By PAUL GOTHAM
It may be hard to imagine Bo Ryan “feeling all the bumpers,” but make no mistake his Wisconsin Badgers can make “the digit counters fall.”
The University of Wisconsin head coach is known for his dour sideline disposition which suggests curmudgeon, but his players on-the-court abilities and off-the-court antics speak something different.
When Wisconsin takes the court tonight, the Badgers will look to win their first title since 1941. The ride to this game and accompanying press conferences have offered glimpses of Ryan’s personality and that of his players which may conflict with the perception generated by a casual observation.
From Frank Kaminsky‘s public insistence of video game superiority to Nigel Hayes and his playful jabs at press conference transcribers, these Badgers possess one characteristic if nothing else – a sense of humor. To some it may appear that aspect of UW’s personality differs from that of their coach.
Ryan offered a contrasting view during a press conference last week.
“Believe it or not, I know how I’m perceived by some people. I’m actually a pretty funny guy.”
And the 14th-year coach has fostered a comedic touch in his team.
“You know, I’m a serious guy. I know what the other side is like. As far as understanding that this is a lifetime experience, a small time frame of four years, three, whatever the years are, you may as well enjoy it with the personalities that are there. You can either try to stifle certain things or you can feed the certain things, you can enjoy certain things.”
At the same time, the Badgers, like their coach, know how and when to distinguish what is appropriate at a given time.
“They have their fun. Believe me, when they get on the practice court, they’re looking at film, they’re playing in the games, they understand what competition is about.”
Those video games may be forms of entertainment used to occupy time in a way that only college students know best, but Ryan sees the competitive juices of his team in those moments.
“But the fun that our guys have is all about their relationships and the things that they’re interested in, the things they’re competitive about. They have more fun with the bragging rights of video games…Do you know how many guys have said, ‘Wait a minute, you weren’t that good. I was better than you. When do you want to play again?'”
Ryan easily associates with the competitive nature of idle amusement for as he recalled there once was a time he “played the silver ball.”
“I was the number one pinball player in the state of Pennsylvania,” Ryan stated last week. “These guys talk about video games? I could freeze flippers better than anybody! I could hit that clown’s nose or the spinner‑‑ whatever, and it was‑‑ I could take a dime and play for two hours. Now, what’s that tell you? You think the “Who” had somebody in mind when they did that song?”
Then it was Ryan against the machine. The better he performed, the longer he played on his meal money while a student-athlete at Wilkes University in the late 1960s.
“We would get a dollar at Wilkes for the day, so I would get two meals for 90 cents. When there was break and one pinball machine at the greasy spoon, at the diner, so I would always have one dime, and my goal was to spend the two, three hours and not use anything other than a dime from my dollar meal money.”
Ryan’s teams play with the same relentless he displayed when he was a “Bally table king.” But again perception and reality don’t correlate.
Ryan’s patented “Swing Offense” looks crotchety to the casual fan. Five players making a series of passes before shooting lacks the flair and excitement needed to maintain the interest of modern fans who measure value by potential hits on YouTube.
Thing is Ryan’s teams score, and they score a lot. The Badgers have averaged 72.7 points per game this season. In five NCAA Tournament games that number increased to 78.6.
But total points is not a true indicator of Wisconsin’s success on the offensive end. To better understand the Badgers one needs to delve into advanced statistics, an area where Ryan has proven he was way ahead of his time.
“I was keeping points per possession when I coached in junior high school in the ’70s. All of a sudden, it’s become a big statistic now and we just chuckle, the guys that have known me for years. ‘Hey, Bo, I think you were on to something there with those points per possession.'”
Wisconsin’s 127.5 points per possession going into the weekend ranked number one in the country per KenPom.com. On the other end of the floor, allowing .947 points puts UW in the top 50.
“Yes, we do work on that,” Ryan explained. “We keep track. If we don’t get ten or more points every ten possessions, we run.”
Feeding that level of efficiency is a stubborn memory which will not allow Ryan to forget those times when he has failed. Whether it is ping pong or game from 1992, Ryan puts the lessons into practice.
“There was this one kid at Wilkes that beat me at Ping‑Pong, and I still to this day want to find him again because maybe he slowed down,” Ryan mused “Boy, was he good!”
What wasn’t so light was the loss in the 1992 Division III National Semi-Finals when Ryan coached UW-Platteville. Ryan’s team fell victim to the standard procedure of the time.
“I only coached one NCAA Tournament game without seeing the other team on film,” Ryan said recalling the loss to the University of Rochester. “We couldn’t get a tape on them. That was uncomfortable. That was the last time that will ever happen.”
It was the only game Ryan and his team lost in five Final Four appearances while at UW-Platteville.
“Believe it or not, in those days the NCAA did not require video exchange,” former University of Rochester Head Coach Mike Neer said recently by phone. “They do now. Division one, everything is on television. But in Division III, at the time, you were on your own trying to get video of your next opponent.”
Ryan’s team was prepared when they took the floor on Saturday against the undefeated Kentucky Wildcats in a rematch of last year’s national semi-final. A year ago, UK converted 11 offensive rebounds into a 23-10 advantage in second-chance points on their way to a 74-73 victory. Saturday night UW outrebounded UK, 34-22 including 12-6 on the offensive glass. The Badgers scored 13 second-chance points to Kentucky’s six.
“Having watched [Saturday’s] game, I’m pretty damn sure he got scouting video on Kentucky,” Neer added. “He’s been a helluva coach. He’s a good guy, a great coach… He left Division III with four national championships and a game away from his fifth, and I see an awful lot of similarities with the teams I saw at Platteville. They’re versatile. They’re tough. They’re physical. They don’t beat themselves. He remains a very, very good teacher.”
Life lessons from pinball and basketball. It’s really not a stretch. The same “supple wrist” used while “hanging in them dusty arcades banging them pleasure machines” is needed to knock down a pull up jumper.
Of course while coming off the picket fence.
“It’s like being a kid again, being around them,” Ryan said. “But when we get on the floor, we do anything basketball-wise, I never have to worry about ’em. They can separate.”
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