Gard has done admirable job replacing a legend

MADISON – Mike DeCourcy, who has covered college basketball for more than three decades, understands the risks coaches face when asked to follow a legend.

“It is a challenge for anybody to take over for a Hall of Fame coach,” said DeCourcy, who writes for the Sporting News and is a regular contributor on the Big Ten Network. “And especially when you’re taking it over and your philosophies are similar. I think that escalates the challenge.”

Greg Gard accepted that challenge at Wisconsin when he replaced Bo Ryan, his long-time mentor, first as interim head coach 12 games into the 2015-16 season and later that season as full-time head coach.

“If you’re coming in and you have an entirely different system, you can say: ‘Well, we have this transition period,”’ DeCourcy explained.

Gard’s overall philosophy is similar to that of Ryan: Limit turnovers, move the ball for high-percentage shots and play sound defense.

He showed as the interim coach he wasn’t afraid to make changes. Immediately after taking over that season, Gard went back to the swing offense because it felt it was better suited to the team’s personnel. He expanded the rotation and led UW to a 12-6 mark in Big Ten play and into the Sweet 16.

Gard’s record through five seasons is 59-35 in league play (.628 winning percentage) and 101-57 overall (.639). The former mark is No. 6 among Big Ten coaches with at least 50 victories since 1980.

The only losing season on his résumé is UW’s 15-18 finish in 2017-18. UW had to replace four senior starters off a Sweet 16 team that finished 27-10. Season-ending injuries to D’Mitrik Trice and Kobe King contributed to UW missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 1997-98 season.

UW rebounded last season to finish 23-11 with a 14-6 mark in the Big Ten and secure a No. 5 seeding in the NCAA Tournament. A 72-54 loss to Oregon in the opening round ended the season.

“I think they’ve done really well,” DeCourcy said. “They have had some setbacks. … But they’ve gotten past most of them. … They were good enough to win a game or two last season. They just got a bad match-up last year. That happens.

“In 2017 they were close to an Elite Eight and maybe a Final Four. I am a huge fan of what he has accomplished there.”

That list of accomplishments – back-to-back appearances in the Sweet 16 in 2016 and ’17 – grew this season.

UW won its final eight games to finish 14-6 and clinch a share of its first Big Ten regular-season title since 2015. The final victory was a 60-56 decision over Indiana as UW overcame a ninepoint deficit in the second half.

The Badgers became the first Big Ten team to win a share of the regularseason title without a player garnering first- or second-team all-conference honors and Gard was named coach of the year.

“When they went to Indiana and won and got a piece of the Big Ten title, that was a system win,” BTN analyst Stephen Bardo on the network. “Those guys expect to be successful. To me, Greg Gard is smart enough to know: ‘I can put my spin on it but the system is intact.’

“That is the most incredible thing about that Wisconsin program.”

UW has finished in the top four of the Big Ten in four of Gard’s five seasons, with the outlier coming in 201718. As a result, UW has finished in the top four of the Big Ten in 18 of the last 19 seasons.

Gard’s fifth team developed into a tough-minded unit that could defend and score in multiple ways despite the loss of King, who left the team in late January and plans to transfer to Nebraska.

Six players led UW in scoring at least once during the eight-game winning streak. All six averaged in double figures and shot at least 33.3% from three-point range during the streak.

“I think people wrote them off a little bit,” Bardo said. “And then they started catching fire from the outside and they closed with a flurry.”

Informed that a small but vocal group of fans have used social media to argue Gard has not done a sufficient job in replacing Ryan, DeCourcy didn’t budge.

“The idea that some people think Greg isn’t doing a good enough job isn’t surprising,” he said. “Because they’re everywhere.

“I think he has done a terrific job of keeping Wisconsin relevant and performing in the Big Ten.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS Greg Gard took over the UW program from mentor Bo Ryan, put his own stamp on it, and was named Big Ten coach of the year for 2019-2020.