Before we get into basketball talk, congratulations to the Badger Women’s Hockey team for winning the national title this past Sunday. If you haven’t seen Kirsten Simms’ two goals to win the game, go find the highlight. It might just wash a little bit of Saturday night’s loss away.

For starters, I am still in the camp that we should keep Greg Gard. While we had another disappointing exit in the tournament, Gard accomplished a complete 180 in Wisconsin’s identity in one season. In a season picked to finish 12th in the Big Ten, his team was able to grab a 3 seed in the tournament. The question is, will he be able to replicate a quick turnaround for next season? We will be losing 63% of our total minutes just to seniors graduating. Comments from Blackwell and Winter indicate that they will be staying in Wisconsin, but after them, it’s a whole lot of inexperience. If Greg Gard can hit it out of the park with the transfer portal once again, expect another season that crushes preseason expectations.

But at what point does regular season success translate to postseason success? Wisconsin hasn’t made the Sweet Sixteen since 2017, only missing the tournament twice in that span. For reference, only 6 of the teams that made this year’s Round of 32 haven’t made a Sweet Sixteen since 2017. I can’t even argue the Big Ten sucks because 8 Big Ten teams have made a Sweet Sixteen since 2017. It’s getting to the point where Greg Gard just can’t win in the tournament. What’s damning about this run of weak tournament performances is that all but one loss has been by a lower seeded opponent. In this run, Wisconsin has one win over a team seeded 12 or higher (and it was against an 8 in a 9-8 tossup match.) 

Now, there is an argument that Wisconsin got screwed in the seeding with having to play in Denver against a heavy BYU crowd and at altitude. Not to mention BYU was under seeded and was an extremely hot team. But who screwed Wisconsin? Wisconsin did of course! Wisconsin lost 3 of their last 5 games, ruining their seeding in the Big Ten tournament and consequently their seeding in the NCAA tournament. Honestly, the committee wouldn’t have looked harshly at losses to Michigan State and Oregon. Wisconsin just cannot lose to a bad Penn State team if they want any chance at a run in March. Greg Gard losing towards the end of the season isn’t just a this year thing. Since 2017, Wisconsin is 18 – 17 in the last 5 regular season games (not including 2020.) In comparison, Wisconsin is 61 – 42 in Big Ten play before the last 5 games. That is a 51.4% win rate compared to a 59.2% win rate. College Basketball is a game of momentum, and if Wisconsin can’t build momentum going into the postseason, then how can they expect to have momentum in the postseason? Just look at BYU to see what momentum can do for a team in March.

As a conclusion to this article, I just want to thank Wisconsin’s Seniors for a very fun, albeit heartbreaking season. Thank you John Tonje, Max Klesmit, Steven Crowl, Kamari McGee, Carter Gilmore, and Marcus Ilver. Hopefully, the young Badgers left can replicate Greg Gard’s vision for Wisconsin Basketball moving forward. If not, we might be looking for a new coach this time next year.

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This article was written by Jordan Longseth and edited by Hayden Breene.