SB Nation Reacts: Wisconsin fans are confident in the volleyball team and...neutral on Greg Gard

Earlier in the week we asked you a series of questions about a variety of Wisconsin sports and a bunch of you answered. First of all, thanks for taking the time to answer! These Reacts posts work way better when more people participate. Second of all, you had a lot of strong opinions on the Badgers which...well, it isn’t surprising. I’ve been around here long enough to know that.

The transfer portal has caused much consternation around the college basketball world and the Badgers haven’t been immune to it. So far this offseason, Wisconsin has lost Matthew Mors, Ben Carlson and Lorne Bowman have all transferred out of the program while head coach Greg Gard has brought in former Green Bay PG Kamari McGee and former Wofford SG Max Klesmit.

We wanted to know how you felt about Gard’s performance so far and 56% of you basically shrugged your shoulders and said “meh, he’s alright.” Only 21% of you have a negative view of Gard’s showing in the portal which is pretty good!

The Badgers still have open scholarships (two, I believe) and definitely need a backup big man to fill out the front court and could use another wing/guard type player that can shoot the three. We can revisit this question closer to the start of the season once UW’s roster is finalized and see if anything changes.

Your defending national and Big Ten champion Wisconsin Badgers volleyball team lost a lot talent from last year’s team. They also, as one of the best programs in the nation, have a lot of talent returning. 60% of you think the Badgers will win the conference again this year, while 30% have Wisconsin plummeting all the way to second.

Our pal Emily Ehman of Big Ten Network released her preseason top-five and has the Badgers in third (!!!) behind Nebraska and Ohio State. Don’t worry, we’ve taken note of this and will be sending it to Anna Smrek before each match so she’ll spike a ball through an opponent’s face and the point at the camera so Ehman knows we mean business.

The football team finished spring practice a few weeks ago but they still have a number of position battles to sort out come August. One of the main ones is WR2. Junior Chimere Dike will presumably open the season as the top pass-catching option but who will line up on the other side? 47% of you think sophomore Markus Allen is the man for the job.

34% voted for Skyler Bell and 19% picked UCLA transfer Keontez Lewis. I’m partial to Lewis myself, and think he’ll have a big role in the offense by the end of the season, but I’m excited to see all three of these guys get on the field and show what they can do.

The Badgers don’t sign a lot of 5-star talent in football. When Paul Chryst and co. beat out the rest of the country for OT Logan Brown a few years ago it was a huge recruiting win and celebrated by Wisconsin fans robustly. However, Brown hasn’t yet lived up to expectations and it is time for him to perform according to 80% of you that think this is a “make or break” season for Brown.

After redshirting in 2019, Brown has seen limited action in the past two seasons. He was running with the first offensive line unit at right tackle this spring, but there were reports that he wasn’t super impressive and could be pushed for the job this fall.

The Badgers have stockpiled an abundance of talent on the o-line over the past few recruiting classes and while none of them have been as highly rated as Brown, if he can’t perform on the field his star rating won’t matter a lick.