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Bo Ryan

Why Bo Ryan Chose Now To Step Down

The Wisconsin Badger basketball team beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi last night 64-49 and fans walked out of the Kohl Center with hope that this young team could find itself by the time Big Ten play begins in two weeks. By the postgame press conference, their coach had retired. Bo Ryan made his rumored retirement effective immediately.

Ryan’s retirement per se is not surprising, given that at the start of the year he first announced that this would be his last season, than pulled back and said maybe not. I live in Wisconsin and am wondering if there’s something in the air here that causes this sort of thing. First Brett Favre, now this. It begs the question of why Ryan would do this suddenly, to a freshman-laden team in need of his leadership. I believe the answer lies in athletic department politics and a flawed state law.

There’s no question Ryan wants top assistant Greg Gard to be his successor. When the first retirement announcement was made, athletic director Barry Alvarez announced his intention to conduct a nationwide search after the season was over. Even if Alvarez had wanted to hire Gard, the AD is required by Wisconsin law to post the job publicly for 15 days before hiring anyone and it can’t be posted until there is formally a vacancy.

Let’s address the law first—something this stupid and impractical could only be cooked up in academia. Every realistic candidate for the head basketball coaching job is already realistically known to the potential employer. It’s not as though Joe Schmo off the street is going to suddenly apply and have his resume be found compelling.

If the academics who crafted this law feel the same applies to other disciplines, fine, get rid of the law entirely. But it’s useless to an athletic program and would have only served to hurt Wisconsin’s recruiting during a potential lame duck Ryan season.

Now let’s move on to Alvarez’s interest in doing a full-scale national coaching search, which I suspect is an even bigger driving force. Before going on, let me say I don’t have any sources in the athletic department. I’m not going to go all Stephen A. Smith here, dropping names and claiming insider connections. It’s just my theory, but one I believe can be reasonably arrived at.

It’s obvious to anyone who follows Wisconsin sports (and maybe nationally, I don’t know) that Alvarez’s ego is positively gargantuan. It’s no less obvious that Ryan’s ego is considerable, though in comparison to the AD, Bo might as well be St. Therese of Lisieux. This looks to me look two lions circling each other in a cage, ready to wrestle over the future of Wisconsin basketball.

When Alvarez refused to go along with a plan of simply elevating the top assistant, Ryan counters by pulling back his retirement announcement. He then brings it back when there is no other choice but to let Gard coach as an interim for the rest of the season.

Furthermore, the timing is particularly convenient for Gard. The Badgers only play one game between now and the Big Ten opener on December 29, and that’s against UW-Green Bay (although since Wisconsin has already lost to Marquette and UW-Milwaukee maybe I shouldn’t write that so dismissively). Either way, there’s a lot of prep time for Gard. It’s almost as though Ryan decided in advance of the season that last night would be his final game.

I’m a Wisconsin fan and very open to having Gard as the future of the program, although if I’m right—and this is at least reasonable conjecture based on the timing of everything and the public statements already on record from Alvarez and Ryan this past fall—then Gard may need to do something miraculous, like win the Big Ten with a mostly freshman lineup to get a fair shake from the AD. I’m also open to a nationwide search, although if Virginia’s Tony Bennett isn’t available, I’d prefer to keep the hiring in-house.

What I will say is that this kind of power politics should not be as casually accepted in college sports as it’s becoming. Bob Knight is my favorite person all-time in any sport, but he pulled the same stunt in February 2008, when he opened the door for his son Pat at Texas Tech. Now it’s Bo Ryan. Whatever happened to the mantra of “finish the season”, something so many kids and their parents live by when they go out for sports? Apparently the multi-millionaires of college basketball are above it.

That’s my rant. I’ll close on a more upbeat note and it’s the question of where Ryan fits into the pantheon of coaches, Big Ten and nationally. I haven’t had near enough time to research this properly, but if we restrict the conversation to Big Ten coaches in the post-UCLA dynasty era (1976 to the present), I think Ryan ranks third behind Knight and Tom Izzo. Bo’s back-to-back Final Four appearances of the past two years pushed him past Purdue’s Gene Keady, who would be fourth.

The Big Ten Middle: Michigan, Wisconsin & Indiana

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In the Big Ten’s race for the NCAA Tournament, three times fall in the Forgotten Middle Class. At the top you have likely conference champ Michigan State and Ohio State, still with an outside shot at a co-championship. On the bubble, you have Purdue and Northwestern, and if you’re feeling generous, Illinois and Minnesota. But situated in the middle are solid basketball teams in Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana, all currently projected as top 16 teams nationally by ESPN.com bracketologist Joe Lunardi. Just as TheSportsNotebook looked at the Big East’s forgotten middle yesterday, we continue our election-year pitch to the middle class by examining the Big Ten’s Middle Three.

