That inevitable first round matchup in the NIT with UW-Milwaukee could get embarrassing at this point.
@ammo posted:This comeback might prove one thing. These guys like playing for Gard. Most of you don't take that into consideration.
I agree, he just needs some better players who like playing for him.
Thats the rub.
@Pikes Peak posted:I agree, he just needs some better players who like playing for him.
Thats the rub.
Last I knew no coach can force a guy where to play. Now you can give a guy a lot but then end up with investigations and sanctions. Everyone thought Bruce Pearl was great at UW-Milwaukee and look what he turned into.
The coaching staff makes a big difference in recruiting. Not sure how the NIL thing will affect Badger basketball. Gard is a great coach but nobody can deny this team is short on talent. How does Smart get talent at Marquette? Be it his personality or system it makes a difference.
@Pikes Peak posted:I agree, he just needs some better players who like playing for him.
Thats the rub.
There aren't many coaches in America who could get this collection of talent to win 17 games. That's how good a bench coach Gard is.
There also aren't many coaches in the Big 10 at a school that's had success like Wisconsin has had the last 25 years that would end up with a collection of talent this weak. That's how weak a recruiter Gard is.
How in holy hell did this team almost beat Kansas earlier in the season ?
Unfortunately, the strong coach/weak recruiter needs to be a better recruiter.How will that happen? Based on the coaching moves with disappointing football and hockey programs, what is likely to happen with the coach of the disappointing basketball program? The football team liked playing for Chryst, also. Doesn’t matter at all.
How will adding USC and UCLA affect recruiting? When kids realize they get a trip to southern Cali in the dead of winter instead of going to Nebraska or Rutgers maybe being in Madison for the rest of the winter won't be as bad.
Playing on the west coast can only help the Badgers when it comes to recruiting also. There are a lot of talented players on the west coast. JC players don't fit the Badgers' mold but it only takes a couple solid additions to improve a basketball team. The Badger need to expand their footprint beyond the MW. There just isn't enough local talent that the leftovers from Illinois and Minnesota can compliment.
@tsr86free posted:Unfortunately, the strong coach/weak recruiter needs to be a better recruiter.How will that happen? Based on the coaching moves with disappointing football and hockey programs, what is likely to happen with the coach of the disappointing basketball program? The football team liked playing for Chryst, also. Doesn’t matter at all.
It may not matter, but the football team mailed it in for the Illini game this past fall. They may have liked Chryst, but that team looked like it had given up.
The basketball team never stopped playing hard. The effort was there, but the talent wasn't. The team didn't really improve after the first half of the year, maybe because Gard and his staff had done a very good job of maximizing the talent on hand and there wasn't much more room for improvement.
I think Gard is safe for another year, mainly because of the year Johnny Davis had last year. They were 24-4 at the time Johnny Davis rolled his ankle last year and won the Big 10.
Johnny Davis may go down as one of the biggest one-year wonders in basketball history. His freshman year, he averaged 7 points a game and certainly didn't look like anything more than a solid college player. In his sophomore year, he averaged 20 and was a first-team All-American and got picked at #11 in the NBA lottery. This year, he's looked like he is going to be one of the worst lottery picks in NBA history. Despite being healthy, he's played 62 NBA minutes THIS SEASON and has 16 points on 33% shooting. He's averaging 12 points a game in the G league (28 minutes a game) on 40% shooting. If they redid the draft now, he'd be headed to Europe.
If you take out the "Johnny Davis" All-American Season, in the other 2 most recent years, Gard is 35-27 and 19-23 in Big 10 games (regular season and tourney). If they had three of those 17-14 type years in a row he might really be gone. But Johnny Davis' brief emergence gave Gard some time.
And if Johnny Davis hadn't been given a lot of bad advice and stayed in school what would the Badgers record have been this season? More like last years I think. I doubt Gard thought Davis would go NBA after year 2 when he recruited him and did not have the talent in reserve to fill that hole. Many of said he did not look NBA ready and that turned out to be true. Jordan Davis is playing for the Badgers like Johnny has played in the NBA, not very good.
@ammo posted:And if Johnny Davis hadn't been given a lot of bad advice and stayed in school what would the Badgers record have been this season? More like last years I think. I doubt Gard thought Davis would go NBA after year 2 when he recruited him and did not have the talent in reserve to fill that hole. Many of said he did not look NBA ready and that turned out to be true. Jordan Davis is playing for the Badgers like Johnny has played in the NBA, not very good.
what bad advice? the kid was a nba lottery pick. how would he be better off playing another year at UW?
gard seems like a nice guy. maybe too nice. go back and look at the talent on some of bo ryan's teams. there were some pretty lean years. but it didn't matter. they still won. they went to the tournament every year. why? mentally tough. fundamentally sound. can't say that about gard's teams.
@Jessie Clark posted:what bad advice? the kid was a nba lottery pick. how would he be better off playing another year at UW?
Because he was not NBA ready. Another year of B1G play may have helped him be a better pro. Any teams who considered him a lottery pick based on his 2022 Badger season were just rong.
