The torch was passed five years ago
Ryan’s retirement set up Gard to lead UW
MADISON – Josh Gasser, chasing his hoops dream in Germany, stayed up until nearly sunrise to tune in.
“I had someone tell me: ‘It's coming tonight,'” said Gasser, whose final game at Wisconsin was the loss to Duke in the 2015 national title game. “I was seven hours ahead, so I stayed up until 3 or 4 in the morning.
“Even knowing it was going to happen, I still didn't fully believe it was going to happen. It was just one of those things I wanted to see with my own eyes and hear it with my own ears.”
Joe Krabbenhoft was in the last of three seasons as an assistant at South Dakota State. With the team's flight from Minneapolis to Lubbock, Texas, delayed because of snow, Krabbenhoft got comfortable in his hotel room near the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and turned on BTN.
“Word was getting out inside the family,” said Krabbenhoft, who played at UW from 2005-09. “I was told to jump on BTN and watch the post-game press conference.”
The date: Dec. 15, 2015. Krabbenhoft and Gasser watched as Bo Ryan, the coach for whom they played, announced he was retiring just 12 games into his 15th season at UW and his 32nd season overall.
They watched as Greg Gard, an assistant under Ryan for 23 years, was named interim coach after UW's 64-49 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
“My phone was buzzing nonstop,” Krabbenhoft said. “I just let it all sink and tried to gather my thoughts and what I was going to say to coach Gard,
words of encouragement:
“You’ve earned it. Everybody’s got your back. We’ve all got your back. Can’t wait to watch you.”
Gasser had a similar reaction.
“I was extremely happy for him,” Gasser said recently. “I felt like he deserved it. I felt he was the right guy for the job, which clearly he is proving. So, it was really exciting for me as a former player.”
A little more than a week later, Krabbenhoft and Gasser watched Gard work his first game as UW’s head coach.
A 7-5 UW team took on UW-Green Bay on Dec. 23 in the Kohl Center. The Badgers built a 30-point lead with 13 minutes 1 second left but then suffered 15 of their 26 turnovers in the final 12:43 and held on for an 84-79 victory.
“It was horrible,” Gasser, laughing, said of the turnovers. “I remember that. They played so well and then coach Gard had to be wondering: ‘This is how my games are going to be?’
“I wish I would have been closer to be able to experience it, but it was fun watching it.”
Gasser and Krabbenhoft followed the rest of that season as best they could, hoping Gard would prove worthy of being named full-time head coach.
“I was coaching at South Dakota
State but I’m rooting like heck for those players and coach Gard and the rest of his staff to prove it,” Krabbenhoft said. “Because the interim tag was still on. So, me and my (former) teammates are in these text groups and we’re watching every game, dissecting it like crazy. We wanted it so bad for coach Gard.”
Five years later, UW is 106-58 under Gard. Last season the Badgers won a share of their first Big Ten title since 2014-15, Gasser’s senior season. They are 6-1 and ranked No. 9 heading into the league opener at 6 p.m. Tuesday against visiting Nebraska (4-3).
“For a new coach to have to follow in the footsteps of a Hall of Fame coach, a legend?” Gasser noted. “That alone is hard enough.
“But then to have to deal with everything they’ve had to deal with? He has had one of the toughest coaching jobs and has succeeded.
“Last year was just ultra-special for an alum like myself. To see those guys get what they had worked for and to see the program’s culture. Coach Gard has got it going again.”
And Krabbenhoft has been along for the ride, having joined the UW staff in April 2016. He replaced Gary Close, who stepped down after 13 seasons at UW.
“I was pushing my son on a swing set in a park when coach Gard called,” Krabbenhoft recalled. “He asked if I wanted to come back home.
“I said the answer is yes but I should probably call my wife. She knew where my heart was. It was with coach Gard. I wanted him to succeed so bad.”
The low point on the court in the last five years came in 2017-18.
A team that had to replace four senior starters from a Sweet 16 team lost D’Mitrik Trice and Kobe King to season-ending injuries and failed to secure an NCAA Tournament berth. That ended UW’s streak of 19 consecutive tournament berths.
The high point came last season when the team overcame the tragic accident that claimed the life of assistant coach Howard Moore’s wife and daughter and eventually left Moore in a longterm rehab facility.
“We’ve got a lot to live up to,” Krabbenhoft said. “Let’s do the best we can and keep this great tradition going. We were handed a pretty special gift called Wisconsin basketball. We take care of that with pride because some day it will be somebody else’s responsibility and we want to make sure we leave it in a good place for them.
“It is a cool story. I feel like we are in the first chapter still. We’ve hopefully got so much more to add to his story and his career.”
The first page was written Dec. 15, 2015. After being named interim coach that night, a 45-year-old Gard – raised in Cobb, 55 miles west of the Kohl Center – sat next to athletic director Barry Alvarez and made it clear he understood the enormousness of his responsibility.
“Basketball has been able to rise to a level that our alumni, our fans, our students, our former players, the current players, there’s a lot of pride,” he said. “And I take that responsibility that comes with all of that extremely seriously. That is very important to me.
“Especially being from Wisconsin and having grown up here. I understand the importance and value of this place and what it means to the people in this state and Badgers fans across the nation, and obviously most importantly for the guys in that locker room.”