Â
BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — There were no known representatives from Major League Eating or the International Federation of Competitive Eating on the premises of the restaurant, a popular hang-out in downtown Bloomington, Indiana, a three-minute walk from the team hotel. But an "eating" record was set Monday night.
For the first time in at least two decades, maybe longer, maybe dating well back into the Dick Bennett era of Wisconsin basketball, the UW players and coaches ate together the night before a road game at a local dining establishment rather than the customary team meal at the hotel. For the record, the Badgers are now 1-0 when doing so under head coach Greg Gard.
"It must have been the trick," Nigel Hayes rationalized, "because I had never won in Indiana."
The fact that Wisconsin extended its winning streak to nine straight games Tuesday night with a 75-68 win over the Hoosiers at Assembly Hall left Indiana coach Tom Crean with a bad case of indigestion. He has not only lost three in a row this season, but 14 out of the last 16 to the Badgers. How long has Gard been cooking this up? Eating together as a team, that is.
"I looked at doing it last year," said Gard, who took over as the interim head coach in mid-December after Bo Ryan's retirement. "But everything was set in place before the season. There was no flexibility, no options. Everything was booked and reserved and the meals were contracted."
But he kept the idea on the front burner. "I just thought it would be a good learning experience for the players in terms of a different etiquette, a restaurant etiquette," said Gard, who had another motive in mind, too, a more appetizing and lasting one. "Team building."
Before the players departed for the restaurant, they had to place their cell phones in a bucket.
"Myself included," Gard said. "It's amazing what that does when you take away the phones."
The objective was obvious.
"It was good to have actual conversation and person-to-person interactions," Gard said. "I watched the table that they were all sitting around and nobody appeared to be going into any type of withdrawals without their phone. Including me. They all turned into chatterboxes."
Hayes knew exactly what Gard was up to. "I'm sure he did it to maybe get us to talk to each other," he said. "But we talk a lot. We definitely enjoy each other's company and presence. We can survive without our phones. We don't need them to live."
There was an adjustment, if not culture shock, for senior Bronson Koenig. "I know everyone, myself included, checked our pockets a few times to get our phones out but they weren't there," he said. "I enjoyed it a lot — just getting out of our hotel and doing a little team bonding without phones."
Whereas many Big Ten basketball coaches have dined with their teams at Madison restaurants the night before playing the Badgers — Bob Knight favored Smoky's — Ryan never saw any benefits in doing it. Bennett's teams would sometimes go out for dinner, but he would often eat in his hotel room.
In many cases, it's cheaper dining out. Win a game against a tough foe and it can be priceless.
"It's just something a little different," said Gard, who's willing to think outside the box if it produces a positive result. "We may do it again down the road if it works in terms of the city, the restaurant, the timing of everything. It has to fit the schedule. But I thought it was good."
The Badgers have been one of the better road teams in college basketball. What's the recipe? "You have to make sure to adhere to the things that make you good no matter where you play," Gard said. "For us, it's taking care of the ball, getting good shots, transition defense.
"Sometimes, I think the venue or the location is given more credit than necessary because it's really what you need to do on the floor. Really good teams don't change or change very little no matter where they're playing. They stick to the things that make them good. We've stuck to simple things."
Gard wants a clear picture of the team's goals, not a fuzzy one.
"It's part of not over-complicating road trips," said Gard, who was asked about back-to-back trips to Indiana and Purdue, two of the Big Ten's toughest venues. "We just lock in on one opponent and prepare for that one and when that one is over, you shut the book on them and move on to the next."
The Badgers will play the Boilermakers on Sunday in West Lafayette.
"Anytime you get tested by very good teams — home, road, neutral court — you're going to learn some things," said Gard. "On some, you'll say, 'Yeah, we did pretty well on this and it really helped us.' On other things, it'll be, 'Hey, we've got to get better at this.'"
Gard broke it down further, "Take the result. Learn. Continue to grow."
It was offered as food for thought.
