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.

Essegian entering the transfer portal. No surprise there. 

To bad but that was a good game.

Just a reminder the Wisconsin Women’s hockey team is playing Ohio St. for the National Championship today at 3:00. The game will be televised on ESPNU. Go Badgers !!

I’ve thought about that too. 
Both Badger teams seem to do well in the Big Ten, create fan interest, go to the postseason, win conference games, but they really don’t seem built to do well outside of the conference. ​

It is the same for UW Basketball and Football. They both are built to play in the BIG10. When either plays more athletic teams you see the results. Cant keep up with the opponent

Badgers got “Smoked”! Better be improved next year. Shows you that it’s a “Team” sport.

Dude…Not giving Gard a complete pass on the loss. He obviously didn’t have his team mentality prepared to play in this game. I don’t think he used his bench enough either and relied too much on his starters. Then again, I don’t think the Badgers bench is as deep as JM’s. Had he gone to the bench, I doubt it would’ve made much of a difference. JM came out swinging from the start and the Badgers had no answers. That was pretty obvious when they had 6 turnovers in the first 8 minutes. They just seemed to be a step behind the whole game.

I disagree somewhat Z.  I can put some of those turnovers on Gard.  The team clearly wasn’t prepared.  And accountability apparently left with Bo.  Guys used to get yanked and sat for stupid plays.  Not under Gard.  He has his guys (like Wahl) and they are getting their minutes no matter how terrible they are playing.  You can’t give him a complete pass for what we saw last night.

The final thing I will say is Gard’s teams have no toughness.  No grit.  I believe that is a direct reflection of Gard’s flaccid personality.  Bo was a hard butt, and many of his players exuded that.  Gard is milquetoast, and so are his players.  

I understand the sentiment about blaming Gard for this situation, but he is not responsible for the 14 steals and 19 total turnovers. Wisconsin got stung right out of the gate and JM flat out played the Badgers. Maybe they were just overcome by the loss in the Big Ten Championship and couldn’t get themselves up for the start of this tournament. JM showed from the start of the game that they wanted it more.

Agree with a lot of what has been said. Wahl regressed in the what, 8 years he spent at Wisconsin? It was almost comical how much more athletic JMU was than WI. As to Essegian, it’ll be interesting to see if anything comes out now that the season is over. He obviously did something that landed him so deep in the doghouse he couldn’t get let out. Attitude? No effort in practice? Who knows. 

Well said dude!  Gard is a good coach.  Gard is not a great coach, nor recruiter, nor motivator, nor in-game adjustor, nor player developer.  His guys don't seem to like to play hard for him. They'll play hard for each other and themselves (at least some of them), like in the second half last night with their season on the line.

For the life of me I can't understand Gard's loyalty to Wahl?!!!  He has regressed, plays with zero fire, has boards for hands, can only move to his left with the ball, is easy to defend, is soft, misses more bunnies at the hoop than he makes, turns the ball over, poor passer, poor shooter, poor free throw shooter, but yet he gets all those court minutes in Gard's "system".  Any other player makes a bad play and Gard yanks him right away.  Wahl should be the 7th or 8th guy off the bench and play about 8 minutes per game.

Time for baseball.  Go Marquette Warriors!

Overall, I thought that was a pretty crappy product last night.  That looked more like playground basketball than NCAA.  I'm fine with some "let them play" but that was more than just a "physical" game.  

Oh, and someone said that was the worst game of the tourney.  It's tough to disagree, accept I did watch the Colorado St. vs. Virginia play in game.  Virginia had 14 points with 17 minutes left in the 2nd half.  That was the worst D1 college game I've EVER watched.

If you buy into Kenpom rankings, the Badgers were the 17th best team in the county, so the 5 seed would make sense.  As someone that watched them all year, it felt like 30% of their games they were a top 10 team, 40% they were just average, and 30% terrible.  Last night was beyond terrible.  

I put that inconsistently 100% on Gard.  I know, I know, he can't control when guys are cold.  But tell me who on the court for WI not named Klesmit was playing defense.  Nobody but Klesmit could shoot.  Yet another game that Essigian doesn't even sniff the court.  Why?  All your guys are cold and you have a great shooter on the bench the entire game.  That is inexcusible.  Gard cannot make any in game adjustments, and he whiffs on game preparation 1/2 the time, giving this team these crazy inconsistent results.  

I can't imaging Essegian doesn't leave via the transfer portal.  Storr likely leaves as well, one way or another.  Can Gard hold onto Blackwell for another year or two?  

I'm ready for a change.  I don't think Gard is a bad coach by any stretch.  I actually like him a lot.  But this program has become stagnant.  I want to see excellence again.  I think it is worth a shot to bring in some new, young blood and see if something changes.  

Brews-just looking at the other side of the coin, don’t you think it was also a bad matchup for GMU? I mean, would GMU really survive in the Big Ten? 
I do agree that James Madison came out with a lot of more fire and aggression.

Gard did not have them ready to play. Don't know if the Badgers were looking ahead and not taking JM seriously because of their weak schedule but they have a problem of loosing to teams they are supposed to defeat. Same issues the last 2 years in conference. 
Big 10 is supposed to be the most physical conference in college basketball.  Well JM out physicalled the Badgers last night. Our advantage was supposed to be our height. Taller teams had give JM problems this year.They beat up Crowl and Wahl and the Badgers never adjusted to how the game was called by the refs. Their guards did the same which lead to all the TO. 14 steals in a game is almost unheard of in college bb. Now depending on which refs you get some of that pushing, grabbing, poking, reaching gets called a foul. Last night they let the teams play and the Badgers and Gard had no answer.