Jeff Potrykus

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON – A little more than three months have passed since Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez saw the football team cap a disappointing season by routing Miami in the Pinstripe Bowl.

UW extended its bowl winning streak to a program-best five games, but a second consecutive bowl meeting with Miami, on Dec. 28 in Yankee Stadium, wasn’t the ultimate goal of any member of the 2018 team.

Nine months before that, Alvarez saw the UW men’s basketball team finish 15-18 and fail to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since the 1997-’98 season.

Greg Gard’s team returned to the NCAA Tournament last month and, despite a first-round exit at the hands of Oregon, the season represented a return to normalcy. UW finished fourth in the Big Ten, just two games out of first, secured a No. 5 seeding in the NCAA Tournament and finished 23-11 overall.

Now the focus turns to the football team, which last season finished just 5-4 in the Big Ten and 8-5 overall. That mark was the worst in UW’s four seasons under Paul Chryst, who compiled a 34-7 mark in his first three seasons.

Alvarez, in his 15th year as athletic director, believes Chryst and his staff can field a better team in 2019 and appears comfortable with the state of the football and men’s basketball programs.

“I see a solid foundation,” he said. “I see consistency in coaching. I’m not one of these guys who is spoiled by winning. I know how hard it is.”

Since 1995, UW has appeared in 22 bowl games and in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament 21 times. That total leads the nation, with Texas next at 40 (20 and 20), and Florida at 39 (22 and 17) and Michigan State at 39 (17 and 22).

“I know there are years when – like in basketball a year ago – you have a ton of injuries,” Alvarez said, referring to the 2017-’18 season. “You are going to have those years. That is everybody.

“We’ve been more consistent than anyone in those two sports. So, it is real easy for people to get overanxious, to be disappointed.

“But I’m smart enough and I’ve been in the business long enough that I realize there are going to be some dips.”

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Earlier this year the UW Board of Regents approved a new contract for Chryst, one that includes a $300,000 raise to $4.15 million for 2019.

Gard, who has compiled an overall record of 80-47 in three-plus season, is expected to receive the standard one-year extension later this month when the UW Athletic Board reviews the contracts of the winter sports coaches. His annual compensation package is $2.35 million.

UW’s issues on the football field last season were several.

Injuries, particularly in the secondary and along the defensive line, forced the staff to rely heavily on freshmen and redshirt freshmen. The quarterback play was inconsistent for most of the Big Ten schedule.

“You struggled at quarterback,” Alvarez said. “You had injuries on the offensive line. You had injuries where they missed games and injuries where they played hurt and they didn’t live up to expectations.

“You had a skeleton crew in the defensive line and you had a very, very young secondary. You were forced to play true freshmen back there.

“It was a shell of a team that you anticipated having and regardless of what you have, you have to have consistent quarterback play.

“And that wasn’t the same defense we were accustomed to having. That was a totally different defense because of the injuries up front and in the secondary.”

During a season in which teams don’t meet their internal standards or expectations, Alvarez looks for certain trends.

“I want to see whether the coaches have lost the kids,” he said. “Are they still playing hard? At the end of the year if they’ve had some disappointments, do the kids still have the right attitude? Are the coaches still coaching hard? All those things.

“You see teams where the coach has lost the team and they shut it down. You see it every year.”

Alvarez has not seen that in the football and men’s basketball programs.

No one was happy with the 15-18 finish in 2017-’18, but UW was playing its best basketball late, after the staff and players had adjusted to the season-ending injuries to D’Mitrik Trice and Kobe King. UW went 5-3 in its last eight games, with two of the losses to No. 2-ranked Michigan State.

The football team suffered an embarrassing 37-15 home loss to Minnesota last season, one week after posting an exhilarating 47-44 victory at Purdue in three overtimes. UW regrouped to embarrass Miami, 35-3, a result that led Hurricanes coach Mark Richt to retire.

Despite the fact each program suffered recently through a disappointing season, Alvarez sees no reason to panic.

“We’ve had some little dips in the road,” he said, “but we haven’t had the bottom fall out of things and we’ve been able to rebound quickly. …

“Those are the two that pay the bills. Those are your money sports and you better be good in those if you want to have a good department.”