Wisconsin

Wisco Wednesday: Fire Gard – Part Two

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Before we get into basketball talk, congratulations to the Badger Women’s Hockey team for winning the national title this past Sunday. If you haven’t seen Kirsten Simms’ two goals to win the game, go find the highlight. It might just wash a little bit of Saturday night’s loss away.

For starters, I am still in the camp that we should keep Greg Gard. While we had another disappointing exit in the tournament, Gard accomplished a complete 180 in Wisconsin’s identity in one season. In a season picked to finish 12th in the Big Ten, his team was able to grab a 3 seed in the tournament. The question is, will he be able to replicate a quick turnaround for next season? We will be losing 63% of our total minutes just to seniors graduating. Comments from Blackwell and Winter indicate that they will be staying in Wisconsin, but after them, it’s a whole lot of inexperience. If Greg Gard can hit it out of the park with the transfer portal once again, expect another season that crushes preseason expectations.

But at what point does regular season success translate to postseason success? Wisconsin hasn’t made the Sweet Sixteen since 2017, only …

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Walk on Fan’s Big Ten Tournament Preview

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The regular season is over! Congratulations to Michigan State on winning the Big Ten regular season title. Now, let’s move on to the postseason and see where the whole Big Ten stands going into Wednesday’s games and what my picks are for the tournament. Well, not the whole Big Ten. Sorry to Nebraska, Penn State, and Washington. There’s always next year.

Game 1: Northwestern (+27,000 to win the Big Ten) vs Minnesota (+27,000)

This is the first of two games not to feature a team that could make the NCAA tournament without winning the conference tournament. Don’t expect an NC State run from either of these teams. Northwestern is favored and leads Minnesota in most metric-based standings. However, Minnesota has seven Quad 1 wins compared to Northwestern’s 3. I would pick Minnesota (+120) here.

Game 2: Iowa (+30,000) vs Ohio State (+5,000)

Ohio State really needs to win this game even to have a chance at making the NCAA tournament. Iowa has had a very disappointing season, and I don’t see that changing. The only win of note they had in the Big Ten was against Indiana. Back when they were floundering. I am going to side with Ohio State …

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We have a new number one! Walk on Fan’s March 10th Bracket Update

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1 Seeds:

Duke (2-0), Auburn (0-2), Houston (2-0), Florida (2-0)

2 Seeds:

Tennessee (1-1), Michigan State (2-0), St. Johns (2-0), Alabama (1-1)

It turns out that Auburn is mortal, after all. Losing twice in one week only drops them to number two overall, with how stacked their resume is at the moment. Duke benefits from the dip and is currently sitting as the number one overall seed. The rest of the one and two seeds are sitting relatively comfortable going into the conference tournaments. Even if there are upsets, expect these teams to stay steady.

3 Seeds:

Texas Tech (2-0), Iowa State (1-1), Maryland (2-0), Clemson (2-0)

4 Seeds:

Wisconsin (1-1), Texas A&M (2-0), Purdue (1-1), Kentucky (2-0)

Wisconsin losing to Penn State sucks. Obviously, there were concerns with fouls and injuries related to the game, but that shouldn’t be an excuse to lose to a Big Ten team that didn’t even make the conference tournament. Greg Gard better hope his team can rebound in the postseason, otherwise, we might be hearing some “Fire Gard” chants coming soon. Elsewhere, Maryland and Clemson are two hot teams going into their respective tournaments and could move up with a good showing. Texas …

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Top Four Shake-Up: Walk on Fan’s March 3rd Bracket Update

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1 Seeds:

Auburn (2-0), Duke (2-0), Houston (2-0), Tennessee (2-0)

2 Seeds:

Florida (1-1), Michigan State (2-0), St. Johns (2-0), Alabama (1-1)

Finally! A shake-up in the top four seeds. Florida lost an easily winnable game against Georgia, moving them down to a two seed. Tennessee’s buzzer-beater against Alabama moves them up to the one seed line. Otherwise, Auburn, Duke, Houston, Michigan State, and St. John’s had great weeks. The field is starting to get finalized, so expect little movement from here on out.

