Badger Basketball 2021-22

Add in Isaac Lindsey, a transfer from UNLV who will be a preferred walk on.  He was a 3 star recruit from Mineral Point.  Linked is his UNLV bio.

https://unlvrebels.com/sports/.../isaac-lindsey/14384

I would monitor Gard’s status as we get closer to summertime.  If my memory is correct, if he separates after 5/31 he’s owed no buyout money.  

My guess is Wisconsin will do what they typically do and hold onto him for another year or two.  

Meanwhile, they have players entering the transfer protocol left and right, Marquette just hired the guy I wanted for the UW job, and the rest of the Big Ten is passing them up.  

If being a mediocre to above average team that makes the tournament and maybe wins a game excites you, well, go for it.  Purdue will be improved, Michigan isn’t going anywhere, Illinois is back on the map as is Ohio State.  You know damn well Izzo will get things turned around.

Gard's biggest problem will be if Reuvers goes somewhere next year and averages 16/8 and shoots 40% from 3. His lack of improvement from his freshman year is perhaps the biggest black mark against Gard while he's been head coach. I thought Reuvers was going to be Kaminsky-lite (All Big 10, a guy who could get you 20 a lot of nights, and a decent passer out of the post). Instead, he looked timid and played scared on offense.

I hoped Jon Leuer, but same point.  Nate was a shell this year.  

curious  what Gard can do with youth on his side

To be fair, three of the four players entering the transfer portal really don’t offer much (walk-ons). Also, Marquette has already lost a four-star Sophomore point guard to Syracuse and had two other players who averaged around 10 points a game enter the transfer portal.

I’m excited about Coach Smart at Marquette...... 👏🏻 👏🏻 👏🏻  Great hire I think.

@MichiganPacker2 posted:

Gard's biggest problem will be if Reuvers goes somewhere next year and averages 16/8 and shoots 40% from 3. His lack of improvement from his freshman year is perhaps the biggest black mark against Gard while he's been head coach. I thought Reuvers was going to be Kaminsky-lite (All Big 10, a guy who could get you 20 a lot of nights, and a decent passer out of the post). Instead, he looked timid and played scared on offense.

You think Gard didn't try to get Reuvers to play tougher?   What was he supposed to do?  You could yell and scream at the guy all you want but I don't think Reuvers would respond with that type of treatment.  You could bench him and not make him a starter is what Gard did for a few games and that really didn't motivate Reuvers much.   What other ways was there to motivate the guy?

Cookies

And chocolate milk.

@ammo posted:

You think Gard didn't try to get Reuvers to play tougher?   What was he supposed to do?  You could yell and scream at the guy all you want but I don't think Reuvers would respond with that type of treatment.  You could bench him and not make him a starter is what Gard did for a few games and that really didn't motivate Reuvers much.   What other ways was there to motivate the guy?

My guess is he was as tough and motivated as he could be.  I never had the sense that he didn’t try hard or that he wasn’t motivated.  I did have the sense that he was who and what he was.  A guy who should not have major minutes on a good team.  He should have been a 10/12 minute sub.

Blood....Turnip.

@ammo posted:

And chocolate milk.

Overdoing it. The cookies were more than enough.

@Pikes Peak posted:

My guess is he was as tough and motivated as he could be.  I never had the sense that he didn’t try hard or that he wasn’t motivated.  I did have the sense that he was who and what he was.  A guy who should not have major minutes on a good team.  He should have been a 10/12 minute sub.

Blood....Turnip.

The guy was on the Wooden watch at the start of the season. Not good enough to play 10-12 min in a good team? Fucking ridiculous.

@ammo posted:

You think Gard didn't try to get Reuvers to play tougher?   What was he supposed to do?  You could yell and scream at the guy all you want but I don't think Reuvers would respond with that type of treatment.  You could bench him and not make him a starter is what Gard did for a few games and that really didn't motivate Reuvers much.   What other ways was there to motivate the guy?

