MADISON, Wis. – The cancelation of NCAA postseason basketball seems like a fitting narrative for the University of Wisconsin’s 2019-20 season, a year full of drama and storylines that were outside of its control.
It could be easily reasoned that the 18th-ranked Badgers – seemingly peaking at the right time – would be devastated by not being able to do some damage in the weeks to come.
Head coach Greg Gard doesn’t see it that way. In the hours since the announcement of the cancelation of the 2020 NCAA men’s basketball tournament, along with every other NCAA sport this spring and summer, Wisconsin’s fifth-year head coach has no interest in moping.
“I’m sure awfully grateful for the last six weeks I got to be with these guys and what they’ve accomplished,” Gard said in a phone interview Thursday. “I am sitting here thinking about this team and this year and smiling. That’s how I feel about this team, what they’ve accomplished, what they’ve come through, how they’ve grown together.”
In wake of the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus around the world, the NCAA made the unprecedented decision Thursday afternoon to cancel its postseason men’s basketball tournament, which had been played continuously since 1938 through two wars, social unrest and political protests. The decision happened quickly.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the Big Ten Tournament was scheduled to be played as scheduled with fans in the stands. From that point, however, the NCAA announced that no fans would be permitted to watch postseason games, the Big Ten followed suit for games scheduled Thursday through Sunday and then the NBA suspended its season after Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert tested positive for the virus.
Throw in the damaging public perception images of Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg being visibly sick on the bench during the first round of the Big Ten tournament (he was diagnosed with influenza A), Gard admitted he had a hunch that things were trending towards a complete cancelation.
He was informed through the UW administration at approximately 10:45 a.m. CT that the conference tournament was going to be canceled. Seeing the domino effect of other conferences canceling their tournaments, the possibility of the NCAA Tournament not being played was “very real” when he met with his team.
“This is bigger than basketball,” Gard said. “That’s what I tried to convey to my team early this afternoon. We have to understand and put this in the proper perspective of what’s going on here. We’re not the only ones impacted by this. Everybody is.”
“These are first world problems that a basketball tournament gets canceled,” Gard added. “With the adversity our guys have faced, specifically the Howard Moore situation and a world epidemic of a virus, that’s way more important and way more impactful than basketball games.”
With that perspective, Gard said he spent the afternoon team meeting highlighting the positives of the season: a 21-10 overall record, 10 Quadrant-1 wins (tied for third in the country) and eight straight wins highlighted by a 60-56 victory at Indiana last Saturday to clinch a share of the Big Ten regular season championship.
“This group embraced that and understood that better than any group I’ve had because they’ve been through so much uncontrollable adversity bigger than basketball, specifically with Howard’s situation,” Gard said. “I think they understood that and were able to accept it, knowing this is just a sport.
“As I reflect back on the last couple days, I’m so happy we won that thing on the road and were able to celebrate privately with the guys who were really in the line of fire and were a part of the ups and downs. Looking back, that maybe was the best thing that could have happened that we really had a special moment with just the guys who were really there, the people who were a part of it.
“My message today was look what we’ve accomplished. If this is how it’s going to end, you’ve ended with as big of a bang as you could possibly have. You’ve gone out on top.”
