A 2-4 Big Ten road record and a two-game losing streak have not changed Wisconsin basketball coach Bo Ryan’s approach to the game. He continues to stress what his emphasis for the whole season has been–the need for his team to look at each game on an individual basis.
After beginning last week’s mini-road trip Wednesday night with a 65-57 loss to Illinois in the battle of the similar-looking jerseys, the Badgers followed with an ugly 71-59 defeat at Ann Arbor to the Michigan Wolverines.
In that defeat, Wisconsin shot a dismal 37.5 percent from the field and connected on just 15 percent (3-20) from beyond the three-point arc, including a 1-10 performance from junior guard Devin Harris.
The Badger head coach stressed his team’s need to “just keep working.”
Ryan has never placed an emphasis on anything other than hard work and practice to improve his team.
“I’m not doing anything different than the other places where I coached, so I don’t plan on doing that (altering his coaching philosophy) now,” Ryan said.
Even though the Badgers have dropped out of first place in the Big Ten conference, Ryan says he will continue to approach the season one game at a time.
“It might shock you people to think that, well, look, because we’re one [game] behind now, that means we have to [do] this better or that,” Ryan said. ” I mean, that’s not the way people do it in our profession. We got to do what’s right for the next game.”
Ryan is also not buying the argument that a losing streak is needed for motivation.
“If players are waiting for something to get them mad in order to play, then we’re not where we need to be,” he said.
Instead of worrying about the past two games, Ryan is turning his attention to the present and Wednesday’s match-up with Penn State.
“I’m going to get them (the players) ready for Penn State,” Ryan continued. “Where we are in the standings or anything else isn’t going to change how we get ready for Penn State.”
Even with a 3-9 record in the Big Ten and 9-14 overall, the Penn State Nittany Lions are a team Ryan will not overlook when the Lions come to the Kohl Center Wednesday night. Ryan points to the play of junior forward Jan Jagla and the talented freshman guard tandem of Marlon Smith and Ben Luber in particular. Jagla paces the Nittany Lions in scoring at just under 14 points per game.
Penn State is coming off a tough home loss Saturday against Illinois, 66-58. In that game, Illini point guard Dee Brown was the difference, exploding for 24 points.
“They had a great chance at getting Illinois, for those who saw the game,” Ryan said. “It wasn’t like Illinois didn’t come ready to play. Illinois played hard and Dee Brown made some tough shots down the stretch. (Penn State head coach) Ed (DeChellis) knows what he is doing, and he’s got a plan.”
