Nick's Notes: Bo gets his due respect

Daily News (West Bend, Wis.)
Published: April 12, 2014

Bo gets his due respect

Bo Ryan’s style doesn’t sit well with a lot of basketball fans. It’s not eye-catching. It’s not flattering. It’s boring. However, he is consistent. He is a future Hall of Fame coach.

Yet, do we hear a lot of discussion about Ryan going into the National Basketball Hall of Fame? If there is talk, it’s a whisper.

If you read last week’s article by Adam Lindemer about Ryan’s days at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, you would’ve learned the coach they call Bo is a winner. In more than 30 years of coaching, all he’s done is win. In his coaching career, he has just one losing season — his first at Platteville in the early 1980s.

Since then, he’s racked up more than 700 victories in what should be considered a Hall of Fame career. He has won 75.9 percent of the games he’s coached in his career. That is 10th-best all time.

His style is just not as flamboyant as other coaches nor does he have the Division I national championship to back it up.

If I recall, there are plenty of athletes and coaches in their respective sports who didn’t win a championship that got into the Hall of Fame.

Former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino is one example of many.

A former colleague, who proclaimed he bleeds the blue and orange of the University of Illinois, said he felt terrible after the Wisconsin Badgers’ onepoint loss to Kentucky in the Division I men’s basketball national semifinal. He said he wanted to see someone get what he deserved in a good way, a national championship at the Division I level.

Ryan has often been criticized for his style of coaching and the players he recruits. They’re not rimrockers; they’re not fivestar prospects. Therefore, they can’t win a national championship. What we saw with the Badgers’ run to the Final Four is those so-called lesser players than the coveted five-star prospects can win. With the way college basketball is set up these days, so many programs look for the player or players who will make a difference, but know those players aren’t likely to stick around for four years, let alone three or even two.

Not Ryan.

He gets the players who best fit his system and coaches them. The result? Look at this year’s Badgers.

Ryan likes coaching players to make them better basketball players. He’s proven he can do it with the consistency of his teams throughout his career and at all levels. He also wants his players to become better men and citizens when their playing days are done. And because he doesn’t go after the five-star prospects, Ryan is often criticized for early exits in the NCAA tournament.

That’s why it was so nice to see him get to the Final Four.

A former Daily News colleague said the Badgers will never win a national championship with Ryan as the coach.

They almost did.

But it’s not like he hasn’t achieved success. He won four national titles at Platteville. While he was there, Division III programs across the country wanted to be like Platteville. The Pioneers were the Duke’s, the Kansas’, the Kentucky’s of Division III. Ryan’s players also graduate from college.
One of Kentucky’s freshman, Julius Randle, is expected to declare for the NBA Draft. More are expected to follow.
Eventual NBA lottery draft pick Devin Harris graduated from Wisconsin. Alando Tucker, a firstround NBA pick in 2007, graduated from Wisconsin. Both played for Ryan.
How can one criticize someone for doing the right things and not once been accused of cheating?
Ryan deserves the praise that’s long been overdue.