Setting the tempo
December 23, 2015 | Men's Basketball, Mike Lucas
Gard's first assignment includes slowing one of nation's fastest teams in Green Bay
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BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — On Monday and Tuesday, Greg Gard wore his wrist watch during practice. He had never done that before as an assistant under Bo Ryan.
Time, obviously, is of the essence for Wisconsin's interim head coach.
But it goes beyond that. Gard wants to stick to a practice schedule. To this end, staff members get a daily 6-by-4-inch card breaking down each segment from the opening to the closing stretch.
It's a minor thing. And it's not a ''change" as much as it is an "addition'' to Gard's thinking, especially since it's human nature for people to struggle at the mere mention of the word … change.
So he's not talking about making changes – even though some have been inevitable.
Last week, for example, it dawned on Gard that he can't be in two places at once.
On Wednesday, he met with assistants Gary Close and Lamont Paris. (This was prior to the hiring and arrival of Howard Moore who will take over as the third assistant on the coaching staff.)
"All right, I'll take Green Bay," Gard advised them, "since I was going to have them anyway."
Under Ryan, they shared the game-to-game task of compiling the scouting report on an opponent which put one of them in charge of the scout team during practice.
Gard was up in the rotation – he was responsible for the next opponent, Green Bay – leaving Purdue for Close and Rutgers for Paris. But there was one catch that had temporarily escaped him.
"I went home that night (last Wednesday) and I started watching Green Bay and then I watched our game from the night before (against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi)," he recounted.
"I was looking at things and, all of a sudden, it hit me, 'Hold on. I can't coach the scout team, I've got to be over on the other side (with the starters and top reserves).'"
The next day, Gard brought it to the attention of Paris.
"I thought about that, too," Paris told him. "I was wondering how you were going to do both."
"So I'm not doing both," Gard responded with a laugh. "You've got Green Bay."
During his Monday radio show, he was still chuckling at the recollection of that exchange.
He also cracked that the schedule-maker didn't do him or his inexperienced team any favors since Green Bay has more of a veteran flavor with two seniors and two juniors in the starting lineup.
"I've got to have a conversation with that guy," Gard said.
Of course, he is THAT guy; the schedule-maker for Ryan.
When it was noted that Green Bay is going through its own coaching transition from Brian Wardle, now at Bradley, to Linc Darner, formerly of Florida Southern, Gard pointed to the time line.
Darner was hired in April.
"He's got about eight months on me," Gard said, "and a lot of practices."
Nonetheless, Gard couldn't be more excited about Wednesday night's game against Green Bay at the Kohl Center. Or more grateful for the support that he has received from everybody around him.
"Not that our transition is so enormous," Gard said. "It's just that everything is a little different. There's a new voice; there's a new way of doing things – a little bit.
"A lot of the things are the same – 98 percent of the things are the same – 2 percent of the things have maybe a different twist on them or emphasis."
Green Bay, by contrast, has changed its system and personality under the 45-year-old Darner whose Florida Southern team went 36-1 and won the Division II national championship last season.
"When I started watching film on them," Gard said, "I thought I was watching some of our Platteville teams with the one-and-done (full-court pressure and trap).
"Or maybe it was Iowa when Tom Davis was there (with his patented frenetic style). They'll move out of it (pressure) a little bit and they'll come back and get you again. They're relentless."
So much so that Darner, a former Purdue team captain, has copyrighted "RP40" which is worn on the team's practice jerseys. It stands for "Relentless Pressure for 40 Minutes."
Only West Virginia is averaging more steals per game than the Phoenix (11.3).
"VCU didn't come with the helter-skelter approach that they will come with," Gard said. "They'll give up some things just to create things back for themselves."
With its pressure defense, Green Bay has forced 20 or more turnovers in half of its games, including a season-high 27 (on 22 steals) in a 108-57 win against overmatched UW-Superior.
On offense, the Phoenix are averaging 85.4 points per game. Their average time of possession is 13.6 seconds. Every player on the roster has already posted a new career high in scoring.
"They're playing so much faster," Gard said. "They're playing with less sets and so much more reaction. They'll run faster off a made basket than they will off a miss. There's never a lull."
One of the offensive sparks has been senior point guard Carrington Love, who's averaging 18.8 points. Five times, he has scored over 20, including 32 against Stanford and 29 against Pacific.
The 6-1, 171-pound Love, a Milwaukee Pius product, is tied for 7th in the country with 2.80 steals per game. He had a high of five against Duluth and four on four separate occasions.
Jordan Fouse, a 6-7, 225-pound senior from Racine St. Catherines, has matched Love in steals with 28 through 10 games. Fouse is averaging 11.3 points and 9.5 rebounds.
In addition, Fouse is the only player in the NCAA this year to have two games of 15-plus points, 10-plus rebounds and 5-plus steals which he accomplished against East Tennessee State and Toledo.
Junior college transfer Charles Cooper is also averaging 11.3 points. Â Balanced scoring has been the key. Three times, the Phoenix have had five players score 10 or more points in a game.
That's impressive considering the graduation losses of Keifer Sykes and Greg Mays. In last year's 84-60 loss to Wisconsin, Sykes had 20 points and Mays had eight. Nobody else had more than six.
The Phoenix had no answer for the UW's frontline of Nigel Hayes, Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker. Together, they combined for 64 points, 30 rebounds and eight blocks.
"We have to stay under control and make sure we dictate tempo as much as possible," Gard said of this season's matchup. "That's the battle – the game within the game.
"We have to make sure that we don't get sped up at times when we don't need to be sped up. When there are avenues to take advantage of numbers then we have to do it.
"But making them have to play a little more at our pace is more advantageous than how fast we can go down to the other end."
After losing the first three games of the season to Stanford, East Tennessee and Georgia Tech, the Phoenix have won six of the last seven, the only loss coming on a buzzer-beater to Toledo.
Green Bay's aggressiveness has resulted in more possessions and free throws. The Phoenix are averaging 31.1 attempts. But they're only shooting 62 percent. They've twice missed 17 free throws.
On the brink of entering Big Ten play, Gard knows the Green Bay game can be a tone-setter.
"We absolutely have to be better defensively," he said. "I think the numbers show that at times we've been very good in terms of points per possession. But we haven't been consistent enough.
"We've given up key baskets at times when we really need stops."
Gard is looking for more consistency on offense, too.
"We have to be better making decisions," he said. "We have to be better in shot selection and moving away from the ball. Everything needs to be ratcheted up."
And everything will be – for a variety of reasons – starting Wednesday.
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