After helping orchestrate one of the biggest in-season turnarounds in recent memory, Greg Gard is now garnering some national recognition.
Gard was named the winner of the 2016 Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year Award Monday afternoon, beating out 20 other finalists that included the likes of Kansas’ Bill Self, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo, Villanova’s Jay Wright, Miami’s Jim Larrañaga and Indiana’s Tom Crean. The award, presented to the top Division I men’s basketball coach as decided by a 30-member panel, is named after former Mount St. Mary’s coach Jim Phelan, who went 830-524 in his 49-year tenure with the school.
Gard earned the honor after a season that saw him go from an unproven interim coach to the man at the head of perhaps the most impressive turnaround in college basketball this year.
When took over for Bo Ryan in mid-December, the Badgers had sputtered out to a 7-5 start to the season. But under Gard, they went 15-8 and made a run to the Sweet Sixteen for the fifth time in the last six years, an accomplishment that no other school can claim.
Along the way, he earned the Wisconsin job on a full-time basis and national attention, culminating in Monday’s accolade.
Past winners of the award include Mark Slonaker (Mercer) in 2003, Phil Martelli (Saint Joseph’s) in 2004, Tubby Smith (Kentucky) in 2005, Ben Howland (UCLA) in 2006, Tony Bennett (Washington State) in 2007, Bo Ryan (Wisconsin) in 2008, John Calipari (Memphis) in 2009, Jamie Dixon (Pittsburgh) in 2010, Stew Morrill (Utah State) in 2011, Mike Brey (Notre Dame) in 2012, Dana Altman (Oregon) in 2013, Tim Miles (Nebraska) in 2014 and Bob Huggins (West Virginia) in 2015.
Wisconsin becomes the first school in the award’s 14-year history to have two coaches win it.
