The Wisconsin Badgers suffered their worst loss ever under head coach Greg Gard to the Nebraska Cornhuskers last night, 90-60. It was miserable in every single category, and Gard even said after that they "beat us in every way possible." It was a night to forget, but it won't be forgettable. In fact, Gard vows to make changes and make them immediately, even if it means benching players.
In his post-game remarks, he was as frustrated and short as he's ever been. He opened up with a quote that may send ripples through the rest of the season as he and his coaching staff figure out "who wants to play defense."
"We don't have a defensive identity. We haven't had one all year. So, we'll search to find one, and I'll find guys that want to play defense. [How?] Stick guys on the bench. We'll find out in the next nine days, right? We haven't had a defensive identity all year."Greg Gard
Greg Gard is scratching and clawing for his team to play consistent defense
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When asked if any of the game featured the defense he was hoping to see, he immediately said they didn't play well for the entire 40 minutes, but quickly changed his mind. He said that the game started with defense, and then it just stopped. He wants to watch the film to see exactly where, but he's frustrated that they just lost the fundamentals so early.
He then said, at the end, there was some defense too (when he had the bench in). The only player he would even admit was doing what he was supposed to be doing defensively was true freshman Hayden Jones, who's averaging six minutes a game.
Gard has already proven he will bench star players to get more toughness, when he benched Austin Rapp for Aleksas Bieliauskas. Could we see Jones in the starting lineup against Villanova, or will the next nine days allow other players to pick up the challenge? That's ultimately Gard's goal, but he won't be scared to bench players to get the defensive identity he wants to see from Wisconsin.