Last year’s season began with little promise for the Wisconsin men’s basketball team. After it lost the core of a team that went to the Final Four in 2000, the remaining players had to swallow their excitement and surrender to the direction of a new head coach. Of course that coach, Bo Ryan, proved he had the flame to stoke that excitement once again.
Ryan drew little fanfare from students and other fans initially but soon showed the rudder he had used to lead UW-Platteville to four Division III national championships. After a 3-6 start to the 2001 season, the young players took hold of Ryan’s style of discipline and basketball. The Badgers began winning games regularly, and tied with three other teams atop a shocked Big Ten conference.
After advancing to the second round of the NCAA tournament, fans’ expectations in Madison are higher this year. Just two contributors departed, while the players who led the team in scoring and rebounding return.
But the team’s fate appears to hinge once again on how well its pool of young talented players adjusts to Ryan’s basketball system. Leading-scorer Kirk Penney is the only senior on a team that includes four true freshmen. Ryan will not say if any of the freshmen will redshirt the year and postpone a season of competitive eligibility to hone their skills during college practice.
He suggested any of the freshmen could see playing time, especially a prized recruit named Boo Wade, who will back up the team’s point guard Devin Harris. Coaches also say Alando Tucker, a first-year forward, has boosted his playing stock during his first Wisconsin practices.
“I think Tucker and Boo showed that they’ve been through a lot physically,” Ryan said. “They are ready.”
Even if the Badgers do not redshirt any of the true freshmen, they can still benefit from the way the process prepares undeveloped players for the future. Andreas Helmigk, a tall forward from Austria who is adept at rebounding after missed shots, was forced to redshirt last season after he suffered a knee injury at the start of the year.
The 6-foot-9 Helmigk will back up sophomore Mike Wilkinson, the leading returning rebounder, and starting center Dave Mader. But the team says Helmigk has struggled finishing shots around the basket in early practices.
As Wisconsin struggles to adjust to the newcomers, its most troublesome loss could prove to be Travon Davis, last year’s starting point guard, whose responsibility for handling the ball and starting the offense will fall to sophomore Devin Harris for now. Harris was the team’s second-leading scorer as a freshman.
So Ryan has an opportunity to bring the most significant thing he lacked last year: a sense of continuity. For the first time since 1999-2000, the Badgers will play under the same head coach as the season before. Ryan’s experience as Wisconsin’s coach will help ease the dearth of college basketball experience that still exists on his roster.
“Last year, everyone was coming into a different system. It was almost like we were all freshmen in terms of learning the system,” Penney said. “In terms of how the coaching staff was going to react and how the coaching staff was going to work with you.”
Now, Ryan enters the year with new expectations and a new familiarity with his team. The only challenge the team carries from last year is youth; he just has to guide it through the growing pains.
