Greg Gard gives key to keeping Wisconsin grounded with national attention: 'That's outside opinion'

Greg Gard wants to make sure his entire Wisconsin team stays grounded this week, despite being ranked No. 11 in the country.

A lot more national attention comes with a high ranking, as the Badgers are 20-5 and on the doorstep of the top 10. But it’s all about Illinois Tuesday, a team that beat Wisconsin earlier this season.

Plus, there’s still regular season and Big Ten Tournament basketball left before you even think about NCAAs.

“They know there’s a lot of basketball in front of us,” Gard said. “I never said anything when we weren’t ranked. I never said anything when we got ranked, I never said anything when we fell out of the rankings. That’s an outside opinion. All we can do is control, you know, the results on the floor, and they know we’ve got a long ways to go yet. We got to continue to get better. it’s great for our fans and our alums and obviously getting a lot of national attention right now, but in terms of the work that we have to put in every day, that doesn’t change.” 

With a veteran team, Wisconsin should be able to keep their heads on straight. Based on Gard’s messaging, that’ll be the case.

“We’ve got veterans on this team, they understand, you know what, what has gotten us to this point, you got to continue what we’ve done and continue to get better at it,” Gard said. “And then obviously having a team come in, that is a really good team that got us in December, and that’s really what we’re focused on right now is tomorrow night.”

Wisconsin was also in the committee’s Top 16 seeds, a preview of where teams stand for March Madness.

“That’s great,” Gard said. “That means we got the attention of people, right. We’re obviously playing good basketball. We’re a really good team and I think we’re getting better.”

With that, Wisconsin is now at 20-5 overall and 10-4 in the Big Ten. That has them at No. 11 in the latest edition of the AP Poll and at No. 9 currently at KenPom. They’re also at No. 12 in the updated NET Rankings as they’re now a game above .500 in Quad 1 with that win while having a perfect record against all of Quad 2, Quad 3, and Quad 4.