Greg Gard isn’t sugarcoating it: Wisconsin’s defense has to get a lot better.
That much was already obvious after the Badgers’ season ended with a crushing first-round NCAA Tournament loss to No. 12-seeded High Point, a game in which the Panthers hung 83 points on Wisconsin and buried nine 3-pointers in the second half alone. High Point’s pace and run-and-shoot style had the Badgers chasing all night, and it exposed a defense that never really found its footing.
The bigger issue is that the problems weren’t limited to one bad night. Wisconsin spent last season looking unusually soft on that end of the floor, a sharp departure from the program’s usual identity under Gard.
The Badgers finished with the 56th-ranked adjusted defensive efficiency per KenPom, their worst mark since 2018, when they came in at No. 66.
Gard has already acknowledged as much this offseason, saying his team was “never where we needed to be defensively.”
At the first summer practice open to reporters, he returned to the subject and made it clear the standard has to rise.
“We have to be better. This year’s team is so much different than last year’s team.
But we have to raise the bar defensively. We were not as good last year for a variety of reasons.
They understand that to be in the elite category nationally, you have to be good defensively," he said.
There’s some context behind that. Last year’s roster was built around offense, and it showed.
Nick Boyd and John Blackwell were both major scoring engines, each putting up about 20 points per game. That kind of firepower made for an entertaining season, but it also came with tradeoffs on defense.
The frontcourt had its own growing pains. Nolan Winter, Austin Rapp and Aleksas Bieliauskas all had room to develop defensively, and while some progress came during the season, it wasn’t enough to turn Wisconsin into the kind of team Gard wants it to be.
That’s why the coach is looking for more from everyone, not just the big men. He said improvement from Winter and Rapp matters, and so does whatever Victory Onuetu and Will Garlock can provide. But he also stressed that the fix has to be collective.
"Obviously, it helps when you have two 7-foot-1 guys sitting at the rim, they can correct a lot of mistakes. But collectively, we have to be better.
Obviously the drill stuff we’ve done more of this summer. I wanted to make sure that was emphasized early and they understood it.
I don’t wanna depend on two or three seven footers sitting at the rim and blocking shots. We have to be good out in front too," Gard added.
That last part is the key. Gard wants better defense across the board, and that starts with the guards. Incoming perimeter players Owen Foxwell and Eian Elmer have both been praised for their defense, which gives Wisconsin a chance to reset that side of the floor.
It’s still early, but the message from the program is clear: the Badgers have spent the offseason making defense a priority. Whether that shows up when November arrives is the next question.
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