UW men’s basketball coach Greg Gard makes most of down time during COVID-19

One headache Gard hasn’t had to deal with this offseason is roster construction in uncertain times.

Every Big Ten roster has been hit by transfers, some more than others. Purdue lost a pair of would-be seniors in Matt Haarms and Nojel Eastern. Indiana lost starter Justin Smith.

UW’s biggest roster move came during the season, when sophomore wing Kobe King left the program in late January. The Badgers ended up going 9-2 following the departure of King, who will end up at Nebraska.

The current transfer count is over 900 and rising.

“I’m not surprised by anything anymore,” Gard said. “Nothing comes as a shock or a surprise because it’s where we are right now as a society and where we are as a sport, specifically. There’s a lot of transition that should not come as a surprise to the outside world when it does happen.”

Gard is constantly working on building future rosters, but even that’s been low-key because the Badgers have a combined eight scholarship players lined up between the 2020 and ’21 classes.

Shooting guard Julian Roper, a longtime UW target, would have filled out the 2021 class nicely. But Roper, who was Bowman’s teammate at Orchard Lake St. Mary’s near Detroit, chose Northwestern over the Badgers earlier this spring.