The Badgers head coach reached a major milestone on Tuesday.
The Wisconsin Badgers beat the Ohio State Buckeyes in a nail-biter on Tuesday, edging past their conference opponents 70-68 in the final seconds thanks to clutch free-throw shooting.
It was a tough game where the Badgers almost blew a 17-point lead, but managed to come out on top, making it six straight victories to improve their record to 14-3 on the season.
Not only was it another good win to add to the team’s resume, but Tuesday was head coach Greg Gard’s 200th career win at Wisconsin, making him the fourth head coach to reach that feat with the program.
Gard is the third fastest to do so, reaching the feat in 310 games, which ranks only behind Walter Meanwell and Bo Ryan, while placing ahead of Bud Foster. All three of the other coaches are in the Naismith Hall of Fame.
With the win, Gard improved to 108-72 (60 percent conference win percentage) in conference play, which is the eighth-best mark of any Big Ten coach over the last 45 years.
Since Gard became the head coach, that percentage trails only Purdue (0.726) and Michigan State (0.646) for the best marks in the Big Ten.
“You guys know this is not about me,” Gard said after the win. “My name goes with it, but I’ve had terrific players, the current ones and ones that have been here for the last nine years, terrific coaches with me. I have a phenomenal staff right now, a support system. You divide this up. It’s a lot of hard work by a lot of people, a lot of hours go unseen and unnoticed to have an opportunity to help a program be successful.”
Center Steven Crowl, who has been the team’s X-Factor over the last few games, was very complimentary of his head coach after the win, attributing Gard’s coaching staff for his elevation at the college level.
“I don’t think I’d be the player I am today without him or the coaches he puts around him,” Crowl said of Gard. “They push me in different ways throughout the years. It’s been super fun to play with him, and I’m excited for the second half of the season and to try and make a deeper run in the tournament, hopefully.”
The Badgers will continue their season against the USC Trojans over the weekend, kicking off a two-game Los Angeles slate, as Wisconsin will face UCLA early next week as well.