Wisconsin Basketball Players Confronted Coach Greg Gard In Secretly-Recorded Meeting

Wisconsin seniors had a closed door meeting at the end of the basketball season with head coach Greg Gard. During the meeting, team leaders confronted the coach for how he handled the players during their time in the Badgers program.

While Gard thought the meeting was confidential, a recording of the confrontation was secretly made. And now it has been obtained, and leaked through the internet.

During the meeting (which occurred the day after a blowout loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes) players went as far as telling Greg Gard that they didn’t believe in the culture he was building at the school.

“Last year we were playing for one another, but we were also playing for you,” then-senior D’Mitrik Trice said in the meeting via Sports Illustrated. “I feel like the disconnect (this season) is we’re not playing for you right now. We’re not here to build your resume, so to speak, with all respect given.”

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Trice wasn’t the only player who told off Greg Gard to his face.

“I just feel like, coach, we don’t have a relationship,” four-year starter Nate Reuvers said, per the recording obtained by the State Journal. “In my mind, it’s too late for that. I personally don’t think or feel like you care about our future aspirations.

“I can’t talk to you. I just don’t want to talk to you. After this, coach, I don’t know what type of relationship we’re going to have, if we have one.”

Greg Gard was said to have apologized to his players, and one person in the meeting revealed that tears were involved.

On Tuesday, Greg Gard sent out a statement.

Statement from head coach Greg Gard pic.twitter.com/nz3QAPeqtU

— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) June 22, 2021

Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez stood by Greg Gard.

Statement from Director of Athletics Barry Alvarez pic.twitter.com/3i4xDOlTB7

— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) June 22, 2021

The meeting didn’t help.

The Badgers would continue their February slide, losing five of their final eight games. They would then lose to Baylor in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Greg Gard has been the head coach of the Badgers since 2015, but I would be surprised if this story doesn’t rub a lot of boosters the wrong way.

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