The University of Wisconsin-Madison Athletics Department officially announced Greg Gard as the basketball team’s head coach Monday.
The UW Board of Regents approved Gard’s contract at a meeting Monday night, which made Gard the 16th head men’s basketball coach in UW history.
“It’s an honor and a privilege to be named the head coach at the University of Wisconsin,” Gard said in a release. “I’m extremely thankful to Coach Alvarez, the Athletic Board and the Board of Regents for this incredible opportunity to lead my home-state program into the future. It’s a role and a responsibility that I cherish and take extremely seriously. It’s been a long journey over the last quarter-century or so, but for me to be able to spend my entire career in this state and be surrounded by such incredible support has been vital to my success. I am so grateful to everyone who has played an integral part in my development.”
Gard said he was thankful to former head coach Bo Ryan for the opportunity he gave him over 25 years ago.
“I’m looking forward to building on the great tradition at Wisconsin and representing my home state in a manner that can make Badgers fans proud,” Gard said.
“As I said many times throughout the past weeks, I’ve been very impressed with the job Greg has done with this team,” UW Director of Athletics Barry Alvarez said. “Not just from a wins and losses perspective but also in terms of player development and making necessary adjustments. It became clear to me as the season wore on and I was able to observe Greg both on and off the court that he was the right person to lead our men’s basketball team. I was extremely excited to be able to offer him the job and fully believe that the program is in good hands for years to come.”