OSU continues to roll thru the B1G Tourney. Can they beat Purdon't tomorrow or will fatigue finally catch up to them?
Marquette marches on to the Big East Final by beating UCONN 70-68. Lot of reporters thought that UCONN was going to win the Big East Tournament. Guess again. I am telling you Marquette might be a Final 4 sleeper team.
Davis should have stayed and worked on his outside game. No way playing in the G league is better for his development than another year at the UW. Everybody in that league is trying to make the NBA. At the UW he would have had the ball a lot more to work on his skills. At 6'4 he really needs a better jump shot and with the Badgers he could have been getting 20 shots a game.
@ammo posted:Because he was not NBA ready. Another year of B1G play may have helped him be a better pro. Any teams who considered him a lottery pick based on his 2022 Badger season were just rong.
One did and now he is potentially set for life. Thinking he should have stayed in Madison for any reason is silly fan talk
In the G league he can take a million shots a day in the gym, not go to class, and watch his guaranteed 20 million dollars create generational wealth.
I'm guessing he can work on his shot a heck of a lot easier in the G league than at UW.
@El-Ka-Bong posted:One did and now he is potentially set for life. Thinking he should have stayed in Madison for any reason is silly fan talk
We'll see if you feel the same way when it's time for him to sign his second contract. The NBA pays a lot better than they do overseas.
@EC Pack posted:In the G league he can take a million shots a day in the gym, not go to class, and watch his guaranteed 20 million dollars create generational wealth.
I'm guessing he can work on his shot a heck of a lot easier in the G league than at UW.
If he waits a year and gets up to 5th in the draft it's $33 mil at last year's prices. After 3 years he'll have made more than in 4 years with his current contract and have another $8 mil coming. At the rate he's going he won't see a 2nd NBA contract.
Then again, maybe he gets hurt, maybe he peaked in the first half of last season, maybe he and his fam needed the money ASAP. I hope he is smart with his money and his decision proves to be right.
@PackerRick posted:If he waits a year and gets up to 5th in the draft it's $33 mil at last year's prices. After 3 years he'll have made more than in 4 years with his current contract and have another $8 mil coming. At the rate he's going he won't see a 2nd NBA contract.
So he took millions of dollars instead of magic beans.
still think he made the right choice
33 million magic beans. He left a lot of money on the table. How much money do you think Zach Edey made this year? And I realize you're going to say nothing because he was at Purdue but you understand what I'm saying.
He gets hurt or doesn’t advance his game at WI, he leaves a heck of a lot more on the table. 33 vs 20 vs a non guaranteed non lottery contract. I can’t fault him for taking the sure thing.
Those guys take out insurance policies against injury so that's a non-factor. We'll see how Edey plays out because I think he would have been drafted ahead of Davis last season.
@PackerRick posted:Davis should have stayed and worked on his outside game. No way playing in the G league is better for his development than another year at the UW. Everybody in that league is trying to make the NBA. At the UW he would have had the ball a lot more to work on his skills. At 6'4 he really needs a better jump shot and with the Badgers he could have been getting 20 shots a game.
He can always join an AAU team if better competition is that bad for his game.
The #10 pick in the NBA playing on an AAU team a year later? That sounds like something that might be unprecedented. I don't think we'll see that.
no way was he gonna be a top 5 pick after another year at UW. he took the sure thing. it was a no brainer
I really don't see how anybody can say he wouldn't be a top 5 pick had he returned. The Badgers lost a lot of close games they probably would have won with Davis and he likely would have been taking a lot of big shots. So the opportunity was there. If you look at Ammo's original post it wasn't about money, someone else threw that in the mix. The comment was he'd be a better pro had he returned and when the guy has played 62 minutes in his rookie year I think that's indisputable. If that was a no brainer are you saying Edey made a mistake by returning to Purdue? He turned down a better draft position than Davis got so let's see how he does.
@Jessie Clark posted:no way was he gonna be a top 5 pick after another year at UW. he took the sure thing. it was a no brainer
Players values don’t tend to appreciate. Every year you stay in college the older and less attractive most players become. The league has more time to pick apart their game.
I've never heard that before. The more you play the worse you get when you're in your early 20s?
@PackerRick posted:I've never heard that before. The more you play the worse you get when you're in your early 20s?
Misquoting me doesn’t help your case as much as you think.
This guy hurt his value even though he IMPROVED from one year till the year he was drafted.
https://syndication.bleacherre...g-in-school.amp.html
And more
And you don't think there's a similar list of players that came out too early? I just don't think there's any way Davis wouldn't be more ready for the NBA this year than last.
@ShebPackFan posted:Marquette marches on to the Big East Final by beating UCONN 70-68. Lot of reporters thought that UCONN was going to win the Big East Tournament. Guess again. I am telling you Marquette might be a Final 4 sleeper team.
Marquette dominated Xavier last night. As far as the Badgers go I think their are 7 teams looking at the final 2 at large bids tonight.