Wisconsin basketball head coach Greg Gard made it clear on a radio appearance that the unexpected decision to move on from longtime assistant Dean Oliver and shake up his staff was his choice.
“It was my decision to make a change on the staff and move forward,” Gard stated. “Coach Oliver did a good job for us, but I have to continue to move forward and push this thing forward. We’re not gonna stay in maintenance mode. We’re going to keep getting better and push it.”
Many, myself included, thought that Oliver’s logical replacement was already in-house. Badgers legend Kirk Penney spent last season as the Special Assistant to the Head Coach. However, Gard noted that Wisconsin basketball is actively seeking somebody else to fill Oliver’s position on staff, stressing the importance of off-campus recruiting.
Further, Gard mentioned that Penney wouldn’t be going anywhere and would transition to a full-time analyst role. So, basically, Penney will be the Wisconsin basketball team’s offensive coordinator.
“I’ve now been able to get Kirk [Penney] to a full-time position,” Gard said. “He’ll be permanently on my staff as a special assistant, an offensive analyst. He’s night-and-day cooking this offense; he’s been a godsend. We’ve jumped 123 spots in KenPom, we were top six in the country at one point. Our goal is to be top five in the country offensively.
“Now we can really specifically recruit to it, now we can be intentional…players love it, our efficiency went up with every returning player. Max [Klesmit], Chucky [Hepburn], Steve [Crowl] all jumped. And our scoring jumped. That isn’t by accident. We’re just at the surface of what we’ll do with this moving forward.”
With the help of Penney, Wisconsin basketball averaged 74.4 points per game this season, which would be the team’s highest scoring mark since 1993-94. The Badgers also recorded the program’s third-best adjusted offensive efficiency since 1999, according to KenPom.
“What we’ve changed offensively is we’ve gone to more of a European ball-screen type of offense, a lot of pick and rolls,” Gard continued. “We haven’t run the swing in about five years… that’s like saying Luke Fickell is coming out with three tight ends and a fullback.”
Coach Gard’s staff next season still has one spot to fill out, but as it stands, Associate Head Coach Joe Krabbenhoft will be back despite rumors swirling that SIU was considering him for their vacancy. Sharif Chambliss will also return, and Penney will be an offensive analyst.
More must-reads: