Wisconsin Badgers coach Greg Gard spoke with the media after the 98-73 loss to Arizona. In what was undoubtedly a frustrating afternoon, Coach Gard seemed relatively calm and patient, respectively answering all of the reporters’ questions. While that may not be the most important thing of note, it did provide an insight into what he saw from the game. More importantly, we saw a general attitude of his opinion on an interesting aspect within the world of college basketball.
Wisconsin Badgers Game Analysis
For Coach Gard, a game that had a large run against his Wisconsin Badgers in the first half in particular, he was not sure during the run of the game what the exact margin was, but he just knew that it was a lot.
It felt more like 50-2.
When talking about the other team he said the following:
I knew Arizona had a heck of a team, seeing them up close and in person doesn’t change my opinion of them.
This was a consistent theme in his press conference, of acknowledge how good this Arizona team. It seems while pointing out to his players that Arizona is playing at a high level, he knows that Wisconsin can also match up better with them later on in the season.
He mentioned how Arizona hitting threes also forced the Wisconsin Badgers defense to extend further than what they were used to. This did not allow the help defense to focus on the interior big men as much as they would have liked, being forced to stay glued to the perimeter shooters.
Wisconsin Badgers Coach On Home and Home
While some coaches would express regret of scheduling a tough non conference opponent, Coach Gard seemed thrilled at the prospect of future home and home matchups with quality teams in the future.
We play everywhere but mars or the moon
Between scheduling weaker opponents, neutral sites, and invitationals, having a home and home agreement between two schools is becoming more of a rarity in college basketball. To keep with the traditional, old school home and home games seems like an aspect that Coach Gard would very much like to keep. This is great for our viewing experience, just like how, for example, Wisconsin fans will be looking forward to revenge when Arizona comes to Madison next year.
Wisconsin Badgers Bottom Line
Arizona is a great team at this point of the year. However, Coach Gard mentioned that Wisconsin made some uncharacteristic, self inflicted mistakes that when combined with the performance of the Wildcats, was going to be too much to overcome.
We have some self inflicted things…didn’t finish in the paint like we needed to which helped them get in transition. Had a couple key turnovers that contributed to that avalanche offensively…as the snow ball happened, kept getting bigger and bigger and it was hard for us to get that under control.
Again, it seems that he is not trying to downplay how good Arizona is, but that he is simply saying that the gap is not as big as the score suggests. He knows how good his team can be, and that when faced with a similar matchup again, that the players will play a little more composed. With more experience, having learned from past mistakes, he’s expecting this Wisconsin Badgers team to be better prepared for any possible upcoming rematches in the near future.
