BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — After Saturday's second-half fireworks at Marquette, leading to the most points (93) scored by Wisconsin in the 123-game history of the rivalry, Greg Gard admitted what has become obvious the last 12 months and that is, "Our identity is different than it was maybe a year ago at this time."
Thursday will mark the one-year anniversary of Gard taking over the program. It followed Bo Ryan's retirement last December after a win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Wednesday, the Badgers will play Green Bay against whom Gard made his head coaching debut on Dec. 23, 2015.
Reflecting on the then and now, Gard conceded, "It has been a whirlwind." In retrospect, he knows that he couldn't have asked for more out of his players, assistants, family, friends, fans. He may also know that he couldn't have asked for more out of himself after losing his father, Glen, last October.
"It has all been very positive, it has been phenomenal, more than I could ever imagine," said the 46-year-old Gard, retracing some of the steps. "At that point of time (his promotion to interim head coach), it was kind of a bittersweet moment because my dad had passed away about a month prior.
"With all the dynamics that went into, and as the season went forward, and things kept coming together, there was nothing that came at me that I didn't anticipate or hadn't seen before. Bo (Ryan) did a terrific job of preparing me without me even knowing I was being prepared to take over."
Howard Moore remembered the "excitement" of returning to his alma mater as an assistant coach after Gard reached out to him to fill the vacancy on the staff just prior to the Green Bay game. Moore, who was working as an analyst for the Big Ten Network, remembered something else.
"I remember the excitement about finding a solution," Moore said. "When I came up here last year for the Western Illinois opener, I remember going into the locker room after the game (a 69-67 loss) and there was just an uncertainty about the team and so many question marks."
A year later, Moore noted, "There's a lot more confidence in who we are."
That was seconded by associate head coach Lamont Paris.
"There's more of a sense of calm and reassurance," said Paris, who feels like everyone has "settled" into their roles, players and coaches alike. "Maybe it's even an overall maturity and confidence in what we're doing just in that we've had a full year of doing this together."
There have been changes: tweaks to the offense — namely a renewed commitment to the swing — and the defense has seen the emergence from time to time of a zone. Gard has managed the minutes of starters and lengthened his bench, which paid off in the Marquette win when Ethan Happ got into foul trouble.
"The guys have gotten more comfortable with themselves," said senior Nigel Hayes. "We all know what our problem was early on last year — we were getting guys' feet wet and accustomed to the game. Now, with a year under our belt together as a team, we have done a lot better."
In general, Hayes feels the players have a "better feel for the game." Or as junior guard Jordan Hill says, "Everyone is a little more confident in themselves and each other as a team." That falls in line with what senior Bronson Koenig was saying, "We know what we want to do and what our identity is."
Gard couldn't agree more.
"We've developed an identity," he said. "A year ago, we didn't have one. It was a matter of trying to understand who we were at that point, who we needed to be and how we were going to get there. I didn't know how long it was going to take, but I knew we'd have to go through some adversity.
"It's really a credit to our players. As I've said several times, the locker room could have easily fragmented 17 different ways and everybody could have thrown in the towel and said, 'Not this year. Can't do it. Too many obstacles.' But they did a great job of rallying around each other.
"Once we started to establish an identity — knowing what makes us our best — things have continued to grow. You're always trying to cultivate a culture and you're always trying to make sure the culture is right. More than anything, you're making sure who we are stays true to form.
"You can never stamp it, 'Mission Accomplished.' It's ongoing, it's perpetual."
Still, there have been tangible signs of growth in several areas.
"We understand how important getting the ball inside is," Gard said. "Not that it has ever been a different requirement for our program. But you bring in new players every year that have to learn and build things on the fly. That's a very simple thing for us — how important it is to touch the paint."
A year ago, Marquette outscored Wisconsin, 36-16, in the paint with Henry Ellenson and Luke Fischer combining for 27 points. Last Saturday, the Badgers won that battle, 42-30. Granted, Ellenson is now collecting NBA paychecks. But Happ played fewer than two minutes in the first half because of fouls.
"We're way ahead with the swing and probably offensively overall from where we were last year at this time," Paris said. That was confirmed by Hayes who said, "We're improving. We're trusting one another to make the right cuts and the right reads."
