Wisconsin Coach Greg Gard met with the media Sunday night to field some questions about his team and its upcoming opponent, North Carolina, on Friday in the NCAA Tournament.
The Badgers enter the tournament as the No. 9 seed in the South Region and the Tar Heels are the No. 8 seed. Wisconsin is 17-12 and went 10-10 in the Big Ten.
The Badgers are an older team, as their top five players are seniors who played in the NCAA Tournament two years ago and would have last season had their been a tournament. Wisconsin and UNC have met twice before in the NCAA Tournament, with the Badgers beating the Tar Heels in the Sweet 16 in 2015 and Carolina claiming a victory in the Elite Eight in 2005.
This will be Wisconsin’s 25th NCAA Tournament appearance. It owns a 38-23 overall record in NCAA play, has been to four Final Fours, and won the national championship in 1941. UNC is 3-1 all-time versus the Badgers, with UNC’s other wins coming in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge on Nov. 30, 2011, at the Smith Center, and on Nov. 23, 2016, in the Maui Invitational championship.
Above is Gard’s full zoom presser and below are some notes and quotes from what he had to say:
NCAA Tournament History: 24 total appearances, four Final Fours, one national championship (1941), 38-23 overall record.
UNC Series History: 3-1 (Two in the NCAA Tournament, one in the Maui Invitational and one in Chapel Hill)
*Wisconsin arrived at the Big Ten Tournament last Wednesday and has remained in Indianapolis ever since. They were eliminated by Iowa on Friday, but have been going through COVID testing since.
*The Badgers were being tested Sunday evening when Gard met with the media, then they were to remain in quarantine until being tested again Monday morning and he was hoping they could resume team activities by Monday afternoon.
“The opponent, North Carolina, terrific matchup for us. I’ve seen them only in bits and pieces through the year, but obviously, Coach (Roy) Williams is a Hall of Famer, storied program, I recognize some names on the roster, and obviously the rebounding component, the transition, the things that North Carolina has always been known for years and years will be a point of study as we go through this week.
“But I know we’re excited. Our guys were fired up to know that they have this opportunity in front of them. And, as I told them the other night after the Iowa game, it doesn’t matter – I’ve been on teams that have been seeded one all the way to 12 – you’re anticipation, you’re anxiety isn’t going to be different from one seed to the next. There’s only 68 of us left and they’re all very good teams and have had good years.”
*The first question Gard was asked focused on UNC’s rebounding numbers and how the Badgers will have to deal with that, especially given they are minus-1.7 on the year in rebound margin. Will it require being physical with the Tar Heels, discipline, fundamentals to keep them off the glass?
“All of the above. We’ve played them before. We played them in Maui in the championship game four or five years ago, the last time we were in Maui, we’ve played them other times. We played them in the NCAA Tournament two other times, I believe.
“Like I said before, the ingredients of a successful program don’t change. You don’t see coaches very often that have been successful over the course of time, and obviously Coach Williams has been, changing what they do. The names change through the years, but how they go about and their MO remains the same.
“So, it will be all of those things and as we go through film and work on things through the week, that will be one of the things of many that will be pointed out by the coach who takes the (scouting report) will walk us through the week.”
*Gard was later asked about UNC’s reputation as a program that likes to play fast and have high-possession games, so does he think slowing down the Tar heels and making it a low possession game will be a key to winning?
“We will see as I watch film on them what the game plan will be. A lot of teams have probably tried to do that, but easier said than done. Our staples will have to remain the same no matter who we’re playing, and I’m sure they’re going to try to do what they do well regardless of who they play.”
*The Big Ten was arguably the best league in the nation this season. In fact, five of Wisconsin’s last 10 games have been against either Illinois or Iowa. The Badgers have not been consistent, however, so what has been their challenge playing with more consistency, especially against such a daunting schedule?
“I think we’ve played better the last four games starting with the game at Purdue,” Gard said. “I thought we had more rhythm to us, I thought we had a good pace to us and rhythm to us against Penn State. We did it in stretches against Iowa, but that was kind of a different game. It was such a low possession game, which is what we wanted, but it had a little different feel to it than even the game at Iowa had.
“I just think the quality of the teams has been the biggest thing that maybe has been the biggest hurdle in terms of having us play better. You can look in the mirror to some degree, and we have to do that and continue to do that, but also knowing, as I’ve watched us come down the schedule checking the analytics we’re playing the third or fourth or fifth or seventh ranked team in the country.
“And I’m not just talking AP polls, I’m talking the actual analytics that take the value of possessions and those type of things. Knowing we had this type of schedule down the stretch, you’ve just got to attack it head on and learn from it... I think the strength of our schedule has prepared us for this and got us to this point.”
