Merry Christmas from Badger of Honor. To celebrate, we are doing a series of posts on what some of the Badger coaches want this Christmas. The links for Luke Fickell and Kelly Sheffield are below. For the other coaches, there are multiple things they want, but for Greg Gard, it's really just one thing. It's a major thing, but if he doesn't need new players, he mainly needs his current ones to play defense.
The consistent theme for Wisconsin basketball this year is a lack of defensive consistency and intensity. It's cost them every Quad-1 game they've played and even a Quad-2 game against TCU. Even though they had a great game against Central Michigan, Gard is hoping that wasn't fool's gold under the tree because Central Michigan is a NET 330 team.
Wisconsin saw a good game against Central Michigan but that could have been fools gold
Related: 3 Christmas gifts Luke Fickell is hoping to unwrap this year
Related: The 2 Christmas gifts that Kelly Sheffield would love to find under the tree
Can they play consistently with effort, poise, and togetherness when they have to see Purdue after New Year's? That will be the real test. Right now, they can beat Quad 3 and 4 teams; the talent is too high on the Badgers not to, but as soon as they get tested by another talented team, they wilt defensively.
Which means for Christmas, Greg Gard is hoping to open up one singular present under the tree, a consistent and tough defense. He's seen glimpses of it but hasn't seen it consistently.
He walked into this season hoping for a top-10 defense, but right now his squad is ranked 200+ on all the major defensive metrics. This is abysmal and needs to be fixed right away. The next game is also a Quad-4 game against a NET 209 team in Milwaukee. It's another opportunity to practice what is being talked about and instilled in them in practice before Purdue comes to tow,n and Gard can see if he opened the right present or not.