OT: Secret Recording of Wisconsin Basketball Team Meeting Reveals Rift Between Coach Gard and Wisconsin Seniors
This is a bad look for Gard and Wisconsin's basketball program
Anyone there that can play DT?
Potter called out Gard for not having players’ backs, specifically Davison’s. Players — and some fans — felt Davison was being treated unfairly by Big Ten officials.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Maybe, like, stop nut-punching your opponents and you’ll get treated better.
I mean, that whole situation sounds like a tire fire, but that anecdote reaaaaalllly stood out from the rest. Like, poor little Brad was getting railroaded by the officials because his coach didn’t have his back? It had nothing to do with his well established pattern of dong punching?
I’ve been operating under the theory that Davison is a eunuch and has been traveling around the country looking for a pair of balls to steal for himself. Kinda like kicking the tires before you buy the car.
Lol isn't Davison the only one returning too- like I get that he's not going pro, but he's the one that's not upset enough by this rift.
And I viscerally remember Gard calling Davison Wisconsin's "Captain America" after he returned from one of his punching suspensions and helped will them to victory or whatever.
I remember Gard practically crying in a post-game interview about how poorly Davison was treated. I don’t remember the timing of it. I’ll just assume it was after this meeting with the players.
It was after this meeting.
Pretty shitty thing to release to the public. I’m sure many programs have difficult periods and rifts between the players and the coaches that are best kept behind closed doors. Whoever recorded and leaked this is petty af.
Agree. Very petty. Unfortunately becoming more common.
Stabbing people in the back by releasing recordings or transcripts is a time-honored tradition. It's just getting easier.
Like back in the day, some caveman name Rrg carved "Grug said your mother is stinky" on a stone slab and gave it to Ungh because Grug stole Rrg's woolly mammoth steak.
Since you called the cavemen Rrg and Grug, here’s a random fact... In 1982, a Far Side comic (Gary Larson) depicted a caveman symposium where one caveman was explaining to the audience the features of a stegosaurus. He was pointing at the tail with three huge spikes in it and says, “This we call the Thagomizer, after the late Thag Simmons.” Shortly thereafter, paleontologists - who had never actually named the tail of the stegosaurus - started called it the Thagomizer. To this day, it remains the accepted term.
I agree...this is some bullshit.
Similarly the ASU story broke because a coach that quit and took a job somewhere else leaked that they had been hosting recruits during the dead period. All because he was passed over for a job.
While the stories are similar in that information was leaked, the similarities end there.
This Wisconsin situation comes off as petty in trying to get back at a coach for not being "likeable" enough. Gard isn't being accused of doing anything wrong (cheating) or illegal (abuse). It was also a private team meeting that was secretly recorded (illegal in some states), then leaked, by a either a former player or disgruntled former employee (rumored former intern that was passed over for an assistant coaching job). These kinds of interactions and meetings happen ALL THE TIME in college and professional sports.
On the other hand, ASU was exposed for blatantly cheating, and all during a global pandemic. Also, it wasn't leaked by someone passed over for a job. It was leaked by a former employee who left because they didn't want to be part of the toxic/cheating inner circle that Antonio Pierce had created at ASU.
Wisconsin is a one-party consent state so it wasn't illegal to secretly record, but otherwise agree with your comments.
Sparty fans were annoyed by Dantonio's refusal to fire any assistants, assuming it was out of loyalty. A more likely explanation is his fear of someone revealing some of the shenanigans like what this fired ASU assistant did.
Maybe, but Dantonio screwed his assistants far worse by quitting in February than he would have by firing them after the season.
Would almost guarantee it was Micah Potter. That kid is such a bitch!
I bet it was either him or Reuvers. Neither one got the minutes they probably felt they deserved. And instead of complaining about their own lack of PT, they couch it as some weird defense of Brad Davison, because he’s beloved by the badger faithful because he’s scrappy.
...he’s beloved by the badger faithful because he’s "scrappy". - FIFY
...he's beloved by the badger faithful because he's "crappy". FIFY
When you are winning, everything is great.
When you struggle, you hear about these locker room divides.
In the article, it's said that Gard was crying and told them it's his fault. Seems like he does care, but something went wrong during the year.
I just think its a bad look this came out in general; I don't think it's a bad look for any person in the situation- just sounds like players frustrated and there being communication issues.
The recording cuts off after each of the seven players have addressed Gard at least once. What followed, according to multiple people in the room, was a dialogue between players and coaches. Gard listened to the players vent without interrupting and addressed their concerns later in the meeting.
.....
The same player said he walked out of the room that day feeling as though something had been accomplished, that getting everything out in the open would help. He was impressed by the way Gard handled the situation.
“He sat there, he listened and there was not one dry eye in the entire room at the end of everything,” the player said. “The biggest thing that he did at the end was he apologized again and he was in tears and he said, ‘It’s not your fault, it’s my fault.’ ”
What's the issue here? This sounds like conflict resolution with the players doing a good job voicing their frustrations, and Gard responding to it. The only embarrassing thing here is the person responsible for leaking this.
I'd be sick of Gard too if I was an 8-year senior.
Honestly, reading the article Gard comes across fine in terms of responding to criticism. I imagine that if Izzo, for example, was confronted by his players he'd rag on them in the media for a while and not accept any blame. And I mean, one of the chief complaints they have is that Gard didn't have Brad Davison's "back" when it came to punishment from the league. Honestly, not blindly supporting Davison and his shitty tactics is one of the more commendable things Gard did last year, if true. And mind you, Davison is the only senior coming back next year for UW. So clearly that bridge isn't blown up.
I like that the players spoke up about their concerns but a lot of this read like a coach who didn't quite connect with his players and the team underperforming as well. Some of that falls on the coaches but some of that also falls on players who, by and large, regressed on the court this year. I do wonder how much this sounds like other "closed door" meetings you hear teams have that likely are just an airing of grievances.
Every locker room - winning or losing - goes through some version of this. But I'll sip from the frothy schadenfreude mug nonetheless.
En garde, Gard!
Biggest 'nothing to see here' story I've seen in awhile.
Juicy
Fuck Wisconsin basketball for all of eternity. I hope all the bad things in life happen to them and nobody else but them. All of their mamas' coats are made out of 100% rat ass.
HATE! HATE! HATE!
So Nate Reuvers shot 1 for a million from 3 because Gard didn’t support Davison’s nut punching sufficiently? Ok.
I've mentioned this before. I grew up with Potter's dad and around the entire Potter family. This behind-the-back level of stuff involving him surprises me in no way.
Seems like a nothing burger if you've ever been in a locker room. Whoever recorded and leaked this is pathetic.
Anybody else wanna hear a recording of a Michigan football team meeting?
Initially, hell no. On second thought. Yea. I kind of do. Have some of our players felt the same way as us or are we all taking crazy pills with regard to under-utilization. What can you offer up, tovarisch?!
Clearly the players are wondering why we don't run the plays advocated in Neck Sharpies and UFR
No thanks. Unless i can watch it instead of a game vs OSU?
D'Mitrik Trice came off like an asshole in that article, in my opinion.
I know he was the Badgers' leading scorer at 13.9 points-per-game, but if I were in Greg Gard's situation, I would have asked him to leave and not come back.
Davison as a coach?
Though it's very difficult to assess the character of a player on an opposing team, I find it even more difficult to envision trusting him to guide young men.
And most of those guys are older than Gard, so that made it even tougher.
The blame for this one goes to Bo Ryan. The way he cut and left midseason left Bucky with no alternative other Gard as the replacement. Ryan knew this and left midseason so they would go with Gard. He realized that an end of season retirement would have given them other options.