Greg Gard secretly recorded
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Nothing is private.
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Have you had concerns with Gard at all @wissox ? Seemed like he has been successful, but didnt know he had locker room problems.
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@approxinfinity whoever sent it doesn’t really understand the concept of 'team"
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If Gard gets canned in the next year or so this will definitely be the source
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@Crimsonorblue22 said in Greg Gard secretly recorded:
@approxinfinity whoever sent it doesn’t really understand the concept of 'team"
Agree. Pretty pathetic, really.
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I grew up in Madison and claim (along with @wissox) the Badgers as my second team. There are a couple things here…
–Every program has meetings like these. The fact that Gard met with them and listened for well over an hour without responding is some evidence that he’s not ruling with an entirely iron fist.
–The tape was significantly edited to make Gard look bad. The meeting was over two hours long with dialog going back and forth, but the only parts that were leaked (37 minutes worth) were the parts where the players aired their grievances.
–The meeting ended with Gard taking full responsibility and no dry eyes in the room according to one of the seniors that was in the room.
–There is some smoke that it was an assistant coach that wasn’t retained that could be who leaked it. It’s all the more hairy with that as that coach is the all-time leading scorer at Wisconsin (Alando Tucker). Imagine Danny Manning doing this and you have an idea.
–There have been rumblings for a few years that Gard isn’t the easiest guy to play for. Some former players have rallied behind him, but all of them had Gard as an assistant coach and not the head guy. We all know that oftentimes assistant coaches are more of the friend while the head coach is the authority. There are also rumors about past assistants leaving because of his leadership style and some former players that potentially steered recruits elsewhere because of the style Gard demands that they play. Lots of hearsay, but smoke nonetheless.
–Last season was a really frustrating one for the team and its fans. They were preseason top 5 after winning the B1G the year before and returning everyone…including 7 seniors and all 5 starters. They REALLY underachieved and there were a few individual players who took massive steps back in their development. That’s alarming at Wisconsin as they are largely a developmental program rather than a 5* recruit chaser. I don’t think that frustrations were real only at Wisconsin last season, but this does give a little more insight into the players mindset in all of it.
None of this is helpful for the program, the coaches involved or the players involved. The reality now is that the validity of the program is in question…the head coach’s care for his players is in question…a beloved Badger legend is under suspicion for throwing this bomb calling his care for the program into question…the players who left are now all likely seen in a unique light and many are calling them ‘soft’…and while no one has jumped into the transfer portal ‘yet’ (hopeful that won’t happen)…having the dirty laundry out there like this is just not the dream.
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@focojayhawk thanks so much for the analysis! Really great. No follow up questions here; you covered it pretty thoroughly.
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I don’t remember very many coaches losing touch with their team so much that they need to have a meeting like this. Face it, any coach crying and apologizing to win them over ain’t sticking around long, nor should he. Being that far out of touch is not healable because every single action is under scrutiny, every word parsed to death, and he basically is hostage to any anonymous griper. Best to go!
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@focojayhawk Wow, you sound like the guys at bucky’s5thquarter! Good summary. I’ve been away a few days with my elderly parents so I haven’t paid attention to this story.
@approxinfinity I’ve always appreciated Gard, although he reminds me of Bo in some ways. The team just seems offensively challenged at times. He doesn’t value possessions like Bo nor does (many more turnovers) Bo was very intimidating and he surely influenced officials for the Badgers. Gard is just a nice guy. It’s his MO. They have a pretty strong recruiting class coming in, but overall the team will be very young so next year if all stays the same will be pretty trying.
@mayjay Someone within the program says meetings like this are common in but kept behind closed doors so we don’t notice them.
An important aspect to the story is the tragedy of Howard Moore, the assistant coach who lost a wife, a child, suffered a serious injury himself in an auto accident. Moore hasn’t returned to the program, I’m not sure if he’s disabled. He also had a heart attack shortly after the accident. That’s when Tucker came in and at least for a little while seemed like an heir apparent. He’s one of my favorite Badger players. Kind of a Keith Langford type. I’ll be disappointed that it’s him that did this if that info comes out. The recorded was edited too to make Greg look worse.
I know there’s some here who just would wish Self would move on. While I’m definitely not one of them, if he does, I’d love to see him in Madison!
Sam Dekker, a Badger legend was incredulous about the players doing this. He used some pretty strong language. Ben Brust, the Badgers version of Jeff Boschee also spoke strongly. These aren’t old ‘get off my lawn types’, they’re still in their 20’s but seem really strong in their opinion that these were malcontents that let down this team and their fans a lot this season.
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@wissox good to hear your take. Nothing good happens if a team has bad chemistry. Hope they can fix that part this season, regardless of Ws and Ls.
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Think any of this stems from the Kobe King fiasco? @wissox
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@BeddieKU23 I was pretty critical of him for leaving in the middle of the season and the turnaround with the team seemed to coincide with him leaving. Those things are always hard to determine if he was a distraction to the team, or if he and Gard disagreed on things to the point it caused him to quit. This situation now certainly sheds light on it and it may even indicate his valid reason for leaving.
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Sam Dekker @dekker · Jun 22 And I truly am rooting for all of those guys for their futures. But this getting out affects all of them. I hope they know that. Future employers/coaches aren’t going to want a guy that is recorded saying “we will never talk to you again or win for you”.
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Ben Brust called them the softest group of Badger players he’s ever seen.https://twitter.com/i/status/1407396077435764738