The players are not as robotic with the actions and counters within the offense. They're more instinctive. "When it's more fluid, we do better," Hayes said. "Instead of connecting the dots to it (the swing), if you will, and making a move and thinking, 'Do we do this? Or do we do that?"'
"It was weird," said Hill, "because you know how people would always say, 'Wisconsin runs the swing.' Well, we didn't really run it the past three years to be honest. We had the (college basketball) player of the year (Frank Kaminsky), so we would just kind of throw it in there to him. "We still have a long way to go (with the swing offense) and there are a lot of places where we have to be more fluid with it. But, for the most part, I think we're a lot more comfortable."
Defensively, the Badgers have also shown growth. Besides utilizing a zone, and hard hedges on ball screens, they have more fully embraced a pack-line mentality in executing their team defense. "We've broken it down more and tried to show people where to be and why," Paris said.
A year ago, Marquette outscored Wisconsin, 17-2, in transition. Last Saturday, the Golden Eagles had a 19-14 edge in fast-break points, though the Badgers actually held the advantage, 12-10, for most of the second half or until the game lost all rhythm and flow because of fouls in the final minutes.
"Not that our defensive principles have changed a whole lot since coach Ryan has left," Hill said. "But we have done a lot more to lean on one another and trust our teammates. That has made a big difference. When we do what we're supposed to do, we tend to win.
"When we don't do what we're supposed to do, or we haven't done it as well as we should have, we tend to lose. Like we did against Creighton and North Carolina."
After Saturday's game, Gard addressed how and why this team is different from a year ago.
"We're older, we're more mature, we've been through a few things, we have some battle scars from last year and into this year and that helped," he said. "More so than looking back on last year's Marquette game and comparing, it's how our identity has grown as a team and what makes us good.
"We've had a lot of time together. From the time Coach Ryan retired last year and through that whole transition, we've had to grow through some things. The year before, we lost a lot of players off that Final Four team and it took awhile for us to really get our footing. It has just been a process.
"It's one thing I've always tried to emphasize with our guys, 'Just trust the process.' The results will be the by-product of doing things the right way, every day. That's what these guys do. They approach it the right way every day and treat every day for what it's worth and don't waste opportunities."
Gard, an avid reader, credited Alabama coach Nick Saban for opening his mind to new motivational ideas, especially regarding a Saban staple and that would be the "Process" — a core belief in focusing on the daily preparation and not the result.
Saban wrote the book on it, "How Good Do You Want to Be?"
Subtitle: "A Champion's tips on how to lead and succeed at work and in life."
Gard read the book and put it down. But after replacing Ryan, he read it again.
"When this transition took place, I went back to it and looked at some things," Gard said. "I needed some sticking points I felt we could build around or anything that would jog a thought. A couple of things I pulled from the book were perfectly appropriate for where we were at that point in time."
One of the lines that stuck him was the continuum of success is not guaranteed.
"Obviously, the newcomers had watched us go to two Final Fours and the returners had been to two Final Fours," he said. "But that doesn't automatically happen. You're not just going to wake up the next day and be in a third Final Four. There was a process that we had to go through.
"And, sometimes, that's a difficult process, a painful process."
Gard's favorite expression is really a command, "Trust the process."
"I did get that from Nick Saban," he said.
And Gard has passed it on to his players and coaches.
"It means everything that the coaches are putting in place, everything we work on every day, you have to take ownership of," said Moore, a former head coach at Illinois-Chicago. "When things don't go your way, that's when you have to fall back on your preparation.
"Trusting the process is trusting our system, trusting our coaches, trusting your teammates and trusting the work you put in as an individual to be a part of this team and make yourself better."
Trust the process?
"You have to take stuff day-to-day — nothing happens overnight," Hill said. "We have to do the little things each day and focus on them. Worry just about one day. After that one is done, let it go and worry about the next one and keep doing that. Usually good things tend to add up."
"As far as how trusting the process relates to us," said Hayes, turning serious. "It's just knowing that the things that you're doing are going to work if you do them with a purpose and for a reason so you can get a specific end result. Just make sure you stick to them.
"People before you have done whatever you're doing right now and it has worked for them. So, you have to continue to buy in and give it your all. You have to trust in one another and believe in the coaching staff, the system and your teammates, and things will work out."
A year later, they have. They have worked out. They have an identity.
