High Point coach Flynn Clayman says Greg Gard ‘flies under the radar’

PORTLAND – Wisconsin’s Greg Gard and High Point’s Flynn Clayman have taken vastly different routes from a geographic standpoint to their respective coaching positions.

Gard, of course, was one of Bo Ryan’s assistants at UW-Platteville, UW-Milwaukee and then the Badgers before moving to the top job in 2015.

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Clayman began his coaching career in Australia before getting college coaching opportunities at Southern Utah and High Point.

The 55-year-old Gard and the 37-year-old Clayman have one major similarity in their coaching journeys, though.

They both moved from associate head coach to head coach at their respective programs and obviously made the move with success, as evident ahead of their upcoming matchup in the 2026 men’s NCAA Tournament.

“I dove into his résumé a little bit more now that we got this game,” Clayman said of Gard. “He kind of like flies under the radar in my opinion, how good he’s doing. He’s had [two seasons] where he hasn’t had 20 wins. To do that at this level is great.”

Gard’s 15 years on the bench in Madison obviously looked different from Clayman’s two seasons before his promotion. Either way, Gard emphasized the importance of that institutional knowledge as he walked toward the Moda Center locker room amid preparations for his eighth NCAA Tournament appearance in 10 opportunities as head coach.

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“That institutional knowledge is priceless in this era,” Gard told the Journal Sentinel. “Especially with all the NIL, the portal, everything, there are so many moving parts that if you can have a staff and a system in place that can stay entrenched and you can withstand all the changes and not have your foundation wiped out from underneath you – I think it’s a huge advantage.”

Wisconsin, with its institutional knowledge, now is the No. 5 seed in the West region after going 24-10 overall and 14-6 in Big Ten play. It was the Badgers’ fourth time in the last five years with a winning conference record and fourth time in the last eight years with at least 14 conference wins.

High Point earned the No. 12 seed after going 30-4 overall and 15-1 in the Big South, improving its record from the previous season despite losing then-head coach Alan Huss to Creighton. (Huss is now gaining his own institutional knowledge as the associate head coach and head coach-in-waiting under Greg McDermott.)

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“I think him and what I’ve done are great examples to ADs that if you have a good program culture going, even if the job is highly sought after by names that might be bigger, to keep a strong culture,” Clayman said of Wisconsin and High Point. “A lot of times it could be the best thing.”

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: High Point coach Flynn Clayman says Greg Gard ‘flies under the radar’