Wisconsin Badgers' little tweak had yielded positive scouting results

MADISON, Wis. - It looked like a difficult task for the University of Wisconsin to overcome. Less than three days before finishing the regular season at No.15 Purdue, the Badgers saw their most experienced and talented low-post weapon go down with an ankle injury that the staff knew would keep him from playing.

Developing another Nolan Winter in less than 72 hours was impossible, but the scouting report delivered by the Wisconsin coaching staff was thorough, detailed, and exposed all the areas the Badgers could take advantage of the Boilermakers without their third-leading scorer and leading rebounder.

"Well, my staff does a phenomenal job," head coach Greg Gard said.

A lot of coaches sing those praises, especially those from teams that have won three road games over AP Top-15 opponents in a single year, including Saturday's 97-93 win over Purdue, and are on their way to the NCAA Tournament for the 26th time in the last 28 tournaments.

However, it's evident that Gard feels highly of his coaching staff, a five-man crew of Wisconsin associate head coach Joe Krabbenhoft, the 2026 Howard Moore Big Ten Assistant Coach of the Year Sharif Chambliss, veteran Lance Randall, special assistant to the head coach Brad Davison, and director of player development Greg Stiemsma, that he revamped a scouting process that it would appeared UW had down to a science.

Wisconsin's defense isn't elite, but it's certainly better than it was two months ago, an upward improvement that started during one of the #Badgers lowest moments of the season https://t.co/dImCAqTuaC
— Benjamin Worgull (@TheBadgerNation) March 11, 2026

For years, coaches on UW's staff would scout the same Big Ten teams every year. Each coach's approach is different, but typically, a coach would start preparing the next scouting report as soon as game tape was available or he had presented his previous one.

Some instances would allow at least a week to develop a scouting report or, depending on the schedule, a few days to watch as many possible games to see where the targeted team played an opponent similar to Wisconsin, or why a targeted team lost in the manner they did.

Gard has done scouting reports in some variation for over 30 years, dating to when he was an assistant coach at Southwestern High School in Hazel Green, Wisconsin, and scouting Big Ten opponents for the past 25.

He's good at them, too. As an associate head coach, Gard often drew public praise from his boss, head coach Bo Ryan, for his detailed preparations for Wisconsin’s game against Michigan State.

As he sat down in the offseason to evaluate the areas where he felt his program could improve, Gard decided to take a more collaborative effort when preparing for an opponent.

Davison, Krabbenhoft, and Randall work in depth on film while Chambliss and Stiemsma handle different components of the preparation. They meet as a group to fine-tune, and Krabbenhoft, the veteran of the staff, presents the report.

"We felt we needed to clean up the communication process better and streamline it more," Gard said.

It'll be UW vs. UW round two tomorrow, as Washington sends USC to an eighth straight loss to set a rematch with the #Badgers https://t.co/Nw2hmihvN5
— Benjamin Worgull (@TheBadgerNation) March 11, 2026

According to Gard, the addition of Davison has been a huge addition. Having played in the Big Ten for five years and professionally for three, the former Wisconsin guard rejoined the program after assistant Kirk Penney left to pursue other opportunities before the season.

Davison puts together a report on a team's offense (actions, plays, trends, etc.) and analyzes the tendencies of what each individual player does in each set. It's more intensive than when he played at Wisconsin, when players typically watched specific players depending on their offensive or defensive assignment. Just like when he played, Davison goes all in with it, evidenced by the number of times he springs up from his seat on the bench to call out actions to the five on the floor.

"He probably will have to have cataract surgery or something at the end of the year," Gard said of Davison. "He just watches so much film."

Davison also isn't afraid to sub himself on the scout team to work with Wisconsin reserves on the plays he either draws up on a whiteboard or breaks down in the scout huddles.

That energy is needed now that the regular season is done. The Badgers spent Monday preparing to play USC and used Tuesday to rehash the scout from UW's Feb.28 victory at Washington for tomorrow's conference tournament. Coaches have also been familiarizing themselves with potential opponents for what they hope is a four-game stay at the United Center.

As it the nature of the business, that USC scouting report won't be used with Washington beating the Trojans, 83-79, in overtime to set up a rematch with the Badgers.

When the NCAA Tournament brackets get released Sunday evening, the staff will quickly get to work preparing for three unfamiliar opponents.

UW has no clue who, when, or where they'll be playing, but Gard knows his players will be ready.

"They've all put their heads together to continue to come to me with how we want to adjust game plans from player to player and game to game," Gard said. "It took a little while for us to kind of get it up and really rolling in the right direction, but I think it's made us much more efficient, much more effective."