The Wisconsin Badgers have a formula that has worked for an awful long time in both football and basketball, and Coach Greg Gard's 2024 crew has what it takes to show it off at the Big Ten Tournament in Minneapolis next month.
All has not been well for Wisconsin lately as Coach Gard went off on his team for lack of physicality vs. the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. An upset loss to Penn State last month was yet another opportunity for the veteran Badgers coach to vent his frustration with how the team's development has gone.
The Badgers are ranked third in the Big Ten but are considered a longshot to make a deep run in the Big Dance and unlikely to win the Big Ten Tournament.
Here are three reasons why it's premature to count the Wisconsin basketball team out.
1. Veteran Leadership-
Gard is one of the most successful, steady and dependable basketball coaches in Wisconsin basketball history. He coached under Bo Ryan and has experience coaching in the Final Four and in a National Championship Game. The Wisconsin basketball program has been in good hands for years because of Gard and his predecessors and this postseason should be no different.
Gard doesn't get the same type of headlines that big name coaches like Tom Izzo and Juwan Howard do, but he has quietly led Wisconsin basketball to an 18-9 record this season.
Keeping players in the program and developing them over the years is part of Gard's strategy and his team has excelled in that area in 2023-2024.
Sophomore AJ Storr leads Wisconsin basketball in scoring this season but he's flanked by juniors and seniors including Max Klesmit, Steven Crowl, Tyler Wahl and Chucky Hepburn.
Wisconsin wins basketball games by doing the little things like setting screens, moving their feet on defense, taking charges and rebounding. These elements make them a tough out each March and should allow them to go deep in the Big Ten Tournament.
2. AJ Storr-
The 6-foot-7, 205 pound St. John's University transfer from Rockford, Illinois gives Wisconsin basketball a bona fide go-to guy who can get tough baskets when the going gets rough.
Storr is averaging better than 16 points per game this season as a sophomore. He is shooting just 43 percent from the field but is also a solid rebounder and a high volume free throw shooter who makes over 81 percent of his shots from the charity stripe.
Storr's presence as the undisputed top scorer gives Gard's team an identity and a go-to guy in key moments.
3. Defense-
Gard's team ranks fourth in the Big Ten in defense and it has taken a total team effort so far.
No player on Wisconsin basketball currently averages more than 0.6 blocks per game. Hepburn averages two steals per game, which is emblematic of his commitment to playing defense first.
Wisconsin has several players who sacrifice their individual stats for the good of the team, and that's not something that can be said about every contender for the 2024 Big Ten Tournament Conference Championship.
In what is likely to be a hotly contested tournament with several bubble teams vying for spots in the Big Dance, Wisconsin basketball has a chance to show the benefits and possibilities of what can happen when a team of five individuals on the court plays united as one.
This is the area where Gard's Wisconsin basketball teams excel as well as any other in the Big Ten with the exception of the third-ranked Purdue Boilermakers, and it will be their bread and butter during the March tournament season en route to another successful spring.
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