Greg Gard was pleased with the progress his Badger team is making in the early stages of this new season. It's a team that replaced three starters and basically the entire bench. It's taken time for the chemistry to gel, the defense and offense to get in rhythm, and know their roles. While that is still a work in progress, in the post-game press conference, Gard said he likes the progress there.
However, there was one thing that stuck out to him about this game versus Northern Illinois: fouls. He was frustrated by all the fouls his team was committing. The Badgers committed 23 team fouls in the last game against Campbell; it was only 16.
This is a product from high-intensity defense, but the trade-off is a little bit too handsy, or in the wrong position, or reaching when you don't or shouldn't.
Greg Gard only gave one player an excuse to have that many fouls
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Gard gave one player a free pass on the fouls, and that was Will Garlock. Not because they were undeserving fouls but because he said, "that's the only way he will learn." Which means as a true freshman, Gard needs him to learn how to defend in the college game without fouling. Garlock had four fouls in the game.
The other players with four fouls were Jack Janicki and Andrew Rohde. John Blackwell had three. The rest was a hodgepodge of the rest of the team. Braeden Carrington was the only player to play more than 10 minutes without committing a foul.
The foul trouble did give Aleksaus Bieliauskas more minutes than maybe he would have, and Gard said that actually helped Bieliauskas get into a rhythm, which was good for him as he's growing into his college game.
For Gard, the fouls will be cleaned up, and it's a teaching moment for this team. So while he loved the intensity of the team, it's time to tighten up the defense even more by not fouling.