Wisconsin Badgers

I would like to start this thread up again for anyone who is interested in discussing the Badgers. In the future, I hope that the moderators will remove posts from antagonistic people, rather than removing this thread all together. Otherwise, antagonists will be able to remove any thread they want to. So, let's keep things good natured and civil when we talk about the Badgers.

AJ Storr into the transfer portal. 

Kobe King was actually pretty decent at Valpo, he averaged over 16 a game his last year. He’s more the exception of all the others who’ve transferred. The journal sentinel has an article about all the transfers over the last 15 or so years, King and Jarrod Uthoff were the only two who really found success elsewhere. 

I agree with many of the comments posted already. I think C. Essegian got a raw deal this year. Maybe not a starter but deserved more minutes. I know he was a liability on defense but so was Storr. Storr's total effort was on the offensive end of the court most of the time. Gard talked about poor shot selection and nobody took more poor shots than Storr.  JMO

Kobe King  has been a failure everywhere he's been and is a head case.

No doubt the NIL money is a real challenge for all college teams/sports.  The Badgers (and Marquette) though are losing some decent in state players. Iowa State's coach is from Wisc. and he certainly is using the state to help build his program. The Pewaukee kid/Momclivoc is playing well and they just recruited the Oshkosh North senior. Don't forget one of the best young players in the NBA/Haliburton left the state for Iowa State. I understand why 5-star kids like Knueppel may choose higher profile programs like Duke but these other kids are 3-4 star athletes. Would think Wisc. could compete (even on NIL deals) with schools like Iowa State and other similar Big Ten programs.

 

As far as academics go, yes there is something to that but I don’t think it’s as difficult as people make it out to be.  All these kids at the big basketball academies are coming out with good grades and they’re pretty coddled when it comes to ACT, SAT scores.  I believe they get some pretty good school coaching as well.  Point being is that Wisconsin recruiting more so suffers due to the culture than admission standards.  Today’s college basketball is merely a one year step to the NBA and kids with those abilities and aspirations don’t want to go somewhere that they’re going to have to work into the lineup.  They want to play their one year and move on.  And then you throw NIL into the mix and  Wisconsin isn’t even in the ballpark.  There are simply two ways to recruit now to be competitive nationally.  Through the portal like UCONN or one and dones.  Unfortunately the days of the Kaminsky’s are all but done.  Its hard for a student to trust in the system when such and such school will work them right into the starting 5.  It’s destroyed the best part of college athletics in my opinion.

Agree with everything JC said. Very spot on post IMHO. 

Quality academic program or basketball wins school?
The head coach at higher seeded Kentucky loses in the first round to a lower seed and is able to get student athletes in with a 2.0 GPA and the Badger coach has to deal with a GPA of  3.88 to get student athletes in and people call for the Badger coach dismissal? How many one and done students to the NBA at Kentucky? How many 5 year student athletes like Tyler Wahls at Kentucky the last 6 years?
Who has the tougher job of recruiting? 
Whoever was questioning Tyler Wahls ability should have known he was playing the last several games with a knee injury.

Same with the wrestling team. I was hoping Bono was the answer. Now the only returning all american is hitting the transfer portal.

Well put JC.  Agree with everything you said except for being so pro Gard up until this year.  Where there's smoke, there's almost always fire......

Good human, decent coach, but far from being a great coach.

OK, I try to stay away from this as Badgers basketball is dear to me....but....anyway, I have been on the pro-Gard wagon for years...even through the calls to fire him, what...back in '21?  However, I am done even though Bo endorsed him as head coach.

1) To me, Gard is an excellent assistant coach and a great man.  He is only a good coach in my opinion.  Probably great at Xs and Os and instituting good drills.  However, he has no fire nor motivating factors for his players as far as I can tell.  Definitely not a dominating personality and no wonder why the team seems unmotivated at the start of games very often.  To not get a technical foul during that last Purdue game was telling.  2) Bo Ryan and Dick Bennett's success came from holding players accountable, limiting turnovers, and playing sound defense despite lack of recruiting 5 star athletes.  Heck, that is the only way they could win with the talent they had at times (except for a couple of Bo's teams).  Gard's teams are not held accountable for turnovers or poor defense (except Connor Essegian apparently).  Gard's teams always seem to struggle on defense. Turnovers have plagued this team for the past couple of years.  Gard cannot win with the talent he brings in if he doesn't hold guys accountable for horrid turnovers or lack of hustle on defense.   
3) Alando Tucker attempted a mutiny a couple of year's ago to take Gard's job when Alando was the assistant coach.  Alando did not think Gard was up for the job, and got into player's heads.  The players confronted Gard about his unwillingness to communicate ala the leaked audio tape.  I realize Alando is a d*ck,, but where there is smoke isn't there fire?  Kobe King blamed Gard (and insinuated many others felt the same) for much of the reason for his departure...smoke?
4) Recruiting had never been great under the last 3 coaches, but the other two seemed to somehow fit a round peg into a square hole.  To have Connor Essegian on the bench when the team refuses to play defense......what can you lose?  No wonder why he is transferring.  Gus Yalden, Ben Carlson, Taylor Currie, Lorne Bowman, Matt Mors, Tai Strickland, Kobe King.....I could go on and on at the recruits who either weren't good enough/head cases that were complete busts.  Seems that the last two coaches could have won games with anyone...not as much with Gard.  To top it off by letting the best WI kids leave the state year after year it digs the program a hole.
  
To me...it just feels like the program has turned into a mess.  Might as well try a different path as the current path has been brutal for 7 years.

Unfortunately, badgers, lost a key Wisconsin recruit to Iowa State the other day. Xzavion Mitchell from Oshkosh. 

That’s very disappointing.  Expected but still disappointing.  Gard did an awful job developing him.  I home he has success wherever he end up and I hope it isn’t the Big 10, but wouldn’t be surprised if it was.  I can see him at Northwestern or Nebraska.  

JMU made me some $$$ in that game. All the homer badger fans were so desperate to bet on that sorry a s s team. Why was Wahl on the court? BUM. 

They couldn't use somebody that could actually shoot the ball anyway.