How Greg Gard silenced his Wisconsin haters after slow start in season-opener

It indeed was a tale of two halves for the Wisconsin Badgers and head coach Greg Gard on Monday night in the season-opener. Wisconsin was able to post a dominant win, but they were actually down at halftime to Holy Cross. What the heck?

Not only that, but the Badgers were down 21-5 at one point, at home. It was an inexcusable start for the first game and people were livid with Gard. So much in fact, countless people on social media were even calling for him to be fired after the opening half.

However, as great coaches do, Gard made in-game adjustments and Wisconsin went on to dominate. They're 1-0 thanks to a strong performance from transfer John Tonje, while Gard also deserves a ton of credit for mixing things up.

Greg Gard deserves a ton of credit for Wisconsin's season-opening win

Thanks to 247's Evan Flood, he points out that despite being down 16 points early on in this contest, Wisconsin was able to outscore the Badgers 80-40 after that. Despite being down 36-35 at halftime, whatever Gard told his players in the locker room clearly worked.

"Obviously you guys watched the game, so I don't have to go into too much of the flow of it. But, I thought after the first half and those ten minutes or so, I thought defensively we were better. Kamari McGee was a big part of that, in terms of his ball pressure and ability to get through ball screens."

Greg Gard

After losing to James Madison in the first round of the NCAA Tournament last year, plenty of people were furious with Gard. Those same folks were probably letting him have it over how things got going vs. Holy Cross, as the play indeed was ugly.

However, after that, Gard was able to clean things up and his players delivered. We were able to see what this team is made of and there's reason to be excited about what's to come in 2024-25. Gard may have had people up in arms in the first half, but everyone was all smiles following the final whistle.