Sports Radio Interviews

Bo Ryan Prepares for the Madness

Bo Ryan, Jim Tressel, and Brian Kelly are three of the best and most respected head coaches in their respective sports. They are also part of a trend that makes a lot of sense. All three of those coaches led non-Division I schools to multiple NCAA national championships before moving to Division I. It should not be a surprise then, that when these coaches were given the reigns to Division I programs, they excelled, ultimately having great success at high-profile schools.

Recruiting is tougher at those levels and the Xs and Os are more important. The TV doesn’t show games from places like Platteville, Wisconsin, Youngstown Ohio, or Allendale, Michigan, yet these coaches were able to get players to come there, work hard (with no chance to play professionally in the future), buy into the system and win. So when the next big program is looking for its next head coach, it should ignore the rising Division I assistants and look to the guys like Larry Kehres of Mount Union (football), Lance Leipold of Wisconsin-Whitewater (football) or Mark Edwards of Washington University (basketball).

Eleven years removed from his last national championship at Wisconsin-Platteville and nine seasons into his tenure as the University of Wisconsin head coach, Bo Ryan has the Badgers poised for a successful March. The Badgers play an efficient blend of basketball, with a “swing offense” that is methodical, yet effective, versatile players and a stifling defense.

Bo Ryan joined Dan Dakich (a former player and assistant coach at Indiana) on 1070 the Fan in Indianapolis to talk about building his teams, Jon Leuer’s health,  playing Illinois twice in a row, and the Big Ten Coach of the Year award.

On having the same type of team every year:

“You probably were asked that at Indiana. Playing against Coach Knight’s teams, you go, ‘Wait a minute, isn’t that the same guy they had six years ago?’… Well that’s what we try to do here. When you ask how they keep coming to look the same, I just think that the older guys, like you just said, have to be the ones that is that voice in the locker room that has to be a positive voice to say, ‘Hey look, Coach is just trying to make you better.’ Our older guys have done that. I’ve been pretty fortunate that way at Platteville, Milwaukee and now Wisconsin to have upperclassmen that get it and who pass it on.”

On playing Jon Leuer:

“Against Minnesota he was cleared to get back to action, but probably I should have held him out of going right away once he was cleared to play. But then again, he was healthy enough and he’s ok. But boy, he had to get game speed back to his repertoire, meaning that it’s one thing to run in a pool and run on a treadmill and do some different things that way, but to get back to basketball speed. That was his roughest one. Since then, he’s done just fine.”

On playing Illinois twice in a row:

“Bruce (Weber) does a great job. Our game here got away from us. Their game got away from them. They’re too good of a team. They know what’s riding on what they’re doing. We know what we are doing. It’s going to be whether or not certain players perform well. Our team goes how certain players go and Illinois’ team goes as certain players go. So hopefully, it will be our guys going. If you look at Illinois, they’ve beaten enough good teams. I think they are definitely capable of playing well in the NCAA Tournament. I know all the conversation is about if they beat us they’re in. I can’t get into all that. I don’t really follow that that closely. But I do know that they are a great team and we are going to have our hands full.”

And on the hosts claim that Ryan should be Big Ten Coach of the Year:

“I just got to tell you this, my wife agrees with you. I didn’t even realize that Jon Leuer missed nine games. He missed that many?”

Listen to Bo Ryan with Dan Dakich on 1070 the Fan in Indianapolis.

Tags: 1070 The Fan, Bo Ryan, Bob Knight, Jon Leuer, Jordan Taylor, NCAA Tournament, Wisconsin Badgers