Former interim Wisconsin assistant coach Alando Tucker reportedly tried to take Greg Gard’s job as head coach with the Badgers.

In a wild story published at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, unnamed sources told the outlet when the Badgers were struggling in January of 2020 that Tucker, the school’s all-time leading scorer, went to then-athletic director Barry Alvarez and told him he was ready to take over as coach if he were to move on from Gard. Alvarez said he would not be making that move.

Wisconsin went on to win its final eight games of the season and a share of the Big Ten title. Gard credited his assistant coaches and even brought them into the post-game press conference to bask in the moment following their title-clinching win at Indiana.

The Badgers returned nearly their entire roster this past season and started the year in the top-10 in the country. But after a solid start to the campaign, things fell apart. The MJS reports that instead of trying to unify the locker room, Tucker attempted to turn players against the other members of the coaching staff.

The team finished 10-10 in Big Ten play and at one point late in the season had a two-hour team meeting to clear the air. Someone recorded the meeting and sent a roughly 40-minute clip of it to the Wisconsin State Journal in late June. Much of the recording was players criticizing Gard.

Because he was an interim coach, Tucker had to apply for the full-time job after the season, which he did. However, with Gard reportedly being aware of Tucker approaching Alvarez, the Badgers went with another former Wisconsin player, Sharif Chambliss.

Around that same time, a committee was formed to find a new athletic director. Tucker was chosen to be on the committee and reportedly pushed for Northern Illinois athletic director Sean Frazier to get the job. According to the MJS, Tucker knew Frazier from his previous time at Wisconsin and felt if he could get Frazier hired, he would fire Gard and hire Tucker as coach. UW eventually went with Chris McIntosh as AD and Tucker is no longer involved with any aspect of the university.

Attempts by multiple outlets to reach Tucker for comment on the situation, including by The Zone, have gone unanswered.