On the Stove Top: 4/9/10

Greg Gard is one of five official finalists for the UW-Green Bay head coaching position. The process is expected to drag into next week when a round of more formal interviews will take place on campus. Former Wisconsin interim head coach Brad Soderberg declined consideration.

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In a follow-up to Wednesday's post, day one at Portsmouth went pretty smoothly for Trevon Hughes. He led his team to a blowout victory with a well-rounded effort. Other Big Ten players in the tournament include DeShawn Sims and Lawrence Westbrook. Hughes goes up against Baylor's Tweety Carter as his team resumes play tonight.

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Draft Express was on the scene as the Nike Hoop Summit practices began and incoming UW recruit Duje Dukan got a shout out for his shooting prowess. While Dukan measured over 6'8" tall in shoes, I found it interesting that his wingspan was only 6'7". So despite his nice height as a shooting forward, Dukan is not necessarily "long" in the hoops sense.
[Saturday's results] [box score]

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The premature speculation toward next season ran rampant after Duke's win over Butler Monday night. More often than not, Wisconsin is again being overlooked. Here's just a sampling of early Top 25 lists for 2010-11 and where (if) the Badgers ranks ...

• NBC's Beyond the Arc: Not Considered
• CBS' Gary Parrish: #23
• FOX's Jeff Goodman: Among "More to Watch"
• ESPN's Andy Katz: Not even "On the cusp"
• SI's Luke Winn: #15
• Rush the Court: Just missed
• Rivals: Among "Others considered"
• Online Sport Fanatic: #18
• CollegeHoops.net: #21

Keep in mind these lists hang in varying degrees of accuracy due to the stream of NBA early entrant announcements. The Sporting News keeps a nice up-to-date list of those players.

Head Coaching Candidate Greg Gard

With Tod Kowalczyk's departure to Toledo, Wisconsin assistant Greg Gard has become a prominent name in discussions regarding UW-Green Bay's coaching search. And reportedly Bo Ryan felt the need to vouch for Gard's candidacy personally by placing a call to Green Bay's A.D. Ken Bothof.

In the summer of 2008 when Gard earned a promotion to associate head coach, a common assumption was that Bo was taking another step to groom his successor at Wisconsin. Since then, Gard received props from Bo on national television for his prep work that enabled the Badgers to smash Michigan State to pieces at the Kohl Center. By giving Bothof a good recommendation on Gard's behalf, Bo is making no secret that he wants his right-hand man to get a shot at running his own program.

Bo's campaigning makes sense either way you look at it. Even if Bo thought Gard would make a good head coach at Wisconsin, one look at Gard's résumé would show you he's never faced that task before. Perhaps learning from the Bennett-Soderberg-Ryan transition made it clear that a successful head coaching gig would be a must if Gard ever wanted to lead the Badgers some day. If Gard were offered the Green Bay job and accepted -- even after turning down Toledo two years ago -- I suspect this reasoning would be at least part of his motivation. It makes no sense to leave it to chance that some committee or some individual might hold this lack of experience against him down the road.

Losing Gard would be a hit to the program for sure. In addition to doing at least half of the opponent scouting for the Badgers, Gard handles the scheduling and is arguably the program's top recruiter. Gard was the lead recruiter for most of the "Minnesota Badgers" in addition to bringing Rob Wilson, Keaton Nankivil and now Josh Gasser aboard. So, yeah, basically Gard led the charge in building the team's current nucleus.

As far as current recruits, Gard is working with Traevon Jackson for 2011. He has also been alongside Bo watching J.P. Tokoto.

Money will not drive Gard to UW-Green Bay, that's for sure. Above all, Gard is looking for the right fit -- with the whole athletic department and community in question. As I hypothesized over a year ago, Gard is at home in this state and it would not surprise me if he felt the shoe fits this time around. Gard would make a great head coach in my humble opinion, so I am eager to see if UW-Green Bay gives him that chance.

On the Stove Top: 10/9

The summer doldrums are behind us Badger fans. As the air turns crisp and the football team's fortunes sour, basketball has finally emerged again as a viable topic. And not just recruiting news either.

- One writer who has been fighting the good fight all summer long is Jeff Goodman, who touched on Wisconsin's returning experience (and lack thereof) in his column yesterday. I like reading Goodman over at Fox Sports because he offers college basketball content every day from all over the country. He did not get bogged down with hyping up high schoolers, but checked in even on low-major programs and presented their outlook on the coming season.

In Goodman's piece on the Badgers, he restates a fact that fans have known for so long we might have forgotten: Bo Ryan's squad has 11 sophomores or freshmen this year. In my eyes, this will make for an exciting year, because there is the stability of proven players but also the opportunity to see which one of the youngsters will surprise us all and contribute right away.

- BadgerBeat.com, the new web offering from Capital Newspapers, is so cluttered and poorly laid-out that I usually avoid it. However, I did catch a piece this week about associate head coach Greg Gard.

Hearing about Gard's desire to head up his own program got me thinking about UW-Green Bay. As the Phoenix have seemingly gone in the wrong direction in the Horizon League over the past three season, grumblings about current head coach Tod Kowalczyk grow. If the slide continued and Kowalczyk got the axe, would Gard consider the position? My gut says that Gard will aim a higher than Green Bay, but you have to acknowledge how clearly at home Gard feels in the state of Wisconsin. Of course, this is all hypothetical at this point, but imagine the three Division 1 system schools in the state all running the swing offense.

- Night of the Grateful Red: Don't forget if you are in the Madison area, you can take a first look at the 2008-09 Badgers for free on Friday, October 17 at 7 p.m.