The Badgers play the Terrapins

Another grinder for sure.

Status update at Maryland: Max Klesmit will be OUT tonight for Wisconsin

upper body injury.

No Klesmit, again, tonight.

Hepburn with a big rejection!

Terps playing full court press, early. Forcing Bucky to speed up their game. Well see how they adjust.

Terps playing well in the paint.

Essegian misses the 1st FT of the game, but makes the 2nd. 17-18 Terps. 11:40 left in the half. Into a media time out.

7:41 left. Bucky leads 20-18.

Davis called for flopping. Terps tie it with the FT.

Terps with an 8-0 run, lead by 5, 28-23.

In other B10 news, Coach for Indiana won't coach at Minnesota, tonight due to Covid.

Essegian has trouble when pressured. He tends to turn it over.

Reese,from Maryland, with his 2nd foul in about a minute. He shoved Wahl and then put a forearm into Crowl's throat area.

Lindsey commits a foul. He must be in for Klesmit.

28-32 Terps, at the half.

Again DOWN at halftime.    Let’s Go.   Bucky.

Bucky getting blown out from the start of the 2nd half.

E3 making some big plays as a freshman.

bucky getting outplayed hard

Full court pressure on D, by the Terps is having an effect on Bucky. Terps making easy baskets, doesn't help, either.

Crowl makes it a 9 point deficit, from the line, for Bucky

Terps drive to the hoop with ease. Bucky settles for missed threes and contested shots under the hoop.

Bucky being out rebounded 17-27.

Again, Terps drive hard to the hoop. Wisconsin playing like a defeated team.

68-51 Terps with 3:48 left. No way Bucky overcomes this deficit.  Not with their slow play, anyway.

73-55 Terps win.  Bucky has a lot of work to do. Illinois up next. Bucky has lost 5 of their last 6 games.

This team just doesn't have the horses and I don't see it improving. The program might have to make a major change like the football program did. I always wanted Tony Bennett or Shaka Smart to become the Badger's coach. They had ties to the state/program  and have shown they can recruit nationally. I would not be surprised to see something happen at the end of the season if this continues.

Shaka Smart was one of the guys I wanted to see in Madison.  You look what he’s done in basically 36 months at Marquette taking a undermanned team last year to the tournament, and this year they are 16-5 with all 5 losses coming either in OT or by less than 5 points.  

There is certainly a talent issue in Madison but it’s almost like teams figure out and adjust to Gard by mid season and they just aren’t good enough.

And who was the coach for 1 of those losses?

this team was playing great defense earlier in the season.  not anymore. and the offense isn’t good enough to overcome the poor defense

Lol ammo

Gard is mediocre and always has been.  You know this.   Yes they will sneak up on some teams early in the year but once teams have time to learn and adjust they will.

This Badgers offense is fucking pathetic.  There’s only so many try hard guys you can recruit.

If Marquette played them today Kam Jones goes for 30 and the Warriors win easily.

Last season after the first of the year those teams who had time to learn and adjust had a 13 and 4 record against Bucky.

I don’t care one way or another about Gard, he ain’t John Wooden and he’s not John Powless.  But to say he’s not a good coach is wrong, to me he’s not a good enough recruiter.

Unfortunately for him that is the number one requirement for the job, get real good players to coach

Exactly right. Gard can coach but his recruiting footprint is very limited. When he used the transfer portal this year who did he bring in? Just a couple in state guys they probably didn't offer when they were HS players. It was almost a step backwards. Is Shaka Smart a better coach? I doubt it. But when it comes to recruiting Smart appears to have an advantage. Tony Bennett might be both a better recruiter and HC. Let's not forget a few years ago when Gard lost control of his team with the leaked tape incident. Based on how McIntosh handled the Chryst/Leonard situation I would not be surprised if the same thing happened with some big name from outside the program being brought in.

If you switched rosters this year, I would guess Greg Gard beats Shaka Smart 80 times out of 100. Maybe more.

If you want someone to develop 2-star guys into significant contributors on bette- than-average teams or an occassional All-Big 10 level player, there might be no better coach in America than Greg Gard. Greg Gard was Bo Ryan's main guy and he's been doing this as an assistant or head coach for over a decade.

As everyone is saying, the ceilings of the guys he gets are very limited. Shoot, Johnny Davis looks like he's going to be one of the worst lottery picks in NBA history and somehow Gard and the staff had him in the conversation for National Player of the Year at one point last year.

Listening to WI Sports talk radio yesterday this was a main topic.  The Badgers are suffering from a lack of frontline talent and depth.  Jordan Davis is not a starter on a D 1 level. On most D 1 schools he is on the end of the bench.  He shoots too many 3s and does not do it very good.  Essegian is going to be a very good to great player, but he is a freshman still learning the college game.  He will struggle at times.  Hepburn is already very good, but he can't carry the whole load.    Wahl and Crowl are good guys that play stronger than any big men in recent history.    The rest of the bench is young and can not be expected to do much.  All agreed, Gard is a good coach but may need help in recruiting.  Just saying how many years the team has been to the NCAA is not enough.  And now the Fickle has been very active in the transfer portal and will go all out recruiting the pressure on the basketball program will only get worse.

If the BB programs slips very much it could be very difficult to get back. I think that's what McIntosh saw happening to the FB program. The underlying factor to recruiting now is the NIL that the players are looking for. With UCLA and USC coming into the league falling into the lower half of the standings does not make the UW very appealing.                                                                                                    The Badgers are just at a disadvantage not having enough in state talent to the point where they have to go into competitor's backyards to get talent. And I think often times they're getting what's left. How they got Essegian away from Purdue and Indiana is the exception to the rule.

The NIL must be pretty good for Badger BB.  Hepburn was quoted on one radio show saying he bought a Beamer for Christmas.   Doesn't make him a bad guy, just that he got some $$$$ from somebody.   

I'm sure the NIL is good for all players, it's like found money. Something they didn't have a couple years ago. But it is being used as a recruiting tool and it's not a level playing field. Couple that with the transfer portal and you basically have a free agency system in college with many players chasing the money or playing time to get the exposure. That's why I look at the Badgers QB depth chart and see a couple guys bailing out after next season. Probably Burkett and Lacrue.

Hepburn, Crowl, Wahl and C3 deserve minutes on about any B10 team.  Crowl's development has been noteworthy.  Klessmit is a nice player who would compliment a second unit.  That is it, there is your talent. 

I think Gard is a helluva coach, and would probably take down a bunch of big ten teams coaching North Dakota State, but this team needs some talent evaluators and closers in the recruiting dept

Bo Ryan had a presence and a ton of charisma and credibility within basketball circles.   He could lure in some higher ranked guys and obviously had a very successful track record and cache.   Not unlike Dick Bennett.

That’s not Gard.  He’s more Brad Soderberg.

What’s telling is over the last 6-8 years there have been some decent HS prospects in this state and most have chosen to go elsewhere.  I think it’s less about style of play than Gard is just a guy.  

There’s another angle to consider as well.  You think big pocketed donors will dish out serious NIL money if Gard’s around?   Probably not.  Same reason why Fickell is HC instead of Leonhard.  You need to be able to have a mission and vision and back it up with success and that includes winning the recruiting battles.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen the best of Gard, and my guess is eventually McIntosh will make a move there as well.  Being a fringe tournament team just isn’t good enough for a program like Wisconsin.

Except for a very very few there are only 2 kinds of coaches:  Those that have been fired and those that will be fired.  So to predict Gard will be fired is really going out on a limb there.