Michigan (21-8, 11-5, projected #3 seed): The Wolverines suffered a disappointing home loss to Purdue over the weekend that ended their dark horse bid for the Big Ten title, but that’s the only loss they’ve taken since February 5 when they fell at Michigan State. John Beilein’s team has been ruthless on its home floor, beating all the contenders—Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin and Indiana—in the friendly confines of Ann Arbor. UM has a non-conference win over Memphis, and it’s only losses outside the conference are to Duke and Virginia.

Michigan does it with a lot of finesse, as no player in its top six goes over 6’9” and none average more than six rebounds a game. But the backcourt trio of Trey Burke, Zack Novak and Tim Hardaway Jr. combines for 38 ppg. Novak can hit the three-ball, as can sophomore forward Evan Smotrycz. In the games ahead in the conference tournament at Indianapolis and then in the NCAA Tournament, shot selection will be at a premium. Hardaway is not a good three-point shooter (though he is effective inside the arc) and Burke is mediocre. The Wolverines cannot have shooters other than Novak and Smotrycz getting carried away from long range, particularly given they’re not likely to be rebounding the misses. Given the importance of Novak’s playmaking to the offense, it’s also going to be important for other scorers to step up—Hardaway off the dribble and Smotrycz stepping out are the best guesses.

Beilein deserves a lot of credit for what he’s done with this group. It’s got the talent to be a decent team, but not one that would be a legitimate contender in a league that grades out as America’s best in the RPI. When TheSportsNotebook hands out conference Player and Coach of the Year honors next week, Beilein will certainly be a part of that discussion.

Wisconsin (21-8, 10-6, projected #4 seed): Bo Ryan is always part of the discussion when it comes to Big Ten Coach Of The Year, or at least he should be. In what was supposed to be a rebuilding year, the Badgers got big non-conference wins over UNLV & BYU, both of whom look NCAA bound. The only December losses were to Marquette, and a competitive one at North Carolina that was probably more impressive than any of the wins. Big Ten play started slowly at 1-3, but Wisconsin has won nine of its last twelve, including road wins at Purdue, Minnesota, Illinois and most recently at Ohio State on Sunday.

Jordan Taylor is easily this team’s best player, although his 14 points/4 rebounds/4 assists stat line does have to be considered somewhat of a disappointment, as does his mediocre 34 percent shooting from behind the arc. The positive is that Wisconsin fans—a group that includes this writer—can hope that means Taylor can lift his game in the big moments ahead. Ryan Evans is averaging 11 ppg at small forward, although no player in American has a greater capacity to first make a brilliant drive to the hoop and then slam the shot off the backboard with velocity this state normally only sees from Aaron Rodgers or Yovani Gallardo. The top post player is Jared Berggen, only the 6’10” junior is at his best when he circles out to shoot the three-ball. Josh Gasser’s point totals don’t blow you away, but he is the best Ryan has from behind the arc.

As is the case with Ryan’s teams, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts and defense is a core part of Wisconsin’s success. The conference tournament has been a disappointment for UW since they won it in 2008 and the head coach is hungry to make his first Final Four. If a run in Indy or in the NCAAs is going to happen, Taylor needs to have a couple “hop on my back and I’ll carry you” kind of games.

Indiana (22-7, 9-7, projected #4 seed): IU is the one team of this group that might have already peaked. They went 12-0 in December, including being the only team to beat Kentucky, plus knocking off Notre Dame, N.C. State and Butler. Since a 3-1 start to Big Ten play, they’ve split their last twelve, including losses at Nebraska and Iowa. A home win at Illinois came after the Illini meltdown of February, but they do have solid road wins at Purdue and a big 69-50 win at Minnesota this past weekend was one of the best showings Tom Crean has seen from his team lately.

If Indiana rediscovers its mojo, they have the most balanced lineup of the three teams under review here today. Cody Zeller, the 6’11” freshman is perhaps the third-best pure post player in the entire conference, trailing only Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger and Michigan State’s Draymond Green. Jordan Hulls, the little 6’0” guard scores 11 ppg and hits 48 percent from behind the arc. Christian Watford and Victor Oladipo provide reliable scoring at the forward spots and Watford can hit the three-ball—the buzzer-beater he hit to nail Kentucky was no fluke, but a regular part of his offensive repertoire. Off the bench Will Sheehy can drain the trey.

Therefore Crean has a nice combination of an inside post presence coupled with good three-point shooting that can keep you competitive with anyone, with the Kentucky game—along with a win over Ohio State—to back it up. What the coach needs to do is ban Oladipo or guard Verdell Jones from even considering shooting the trey. Both are under 30 percent and both attempt too many. If Indiana plays to its significant strengths they can close the season strong, starting with a home game against Michigan State tonight (7 PM ET, ESPN), continuing with a home game against Purdue and onto postseason play.

For all three of these teams, winning the conference tournament next week should be seen as an important goal. None are going to win the Big Ten title. While all three are decent darkhorses to make the Final Four, it would undeniably take a few doses of luck for that to happen. The best chance for Michigan, Wisconsin or Indiana to punctuate solid seasons with some real championship hardware is next week at Indianapolis’ Conseco Field House.