Greg Gard decided to make a switch in his starting five, moving Austin Rapp to the bench and sliding true freshman Aleksas Bieliauskas into the vacated role. Rapp has been hot and cold all season, nowhere to be found against BYU, and then having a monster game against Providence, followed by another disappearance against TCU. Gard thought a shake-up might help Rapp and the team. And it immediately worked with a resounding first half.
"Austin’s got to get better. You know, there’s some things there and I thought we would be a little better physically and on the glass and defensively in the paint — and we were. And, you know, we just have to keep helping guys get better."Greg Gard
He said that Rapp responded to it well and went into attack mode as soon as he came in off the bench. He scored an immediate three, then got an assist the next time down the floor. He loved what he saw from Rapp, "He did a lot of good things. So that’s what we have to continue to build on and get more of that from him because obviously we all know he can shoot it. It’s the other things that I want to see him add to and improve in his game."
Helping Austin Rapp reset wasn't the only reason Greg Gard went with a different starting five
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However, that wasn't the only reason Gard said he went with the change. He also liked how Bieliauskas matched up to start the game, and it kept Nolan Winter at the four position, which helped Wisconsin both defensively and offensively. It's also a more natural position for Winter, as he played mostly that last season with Stephen Crowl operating out of the five.
There's one more reason he wanted to mix things up, "I think it gives us a scoring punch off the bench, which we haven’t had. I didn’t think we’ve had enough of it." He's spot on with that. The biggest concern for Wisconsin has been the depth of the bench. Not as much in terms of capable bodies but in terms of scoring threats.
There's literally no player on the bench known for scoring, and yet Rapp is, and Gard loves a weapon coming in off the bench. Having Kamari McGee as the first player off the bench last season was a blessing for Gard, and he's looking for that spark again.
Will he keep doing it? Gard isn't sure; he will review the tape, see if the matchup against Marquette dictates it, and go from there. One more note: while Rapp started on the bench, he played more minutes than Bieliauskas, and thus indicates that, in Gard's mind, it's still Rapp's job to lose.