Wisconsin Coach Greg Gard met with the media via zoom on Tuesday evening for the official Pre-NCAA Tournament press conference to discuss his team, their preparation for North Carolina, and more.
The Badgers are the No. 9 seed in the South Region and will face the No. 8 seed Tar Heels on Friday evening at Mackey Arena on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN. The game tips at 7:10 pm.
Wisconsin is 17-12 and finished its Big Ten season at 10-10 while the Tar Heels are 18-10 and went 10-6 in the ACC.
Above is Gard’s 12-minute presser and below are some notes and pulled quotes from what he had to say:
*The Badgers have been in Indianapolis for a week but were quarantined for a couple of days. In fact, the players couldn’t even leave their hotel rooms Monday other than to get tested for COVID-19. Meals were delivered to their rooms. They did begin to get in some work Tuesday, though. Indianapolis, by the way, was the site of the Big Ten Tournament, and the Badgers were eliminated by Iowa last Friday.
*Teams are practicing in the Indianapolis Convention Center. It includes 12 separate courts, but they are set up so no teams can intermingle, Gard said. The teams walk from the hotel to the convention center, in which Gard says it’s “all controlled,” thus a path is cleared with no chance at crossing paths with anyone.
*The Badgers have minimized their time with each other, so the only prep for UNC has been verbal. They haven’t even looked at film as a group yet. The coaching staff, however, has “dug deep into North Carolina,” Gard said.
*UNC plays four bigs in the post and it’s clearly the Tar Heels’ strength, so do the Heels compare to anyone the Badgers play in the Big Ten?
“I don’t know if it’s a whole lot different, obviously their numbers jump out in terms of offensive rebounding,” Gard said. “I think they get 41 percent of their misses is what I was told today, 10 percent of their points come on put backs. We see teams that are like that in Iowa gets on the glass pretty well, Michigan State has done that in the past and gotten on the glass pretty well.
“There’s some similar tendencies and traits to teams we see in our league as well in terms of transition, making sure we’re getting guys back, making sure we’re getting our defense set, and obviously the ability to minimize second chance opportunities.”
*Roy Williams is 29-0 in first-round NCAA Tournament games, and while his teams have been heavily favored in many of those games, they haven’t always been. What does that speak to in Gard’s mind about how he gets his teams prepared for NCAA Tournament games?
“Well one, he’s had really good teams, whether he’s been at Kansas or at North Carolina,” Gard said. “So that’s part of it. And obviously he’s a Hall of Fame coach, Has he won 900 yet or is he still in the 800s? (he’s in the 900s). So he’s been doing it for a long time, and obviously has had tremendous success at both places.
“I think it’s a combination. I think it’s always having good teams but also him doing a good job of preparing them and putting them in that position.”
*UNC goes 10 deep in its rotation, so how does Gard prepare to face a team that plays a lot of players, each of whom can be effective?
“We’ve seen other teams that go deep,” Gard said. “Iowa played 11 or 12 before Jack Dunge got hurt. It probably helps you in a position of playing that second game, you know if the winner advances, the team with more depth advances with a one-day turnaround, maybe it helps you in that regard. It helps you in terms of foul situations.
“So, every program every year is a little different. There’s some years we’ve played seven, there’s some years we’ve played nine. This year, I’m kind of with eight just based on where this group has grown to.
“I think he’s got a mix of younger guys and older guys and four post players. I know (Walker) Kessler’s playing better here lately and come on. I think it gives him a lot of options.”