3 Seeds:

Texas Tech (1-1), Wisconsin (1-1), Iowa State (1-1), Michigan (1-1)

4 Seeds:

 Maryland (1-1), Clemson (2-0), Texas A&M (0-2), Purdue (1-0)

The three seed line had little movement, with all four projected teams going 1-1 with no real outliers. Michigan’s buzzer beater against Maryland moves them up even though they lost to Illinois. Clemson is hot, while Texas A&M is in freefall. Purdue finally stopped their skid, notching a solid win against UCLA. If there is any volatility from this grouping going forward, it’ll be from the conference tournaments that start next week.

5 Seeds:

Kentucky (1-1), Mizzou (1-1), Marquette (2-0), St. Marys (2-0)

6 Seeds:

Arizona (1-1), Louisville (2-0), Kansas (1-1), Oregon (1-0)

…

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Wisco Wednesday: Welcome to the Jack Janicki Fan Club

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Jack Janicki turned down offers from other schools to be a walk-on at Wisconsin. This season, he has been a spark plug off the bench, playing key minutes in big victories.

Two years ago, Jack Janicki turned down offers from Wake Forest, Loyola Chicago, Colorado State, Harvard, and others to walk on at Wisconsin. He came here as a preferred walk-on with the assumption that he would be able to play for a scholarship and work his way onto the court. His freshman year resulted in a redshirt after never seeing the court last year. This year has been a different story. Starting with the Arizona game, he has been a spark plug off the bench, playing key minutes in big victories. His presence isn’t always reflected in the stat line due to his limited use as Wisconsin’s 9th man at the moment. But once you start digging into his statistics, that narrative begins to shift.

Starting right off the bat, we have to look at the per-minute stats to compare with the rest of the roster. Janicki is averaging .037 steals per minute played. For comparison, John Blackwell leads the starters with .030 steals per minute. Janicki has .020 …

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Wisconsin might not be good: Walk on Fan’s February 24th Bracket Update

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1 Seeds:

Auburn (2-0), Duke (2-0), Florida (2-0), Houston (2-0)

2 Seeds:

Tennessee (1-0), Alabama (1-1), St Johns (2-0), Michigan St (2-0)

Auburn, Duke, Florida, and Houston together went 8-0 and outscored their opponents by 145 points. The teams they beat? 5 of them are teams currently in the tournament or on the bubble. At this point, the top four teams in the country have quite a large cushion after Alabama had a 1-1 week. St Johns and Michigan St are both riding hot weeks and upsets to move up the bracket seed line.

3 Seeds:

Texas Tech (1-1), Wisconsin (1-1), Iowa State (1-1), Texas A&M (0-2)

4 Seeds:

Michigan (0-1), Kentucky (1-1), Maryland (1-0), Mizzou (1-1)

I might have jumped the gun a tiny bit when it comes to Wisconsin. A pitiful loss to Oregon drops them only one seed thanks to a beat down of Illinois early in the week. Texas Tech and Iowa State sink a little bit after 1-1 weeks while Texas A&M is teetering on becoming a 4 seed after a rough week. Kentucky and Maryland did what they were supposed to do this week while Mizzou did just the opposite. An upset of Alabama …

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Wisco Wednesday: To Fire or Not to Fire – The Greg Gard Experience

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Part 1

Wisconsin Basketball has been one of the most consistent programs in the past 3 decades. With 3 different head coaches, Wisconsin has been to all but 3 March Madness tournaments since 1997 (not counting 2020). In that same time frame, Wisconsin has won 6 Big Ten regular season titles, 3 Big Ten tournament titles, been to 3 Final Fours, and almost a national title (Winslow touched it). Dick Bennet and Bo Ryan account for all the Final Fours, all the Big Ten tournament titles, and 4 of the regular season titles while only accounting for one of the missed March Madness tournaments (1998). Greg Gard accounts for only 2 Big Ten regular season titles with 2 missed March Madness tournaments and quite a few early exits. That brings me to the subject of today’s Wisco Wednesday: “Fire Gard”, a phrase I have heard from many Wisconsin faithful. Originally, this article was going to assess the merits of the Fire Gard crowd. But after last night’s win against Illinois, I think it’s best to start with why Greg Gard deserves to stay as Wisconsin’s head coach going forward.

