Brace yourselves, fellow Wisconsin basketball fans. Greg Gard is not getting fired and will be the Badgers’ head coach heading into the 2020-21 season.
Yes, we’re going to be stuck with the guy who led Wisconsin to the third most Big Ten wins since he’s been in charge behind Matt Painter and Tom Izzo. The fan base will try to deal with keeping the guy who is bringing in the highest-ranked recruiting class in program history. If you don’t think that’s bad enough, get this.
Wisconsin will continue on with the coach who currently has the #1 ranked recruiting class in the sport of college basketball for 2021.
Okay, it has not been an ideal week for Wisconsin basketball. One could call it an absolute mess, a dumpster fire, an complete shit show. First, Kobe King decides to quit in the middle of conference play. When the guy who might be your best offensive player up and leaves, that’s not good. Then, Wisconsin blows a 12-point lead with 7 minutes left against Iowa. Not ideal. Following this game, the social media mob bullied the Big Ten into suspending Brad Davison. Not great.
Tyler Herro then went on Twitter and absolutely body-bagged the Wisconsin basketball program in cold blood. If you will recall, Herro is an in-state player who committed to Wisconsin for over a year before bolting for Kentucky right before National Signing Day, crushing the Badgers’ recruiting class.
Yes, it has worked out for Tyler Herro. Hand up, Kentucky better prepares players for the NBA better than Wisconsin does. But wasn’t the last-minute switcharoo enough? Does he still have to continue try to single-handedly tear down the Badgers? Seems unnecessary.
Before all of that even happened, I found out Greg Gard blocked me on Twitter at some point in the past eight years. It’s tough backing a guy night after night with that in the back of my mind, but I make it work. We remain in this together, Greg.
Is it still possible Greg Gard is fired after this season? Sure, as an open-minded fella, I’m willing to consider it. But three things must happen for me to even consider this as a possibility, outside of some sort of scandal.
1. Wisconsin misses the NCAA Tournament. Wisconsin is currently in the field of 68 anywhere Bracketology is found. According to Godfather of Brackets Joe Lunardi, the Badgers are listed as a #7 seed.
2. More big name players or commits leave. The Kobe King news had some folks freaking out about what it means for incoming recruits Johnny and Jordan Davis as they are friends with Kobe King. First of all, they already signed so they’d have to sit out a year. According to Jim Polzin of the Wisconsin State Journal, Greg Gard and all three assistants took a trip to meet with them on Tuesday night, and their father said this isn’t changing anything.
2021 four-star Chucky Hepburn tweeted positive things about the Wisconsin program and same with the father of 2020 signee Lorne Bowman. It’s a lot more likely people start leaving or decommitting if Greg Gard is fired.
3. Greg Gard keeps me blocked on Twitter. I’m still so confused how this happened but if you’re reading this Greg, my sky-high reputation is riding on your success and the very least you could do is unblock me.
That’s it. If all of those three things happen, I will open the door to the possibility this is his final year in Madison. If not, Wisconsin fans like myself will have to deal with more winning and some of the best recruiting classes we’ve ever seen.
Because Greg Gard is not getting fired.
Photo courtesy of UWBadgers.com
Keep the conversation going by reaching out to Erik Buchinger on Twitter or email erik@deceptivespeed.com.