Isn't "motivate players" part of the coach job description?  Don't you believe some do it better than others? 

And you can lead horse to water but you can't make him drink. 

Total speculation on my part, but couldn’t the whole COVID/quarantine had an effect on Ruever’s and his motivation. It was an odd year all around and everyone was effected differently.

Or maybe Greg Gard isn’t good enough to lead a top 15-20, major college program?

I mean, how quickly we forget that 5-6 years ago this was a top 10, most appealing and legitimate opportunity when Ryan departed.   Now?  It’s a middle of the road program in a big conference.  

All around them their competitors or those siphoning their talent and recruits have improved.  Iowa, Iowa State, Illinois for starters. Marquette is another threat now that they hired Shaka Smart.  That was never the case under Bo Ryan.  

My concern is it takes talent to win at this level.  You also need to be able to develop that talent.   Gard is in over his head in both areas.  

And no, COVID19 didn’t get us to this point.  It just accelerated the demise.  The program has been trending downward since Ryan left.  

At least Greg Gard can say he caused the retirement of Roy Williams by beating him for the 1st time in a NCAA 1st round game.

https://www.espn.com/mens-coll...roy-williams-retires

Chalk one up for Gard!

Lol

Williams is 70 and has several national titles under his belt.  Surprised he didn’t retire earlier.  

Roy Williams was complicit in wide scale academic fraud at NC.

Fuck him.

To his defense, he only did that with the black players.

So he is clearly racist too.

How many Asian players did he ever have?

Two! They were the ones doing the homework. DUH!

Think Matt Doherty gets a call

It’s possible that Brad Stevens could become available.  The Celtics have been a complete disappointment, and he doesn’t seem able to get through to the players anymore.  

If I’m Wisconsin, I pull out all the stops to get him.

UNC will stay within the "family" ... Herbert Davis or Wes Miller have to be the favorites

The UNC hire will be interesting. Those of us that are older (I'm 51) may be biased in considering this to be a more elite program than it really is at this point.

I just looked this stat up and it shocked me. Do you know while the UNC basketball program has produced 35 NBA players since 2000, they have not produced a single player that's made an NBA all-star game in that time. During that same time frame, Duke has produced 5 and Kentucky has had 10.

UNC has still gotten guys during Roy Williams time and won titles, but it's not the same as Jordan, Worthy, Perkins, Daugherty, Kenny Smith, Vince Carter, Stackhouse, etc. Jordan was a huge draw, but the recruits today mainly know him as a fairly pedestrian NBA owner who is mainly a meme generator.

I think UNC is where UCLA was 30 years ago.

@Tschmack posted:

It’s possible that Brad Stevens could become available.  The Celtics have been a complete disappointment, and he doesn’t seem able to get through to the players anymore.  

If I’m Wisconsin, I pull out all the stops to get him.

So you want to bring in a coach that doesn't get through to the players.  Isn' that the big gripe with Gard this season, that he couldn't get the maximum from the players he had? 

NBA players, not college players.  Big difference.

Stevens would be a top 5 coach immediately if he chose to return to college basketball.   He’s run his course in Boston, but Ainge hasn’t exactly done him many favors building that roster.

The way you spin things you have to be a politician.

Brad Stevens has another NBA job waiting for him the day after the Celts cut him lose. I'd take him over coach Bud.

He has ruled out Indiana, they went to MW.

I’m not a politician ammo, but you must be related to GG the way you defend him to the nth degree.  

I think you are right goalline.  Multiple NBA teams would likely line up to get Stevens.  As good of a coach as he is, the Celtics just don’t seem to be working anymore.  It’s the Kyrie Irving hangover effect.  Seems like each team he leaves is more dysfunctional than when he arrived.

No, I'm not related to Greg Gard.  I just prefer to let the professionals in the UW Athletic Dept. handle the hiring and firing of coaches.

