The Wisconsin Badgers winning ways have continued recently, as they are on a four-game winning streak with just one regular-season game at Purdue left on the schedule. Overall, the Badgers have won 11 of their last 12 games with the only loss coming at Michigan State against a team many think is the best in the nation.
Greg Gard has done a fantastic job since taking over the team in the middle of the season after Bo Ryan announced his retirement. Gard is still just the interim head coach, but Wisconsin posted the basketball head coaching job on their human resources page about a week ago and it was basically unanimous that this was a good sign for Gard's future with the program.
When Bo Ryan retired in the middle of the season he did so with the hope that Gard would be able to earn the job full-time. The way he has gotten the team to play since Ryan stepped down speaks for itself, and because of that Wisconsin is prepared to make him the full-time head coach. Wisconsin officials are preparing to offer Gard a long-term contract after being blown away by the turnaround he has overseen this season.
When Gard took over for Ryan, the team was just 9-9 overall and 1-4 in the Big Ten. Since that time, Wisconsin is 11-1 and athletic director Barry Alvarez has been impressed by everything Gard has done during games, practices and media sessions.
Wisconsin was in the National Championship game last season and returned two key players from that team this year. Despite that though, this team was in disarray through the first part of the season until Gard turned things around. Almost everyone would agree that the 45-year-old coach has earned the full-time position, and at this point it seems like a foregone conclusion that the job will be his.
Before taking over this year, Gard served under Ryan for 22 years, including 14 as an assistant at Wisconsin. Gard has taken this team from having all sorts of problems to being an NCAA Tournament lock that is currently projected as a number six seed. To say that Gard has done an excellent coaching job this season would be an understatement and because of that he should be Wisconsin's head coach for a long time moving forward.