The Wisconsin Badgers had one of their most exciting seasons in recent memory last season, going 27-10 en route to a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. While they were bounced in the second round by the BYU
Cougars, it was nonetheless a successful season.
Coming into the year as the No. 12 team in the preseason Big Ten media poll, Wisconsin shocked many as transfer guard John Tonje emerged as one of the best players in the country. Then-sophomore John Blackwell took a step forward as well, as Wisconsin reached the Big Ten Tournament Championship for the second consecutive year.
Now, Wisconsin has a brand new team with nine different faces, adding both youth and experience to the roster. That presents a new challenge for head coach Greg Gard, who helped transform Wisconsin’s offense to its highest scoring average in decades.
After a successful season like 2024-25, what did Gard look to do in the offseason?
“I watch a lot of film, and specifically maybe not us. I’ll go through us after the season and then maybe revisit it again in the fall like I am now, specific games, and just look at what we were good at,” Gard said this week. “Where is the game transcending to? How does this year’s team fit into what we want to do? Because every team is different.
“And then the rolodex of information is constantly growing. I shouldn’t say Rolodex, that predates it. I bookmark a lot of things on Twitter or X, I guess I should say. I bookmark some of those little things. You see those highlights or little set plays. I don’t even know the name of the dudes that do that stuff. They obviously have a lot of time on their hands to watch that much film. But if I scroll through and I see stuff that I like, I’ll bookmark it. And if you happen to see it at a Badger game, you can probably find it somewhere on Twitter that I stole it from.
“The basic concept stays the same. We’re just adding branches to the tree, so to speak, as the team evolves. I want to see what these guys are good at. This group, so far, has been really good at just organically playing. I think that’s part experience in the system now, part experience of our players we brought in. And then obviously the development that’s taking place. So it’s a combination. I don’t have to call a lot or script a lot with this group. They understand how to play. And I think, as a head coach, maybe seven, eight, nine years ago, you felt you had to have a lot of plays, and I still do. But I think you learn that helping players learn how to play and let them play is more important maybe than how many plays you have. And I’ve been accused of having more plays than the Packers. But at the same time, you find that balance, I think, and each team’s different. I’ve had teams where you really have to script it because they couldn’t maybe swim on their own quite as gracefully. This group, I think, can go on their own pretty good.”
The game of college basketball is constantly evolving, and the Badgers are proving they can stay out ahead with Gard at the helm. With this season’s team, things could look different with a faster point guard (Nick Boyd), but the philosophy remains the same.
Wisconsin is scheduled to kick off the season with an exhibition match on October 24th against the Oklahoma Sooners, which will give them a good idea of where they stand ahead of the season.
