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Greg Gard shares how he keeps Wisconsin focused amid struggles

IMG_6598by:Nick Kosko•02/22/23•

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(Photo by John Fisher/Getty Images)

It’s been an up and down stretch for Wisconsin basketball and head coach Greg Gard revealed how he kept the Badgers focused amid those struggles.

The Badgers fell to Rutgers 58-57 at home Saturday, a heartbreaker of a loss. It was a quick turnaround as Wisconsin hosts Iowa Wednesday.

Gard was honest about the inconsistency and revealed the message he gave to his team with four games left.

I mean, you try to stay in the moment,” Gard said this week. “You appreciate every moment that you have. You continue to compete. They understand (and) they’ve been very resilient. They’re more resilient than probably I am even at 52, I mean, I probably harbor things a little bit longer than I need to.

“They’ve been very resilient. They bounce back. I was with them this morning in the weight room, they were bright eyed and ready to go and work in there. So they understand.”

Gard made sure to mention Wisconsin played a lot of close games this season. While the Badgers have an above .500 record in those situations, it could be better.

“They’ve been in a lot of close games,” Gard said. “17 of our games have come down to the last or one or two possessions … We’ve won our fair share. I think we’re 10-7 in those and you learn from them. I thought we did some good things Saturday to put ourselves in position and it’s a fine line, you know, there’s so much parity. Our margin for errors is slim. So you have to find every advantage you can to take advantage of a situation and when things don’t go well, you have to learn from it and quickly flush it. 

“You can’t let what happened in the past impact your preparation or how you’re going to play next. So stay positive with it, correct the mistakes and move on.”

Wisconsin has four games left: a home game with Iowa Wednesday is up first. But after the Hawkeyes, the Badgers play at Michigan Sunday before hosting No. 5 Purdue next Thursday, March 2.

Wisconsin ends the regular season at Minnesota March 5. Currently, Wisconsin is 7-9 in the Big Ten and No. 11 in the conference.

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However, with four games left, the Badgers could make a move to No. 10 or perhaps even No. 9 or 8 if some breaks go their way.