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If a campaign hasn’t started around Wisconsin basketball’s Greg Gard for national coach of the year, Frank Kaminsky is here to officially launch it.
Following the Badgers’ impressive 94-84 road victory over No. 7 Purdue on Saturday, the Wisconsin basketball legend tweeted that “Greg Gard should be the front runner for National Coach of the Year.”
Of course, Kaminsky might be a tad biased, as he indicated with his hashtag. But make no mistake, Gard has a candidacy.
There can’t be too many more deserving coaches out there with a few weeks left in the regular season. All Wisconsin (20-5 overall, 10-4 in the Big Ten) has done in 2024-25 is go from a team picked in the preseason tied for 12th in the 18-team Big Ten and unranked nationally to conference champion contender and ranked 11th in the country with their arrow trending up.
The NCAA Tournament selection committee also has Wisconsin with a No. 3 seed and 11th overall in its first release of the top 16 teams for March Madness.
Gard, who won his 200th career game as a head coach last month, has accomplished this with a team that came into the year with major question marks and when expectations at least outside the program were low. Wisconsin was replacing three starters, including its leading scorer to the transfer portal, and several others who left the program.
But Gard navigated the transfer waters and found a hidden gem in John Tonje, who’s tied for fourth in scoring in the Big Ten at 19.2 points, and he’s getting the most out of his players up and down the lineup. Wisconsin has also adapted its style of play. Gard’s Badgers can score with anyone. Their 81.7 points per game are fifth in the Big Ten and 28th nationally.
Kaminsky knows Gard well to vouch for him. Gard was the Badgers’ associate head coach under Bo Ryan when Kaminsky starred at UW for four years (2011-15).
And Kaminsky also knows a thing or two about national awards. He was a consensus national player of the year in the 2014-15 season when he led the Badgers to…
[ad_2]Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/wisconsin-basketball-legend-frank-kaminsky-221238166.html
Author : Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Publish date : 2025-02-17 22:12:00
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