And since we are on the topic sort of, many seem to think the Paul Chryst is the natural choice for AD once Barry is gone.  If the goal is someone who knows how to win NCAA Championships then Mark Johnson is the best choice.  He has won 6, count them, 6 NCAA Championsghips.  And an Olympic Gold Medal to boot.

@Tschmack posted:

I think you are right goalline.  Multiple NBA teams would likely line up to get Stevens.  As good of a coach as he is, the Celtics just don’t seem to be working anymore.  It’s the Kyrie Irving hangover effect.  Seems like each team he leaves is more dysfunctional than when he arrived.

No doubt. Kyrie is toxic. He needs a Phil Jackson.

I agree ammo on the Chryst thing.  While he might be the right choice as AD, I think it’s a mistake to just hand him the job.   It’s possible there may be more qualified leaders out there and yes that may include Mark Johnson.

The list is long of NBA coaches who failed there and then went on to great success in college. The list is short who have succeeded in both- Larry Brown. Stevens has had some success, but jury’s out now.

Gard has proven nothing. The season that he’s actually succeeded to meet the program standards (2019-20) we’ll never know if they were going to win in the Tourney. The other seasons? BTB S16 with Bo Ryan’s players, and one Tourney win in 4 seasons. In there is the most losses by a graduating class in 20 years and the first losing season since 1997-98. The perception of his “success” is fool’s gold to me. If 2021-22 is a losing season, I hope everyone will see what I already believe to be the truth- he’s not good enough.

@Music City posted:

The list is long of NBA coaches who failed there and then went on to great success in college. The list is short who have succeeded in both- Larry Brown. Stevens has had some success, but jury’s out now.

Gard has proven nothing. The season that he’s actually succeeded to meet the program standards (2019-20) we’ll never know if they were going to win in the Tourney. The other seasons? BTB S16 with Bo Ryan’s players, and one Tourney win in 4 seasons. In there is the most losses by a graduating class in 20 years and the first losing season since 1997-98. The perception of his “success” is fool’s gold to me. If 2021-22 is a losing season, I hope everyone will see what I already believe to be the truth- he’s not good enough.

Next year's Badgers team could be really, really bad. I'm talking like 8-20 overall, 3-15 in the Big Ten bad. Johnathan Davis looks like a legit Big 10 player and Tyler Wahl looks like the kid on good Badgers teams this century who would play about 8-10 minutes a game. After that, virtually nothing.

https://badgerswire.usatoday.c...iew-roster-overview/

If that happens the clock starts ticking on the end of the Gard era.

Gard will get a bit more leeway now that Baylor made it to the title game as losing to Baylor is nothing to be ashamed about. Of course, the real problem was falling to an 8 seed by beating no one decent the last month of the season and having to play Baylor in the 2nd round. If they were a 5 seed, they were dangerous enough to get to the Sweet 16.

@Tschmack posted:

NBA players, not college players.  Big difference.

Stevens would be a top 5 coach immediately if he chose to return to college basketball.   He’s run his course in Boston, but Ainge hasn’t exactly done him many favors building that roster.

Ainge's reputation is almost entirely built off of what he did with the Kevin Garnett transactions. He also deserves a lot of credit for fleecing the Sixers by essentially trading Fultz for Tatum and another draft pick (Langford).  Imagine the Sixers with Embiid, Simmons, AND Tatum?

His old Celtic buddy, Kevin McHale, did him a solid by trading Kevin Garnett to him for about 50 cents on the dollar (Al Jefferson, some random benchwarmers, and two first-round picks). If the Wolves take Steph Curry with that pick instead of Jonny Flynn, it looks better, but that was still highway robbery. Garnett was the main reason they won that title and then he flipped an aging Garnett (and an aging Pierce) to a Russian billionaire running the Nets for picks that eventually ended up being Tatum, J. Brown, K. Irving (after some other moves related to them).

Since then, he's always been holding onto assets to be better positioned to win in the future rather than going all-in any particular year. They are good enough to get to the Eastern Finals several times, but can't get over the hump. They are basically the 2011-2020 Green Bay Packers of the NBA.