MADISON, Wis. – Leave it to Bo Ryan to use his Hall-of-Fame jacket as a pseudo insurance policy.
When the Naismith Hall of Fame asked Ryan if he wanted anything special stitched inside his coat, the 76-year-old former Wisconsin coach thought it'd be special to have each of his seven coaching stops embroidered inside the left lining, a resume in red stitching laid out on a white basketball to remind him of all the stops that helped transform him as a teacher.
“So I can remember when I am 90 where the heck I coached,” he deadpanned.
There aren’t too many stressful moments these days for Ryan, who delayed his winter commute to Palm Springs, California, for a celebratory Friday night. He participated in pregame ceremonies that honored the 2014 and 2015 Final Four teams and saw a 100 percent turnout from the players who weren’t playing overseas. He was honored with a banner displaying his name and coaching years being lifted to the Kohl Center rafters, properly placed right above the bench where he coached 14-plus seasons.
Likely most important, he watched his pupil’s team never trail in a 103-88 victory over No.9 Arizona.
“After last year(‘s loss),” Ryan said, “we owed them a little bit.”
The victory vaults Wisconsin (4-0) into the Associated Press Top 25 for the first time this season, debuting as No.19 heading into tonight’s nonconference matchup against UT Rio Grande Valley (3-2) at the Kohl Center (7 p.m./BTN). It’s an early run of success that hasn’t come as a shock to Ryan.
Having watched practices during the preseason and the exhibition game against UW-River Falls, Ryan watched a unit that reminded him of the teams honored before the game, players who bought into a particular system, and a mindset for the betterment of a team.
“Guys are sharing the ball, playing together like they want to play with one another,” Ryan said. “They’re not thinking about what’s going to happen next year. What I am seeing out there is everybody concentrating on the task that they’ve been taught, and it looks pretty good.”
“I like how our guys have already become a cohesive unit. I really do. I am not putting any pressure on Gardo or anything like that. That’s not happening, but I like this staff. They know how to teach the game.”
The game has changed immensely since Ryan abruptly retired in December 2015 and handed the reigns to Gard. Players can profit from their name, image, and likeness and move freely between schools via the transfer portal, turning the first weeks of the offseason into a free agency period with almost no guardrails. It’s made roster building challenging and impossible to project what a team will look like years into the future.
While Gard has his detractors, citing UW’s lack of postseason success over the last eight seasons, Ryan isn’t one of them. He’s been a sounding board for Gard and expressed admiration for how Gard has changed UW’s offense approach.
No longer running Ryan’s patient swing offense, Wisconsin has evolved with the changing times and the implementation of rules to make the game more explosive offensively. After having the program’s highest scoring average in 30 years last season, the Badgers are averaging 88.5 points through four games, have hit 11 three-pointers in three contests, and have all five starters averaging nearly nine points per game, all the while still sticking to the program’s philosophies of sound defensive principles, drawing fouls, and limiting turnovers.
“He’s his own coach doing his own thing, but he also understands winning is not a secretive thing that people kind of whisper about,” Ryan said. “Playing good basketball is something you have to work on and commit the time. Players have to see the vision you have as the head coach. If they don’t and they’re not on the same page, then you have trouble. Greg has done that with this group.
“It is a tough business and everybody has their ups and downs,” he continued. “Hey, that’s life. That’s what we’re trying to teach our players as coaches. We’re teaching them about life. There’s going to be some trouble times. That’s what you learn playing a sport like basketball is to handle the ups and downs, be on an even keel, and handle both. Don’t get too high, don’t get too low, and I think Greg has definitely developed that.”
Gard admitted it took “a long time” for him to step out of Ryan’s shadow but acknowledged that he had to be his own person as he eased into and evolved with the job.
“He’s been my biggest fan,” Gard said. “There’s no doubt. You’re stepping into some pretty big shoes, but I have a great staff around me and have had really good players. You have to be your own person. How we’ve tweaked some things, changed some things, and try to continue to move forward with where we saw the game going. The core principles are still the same.
“How we make the cake maybe is a little different, but the results are the end of the day is what matters.”
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