Before we go into Greg Gard’s recent success, let’s start with …

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Is Wisconsin good? Walk on Fan’s February 17th Bracket Update

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1 Seeds:

Auburn (2-0), Duke (2-0), Florida (2-0), Houston (2-0)

2 Seeds:

Alabama (1-1), Tennessee (1-1), Wisconsin (1-0), Texas Tech (2-0)

How about that Wisconsin offense? Pretty damn good right? Wisconsin proved they belong at the top of the Big Ten with a trouncing at Purdue without their best bench player. Unfortunately, the best in the Big Ten is still worse than the top four SEC teams. As a whole, the SEC might be .500 in conference play, but an upper echelon has separated themselves from the pack. Auburn is hands down the best basketball team in the country while Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee are fighting for second. Duke had a rebound week much to my chagrin. And I am still high on Houston after an impressive win at Arizona. I expect them to win out while the SEC will stack a couple of losses, pushing Houston up from the 8 the NCAA Basketball Committee put them at.

** As a side note, I am nervous about Wisconsin going into this week. Greg Gard has had teams this well-regarded before, only to collapse at the end of the season. Please god let this team be different **

3 Seeds:

Texas

…

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Wisco Wednesday: Breaking Down Wisconsin’s High-Flying Offense

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Before the 2024/25 basketball season, what word would you use to describe Wisconsin Basketball?

Gritty? Tough? Controlling? Simple? Slow? Anything that describes a dominant defense and a slow-paced offense that runs the swing offense to perfection would work. Dick Bennet, Bo Ryan, and Greg Gard made Wisconsin a defensive powerhouse that could reliably win games as long as they scored 60 points. And that’s what they did. Since the 1995/96 season, Wisconsin has averaged 64.7 points a game. That includes Dick Bennet’s 2000 Final Four team that averaged 59.9 points a game. Wisconsin’s best offense during that time frame was last year at 74.7 points a game. Wisconsin’s second-best offense was Bo Ryan’s first Final Four team at 73.5 points a game. This year’s team? 81 points a game. A far cry from Bo Ryan’s 300th win, a 48 – 38 slugfest against Virginia. 

Why the change?

Why is this team scoring a historic amount? Simple, Greg Gard had to change things up to not lose his job. After multiple seasons where Wisconsin stalled out and ran simple offenses that were easily exploitable, Gard modernized his offense to be highly efficient. According to Ken Pom’s offensive efficiency rating, Wisconsin has …

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Welcome to Chaos: Walk On Fan’s First Bracket for 2025

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1 Seeds:

Auburn, Houston, Florida, Tennessee

2 Seeds:

Duke, Purdue, Alabama, St. Johns

All right, this is the first article I’m writing. Ever. It was supposed to be easy. Then Auburn and Duke lost. Am I biased in dropping Duke to a 2 line? Probably, but the ACC is severely underperforming while the SEC has too many contenders to count. Nothing pains me more than having 3 SEC teams in the top 4, but until they’re proven otherwise, they stay there. Houston is the only team I can currently see competing with the SEC. My one hot take here is I believe Pitino and St John’s will not lose another game before tourney season.

3 Seeds:

Texas Tech, Kansas, Illinois, Texas A&M

4 Seeds:

 Arizona, Mich State, Wisconsin, Iowa St

Now back to some more chaos. Kansas lost a terrible game while both Texas teams were uninspiring in the past week. Out of this grouping, the Big Ten reigns supreme. I hate putting Arizona higher than Wisconsin, but they keep winning in a tough conference. As an aside, I’ll give my full opinion on Wisconsin on Wednesday. 

5 Seeds:

Maryland, Gonzaga, Louisville, Kentucky

6 Seeds:

Michigan, Ole Miss, Marquette, Clemson

…

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