Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard on Micah Potter situation, Trevor Anderson

MADISON -- On Monday afternoon inside the Kohl Center media room, Wisconsin men's basketball coach Greg Gard spoke with the media just four days before his Badgers take the court against UW-La Crosse in an exhibition contest.

BadgerBlitz.com was there, and here are the highlights from that press conference:

Questions came from reporters surrounding the status of Wisconsin forward Micah Potter, who initially had his waiver appeal denied by the NCAA to play immediately for the 2019-20 season.

As reported by the Wisconsin State Journal's Jim Polzin on Oct. 18, the Badgers "filed a request of reconsideration." Gard was asked if UW was still in a holding pattern with Potter. He acknowledged they were, and he did not hold back his feelings.

"We haven’t gotten a decision back on that yet," Gard said. "I don’t understand it because obviously there’s a level of frustration that continues to grow with that because you see all these other waivers getting approved across the country, and I don’t understand really the logic behind why this one wouldn’t get if it doesn’t.

“In terms of you want a student-athlete, or you want a young man in your program, he’s been phenomenal since day one, and I think that was always my trepidation when he transferred in or was going to transfer in. How does he fit in your locker room? What message does he bring? How is he as a person? How is he as a teammate? He’s been off the charts phenomenal. He’s done a terrific job academically. I just don’t, it’s hard when you see somebody that tries to do it the right way, could get extenuating punishment in terms of if he’s not eligible. He’ll sit longer than anybody else in the country. In terms of there’s so many that have played last year, and watching all these waivers get approved and 30-something games, 20-something games, and they’re immediately eligible. We don’t know always the underlying reasons, but I know the reasons behind Micah, and I’ve seen how he is day in and day out, what he does academically. You’ve seen my other statement. Everybody knows he’s missed a year already. It’ll be a year-and-half if this doesn’t move forward.

“Like I said, not many things raise my blood pressure. This is one that is.”

Gard also stated UW has not been given a timeline, so they will continue to pursue "it as long as we need to."

The head coach was also asked about whether Potter has practiced with the top group and how he handles that with the Ohio State transfer still technically ineligible to play in games until the Dec. 21 matchup against Milwaukee.

"Then secondly, no I haven’t put him in the top group because he’s not, at this point in time today, he’s not eligible to compete against outside competition," Gard said. "Hence, he’s been with the scout group. Moving forward or operating in the day that we’re in right now, so if I get any information or news, then we’ll make that adjustment when I need to make it.”

Lastly, a reporter asked if the answer from the NCAA is no, are there any other alternatives or if that would be it.

“I don’t know the answer to that question because I wouldn’t know what the rationale would be behind a no," Gard said. "I think that would always impact it in terms of what’s their justification or reasoning and does that match up with what we are asking for them to look at. We won’t quit until we exhaust every single option if we do get told no, so we’ll continue to push it because we think it’s the right thing to do and it’s the just thing to do. In the day of student-athlete welfare, all the things that are being done, this one -- the right thing to do is to allow him to play.”

*If Potter cannot play, how does Gard feel about his depth?

“You know what, I got a lot of answers to that on Saturday. I liked what I saw. Reuvers actually picked up two first half fouls, and I was planning to get [Joe] Hedstrom some more experience. I got him more sooner than I thought I would, and it wasn’t all perfect, but he did some good things. I was put in a position where I had to play him, like I said, a little sooner than I planned to in that first half, and we were just fine.

“There’s different combinations. We can be so, I’ve used four at the five some in this preseason in practice just because of the versatilty of this group and the mobility. The day of positionless offense has led to positionless defense which you’re switching a lot of things, so this group with the experience that’s there and the mobility and flexibility, allow for a lot of different combinations to be on the floor.”

*On guard Trevor Anderson and how far along he is in his progress of getting back to the point he was at before he got injured last season:

“Well I think there’s two components when anytime you come back from an injury like that. One is the physical component -- the healing, any of the other issues that come with it. Sometimes the other side of your body hurts because of overcompensation. Kobe [King] went through that. I don’t know what percentage of where he is back. He’s in every practice. He is on somewhat of a pitch count at times in terms of repetitions, but there’s not really any drills right now or anything that we’re doing that he’s not a part of.

“But then there’s also the mental component and trusting it, knowing you’re going to be OK. He took a spill last week at practice where he got knocked down and kind of looked around. He was all in one piece, everything was OK, so there’s those two.”

“Then the other thing, obviously seeing in him on Saturday, it’s been a while since he had played, since the Iowa game last year so just that whole live game atmosphere, those type of things. Part of it mental, part of it’s physical. He’s made great progress. I think he’s probably, if you looked at where we thought he’d be, he’s probably ahead of schedule. But I know in his mind, he’s not where he wants to be. He gets frustrated at times, and you have to be patient with that, knowing that it’s going to take awhile. He won’t be back to the original Trevor Anderson, maybe not this year. Those type of injuries sometimes take a while to come back, and a lot of it at the tail end of it is the mental hurdle you have to get over.”

*On Wisconsin facing UW-La Crosse on Friday night, the 16th straight year the program has taken on a Division III WIAC team in a preseason contest, and why these exhibition games are important for the Badgers and for the WIAC schools:

“Well first of all, I think it’s great for the game of basketball to be able to give a school like La Crosse, for instance, this opportunity to play here. A lot of those guys either envisioned to play in a state tournament, played in a state tournament here or dreamed of playing for Wisconsin at some point in time. So that, just what it does for the game of basketball within the state I think is important. It perpetuates the game and shines a light on it in a positive way. It obviously it’s worked very well with our Garding Against Cancer Foundation in terms of our ability to do an event in La Crosse like we did in September. Then be able to do obviously with the funds, we’re doing a lot of things at Carbone with research but also a lot of patient care initiatives around the state. We’ve done it in Oshkosh, we’ve done some stuff in the Dells and Wausau and Menomonie, obviously the first year at Stout. This year, we’ll be doing some things in the La Crosse area to help patients and their families at the grass roots level with some funding.

“It’s a blend of the to go to play a state school is important. It’s against an outside competition, a team that is preparing for a season, that’ll be running an actual offense and have a plan for what they’re trying to do. So it serves many purposes in terms of benefitting the game, obviously the platform for GAC and the hope that it can give those patients in that area as well as, obviously, it helps us. The most important thing for that night is how we’re going to approach that. It’s a game night. Some of these guys will run out, have their name called in the starting lineup for the first time, and all those first are good because they lead to what could come down the road.”