The other day, Frank Kaminsky posted on social media that Greg Gard should not only be in the discussion for Coach of the Year like Jeff Goodman mentioned, but he should be the frontrunner. John Blackwell decided to jump on the idea with a simple message - "100" in an emoji form, which is slang for saying 100%. He entirely agrees with Frank Kaminsky. From a former player to a current player, the hype behind Gard being in the discussion for Coach of the Year is heating up.
— John Blackwell (@_Johnblackwell1) February 15, 2025
John Blackwell agrees with Frank Kaminsky that Greg Gard should be the frontrunner for Coach of the Year
The talk started on Saturday with a huge Wisconsin victory over No. 7 Purdue in Mackey Arena. It was a game in which everyone was already writing the Badgers off, including College GameDay. To make matters worse, Kamari McGee was unjustifiably ejected from the game making the Badgers play short-handed. However, Wisconsin went on an epic second-half run, scoring 58 points. They were on fire and Purdue seemed to have no answers for the charge.
It was then that Jeff Goodman posted that Greg Gard should be in the running, and Frank Kaminsky shouted it out, and finally, Blackwell jumped on board, too. However, the start of the Gard discussion should go back further than a big Purdue win. It should go back to the rebuild of this team. Gard lost two stars in Chucky Hepburn and AJ Storr but added John Tonje and Xavier Amos. He developed his current team and somehow made this squad even better.
It could even go into the fact that this team was picked to finish 12th in the Big Ten by media members, and remarkably, they are within striking distance of the regular season conference champion trophy. That would be a remarkable turnaround, and a ton of credit needs to go to Gard.