pro options out there for a guy like Aleem Ford. Granted, maybe some of them were just wanting to move on with life post-basketball, but 6 of 7 would rather do nothing basketball related or play in Siberia than playing Big Ten college basketball for Gard.

There clearly was some perceived problem that led to the exodus.

[Kerb Hohl]

Aren't all these **** players guys that Gard help recruit?

Like I said, there is something to improve from all of this. Maybe he already has.

If you want to try to drop the hammer that some guys he recruited said they didn't connect with him in a closed-door meeting, I have two questions:

1. Why did nobody of substance leave that wasn't going pro? If this was so irreparable and it wasn't just some guys venting after a losing streak, why is Jonathan Davis suiting up for the Badgers this year?

2. Related, but, why did Tom Izzo, John Calipari, Brad Underwood, etc. - guys that are "player's coaches" lose a ton of players?

Other programs nowadays just say "**** you, bye" if they either feel they need more playing time or don't get along with the coach. One could maybe argue that the Badgers could get with the time and be a transient program like most others...but literally every team, good coaches or bad, lost like 3-4 underclassmen on average this past offseason. Even through all of this, Wisconsin kept their guys. I'm not trying to argue that this means Gard is an unbelievable people person, but I also think it tells you that the content of this article isn't a huge deal. If this was irreparable, he'd have lost 3 key contributors for next year's team.

Because they're not good enough.

Lol, I don't know if I've really seen somebody so out-of-touch with this subject.

Jonathan Davis might make the Team USA U19 team over several 5-star recruits.

Hepburn would have 50 offers if he decommitted.

Carlson, Crowl would have blueblood offers if they transferred. Wahl as well at the very least as a rotation guy.

If your argument was that Trevor Anderson left because he hated Gard and not also because he wanted to play more as a senior, even he got plenty of offers from mid-majors.

These guys all could've kept playing college hoops for literally anyone if they wanted to.

Just stop commenting.

[Kerb Hohl]

I mean, you can say guys left to play pro, but we all know there aren’t exactly great (any) pro options out there for a guy like Aleem Ford. Granted, maybe some of them were just wanting to move on with life post-basketball, but 6 of 7 would rather do nothing basketball related or play in Siberia than playing Big Ten college basketball for Gard.

There clearly was some perceived problem that led to the exodus.

Apparently you didn't see that Aleem Ford was the #1 overall pick*.

* - In the Puerto Rican league.

But seriously - your argument is fine...but when you and RS are acting as if it's a negative that Micah Potter is going to play in the G League or Spain or whatever and didn't come back to college basketball. Trice and Ford are like 25 years old.

Potter, Reuvers, Trice if they chose to could literally pick any college they wanted to play for if they were dying to keep playing for free just not for the devil Greg Gard. Ford would get plenty of interest.

[DingleJerry]

No way he should be fired over this with the info we have as of now. Remember, you only heard edited portions of it. Of course it's a bad sign and huge hurdle for him to overcome. But just overall, think of how many team meetings or players only type meetings you hear about over the years (but don't get leaked audio of), every coach should be fired for those? Sounds like they had one the previous season and it saved the team and won a conference title. So any bitter player could record a meeting and if he leaks it fire the coach. I mean, Izzo physically pushed a player on camera a few months ago and no one cares. Guess he cares about his players more though since he shows up at all their sexual assault trials. I know at UW we're not used to or accepting of drama like this, but this is pretty minor on the scale of things in college sports.

Think it's pretty clear he has issues and needs to adjust and if he doesn't he'll probably be gone in 2-4 years. Basically he has these two classes he just got (which were clearly above the normal Bo class of recruits) to get better results and not have further things like this. If he doesn't, yea they need to get a transition plan in place. I think I'd start stopping the automatic 1 year tack on contract he's been getting though, unless its just for show and isn't guaranteed money that affects a buyout.

UW also could be in a bad spot as this pay for the players stuff starts, not sure how they're gonna deal with that with their holier than thou attitude.

[ReasonablySober]

Like I said, there is something to improve from all of this. Maybe he already has.

If you want to try to drop the hammer that some guys he recruited said they didn't connect with him in a closed-door meeting, I have two questions:

1. Why did nobody of substance leave that wasn't going pro? If this was so irreparable and it wasn't just some guys venting after a losing streak, why is Jonathan Davis suiting up for the Badgers this year?

2. Related, but, why did Tom Izzo, John Calipari, Brad Underwood, etc. - guys that are "player's coaches" lose a ton of players?

Other programs nowadays just say "**** you, bye" if they either feel they need more playing time or don't get along with the coach. One could maybe argue that the Badgers could get with the time and be a transient program like most others...but literally every team, good coaches or bad, lost like 3-4 underclassmen on average this past offseason. Even through all of this, Wisconsin kept their guys. I'm not trying to argue that this means Gard is an unbelievable people person, but I also think it tells you that the content of this article isn't a huge deal. If this was irreparable, he'd have lost 3 key contributors for next year's team.

Because they're not good enough.

Lol, I don't know if I've really seen somebody so out-of-touch with this subject.

Jonathan Davis might make the Team USA U19 team over several 5-star recruits.

Hepburn would have 50 offers if he decommitted.

Carlson, Crowl would have blueblood offers if they transferred. Wahl as well at the very least as a rotation guy.

If your argument was that Trevor Anderson left because he hated Gard and not also because he wanted to play more as a senior, even he got plenty of offers from mid-majors.

These guys all could've kept playing college hoops for literally anyone if they wanted to.

Just stop commenting.

I meant they're not good enough to leave to play pro basketball. Sure, they could go to Valpo.

[DingleJerry]

So they're bums and not good enough to play at major D1. Yet simultaneously Gard is a terrible coach for not galvanizing them and winning the B1G with them (even though he did once). The main players among the seniors would all get legit D1 spots if they wanted to play in college. They were major contributors to a B1G championship and a top 25ish team last year.