The term “senior leader” gets thrown around quite a bit this time of year.
As we head into March Madness and prepare to fill out our brackets, it’s the senior-laden teams that are considered the safe bet. The squads with established seniors who have experienced big games and come through in pressure situations are always intriguing. And then there are teams like Kentucky who scare you to death with their blatant inexperience.
But does having seniors on your team mean you have leadership? No, of course not.
Look at North Carolina’s seniors this year and tell me where the leadership has been. Seniors Marcus Ginyard and Deon Thompson have been around that historic program long enough to know what it takes to win it all. And with the never-ending talent supply the Tar Heels enjoy, everyone assumes they’ll reload rather than rebuild after a championship run.
But that can’t happen when your seniors get complacent and the backbone of your program looks as lost and frustrated as the five-star freshmen trying to dominate the college game like they did in high school. UNC now deservedly sits a single game out of last place in the ACC.
At Wisconsin, you wont see that problem with the basketball program. While everyone can name a different reason why Bo Ryan’s teams are successful year after year (relentless defense, the swing, balanced scoring, running up and down the hill, etc.), it’s the senior presence on his teams that have made as big of a difference as any.
In 2009-10, Trevon Hughes and Jason Bohannon were next in line.
UW’s two senior guards have paved the way for another 20-plus-win season, another NCAA appearance and another top-four finish in the Big Ten.
But that shouldn’t surprise anyone.
The common thread in this program has been the ability of the seniors to deliver when their time comes.
Alando Tucker and Kammron Taylor; Brian Butch and Michael Flowers; Joe Krabbenhoft and Marcus Landry; and now of course, Hughes and Bohannon.
Each of those teams took on the identity of its senior class and, despite preseason projections insisting the Badgers can’t replace the seniors they lose, that identity has constantly been a winning one.
Now this doesn’t happen at every college basketball program. With players leaving early for the pros, transferring to see more playing time or getting in too much trouble off the court to make a difference on it, this idea of a strong senior class year after year is taken for granted. It’s up to the players to take ownership of a team, and the Hughes/Bohannon combo has done just that.
And the most impressive part about the leadership these two exhibited is not just the way they made their teammates better, but the way they took their own abilities to the next level heading into their final season.
Hughes has improved every year in the program. His ability to connect from behind the arc has continuously grown, and we have seen him take over games with his ability to hit any shot (no matter how well defended) given to him.
He’s proven to be a clutch performer, and it’s no surprise he leads the team with over 15 points per game.What was surprising was the development of Bohannon.
At the start of the year I believed we had already seen the best of J-Bo. I thought he was a one-dimensional player — a streaky shooter who was decent defensively. Nothing more, nothing less. I could not have been more wrong.
Not only has Bohannon been dynamite from three-point range, he has also developed every aspect of his game. He is confident driving into the lane and finishing at the rim, he has shown the ability to create his own shot with a newfound stepback in his arsenal, he is confident with the ball in his hands under pressure and he is making an impact on the defensive end.
Until Jon Leuer returned from injury, Bohannon, standing at 6-foot-2, was the most feared shot blocker on the team. It seems like every other game, Bohannon comes from the weak side and swats a shot into the third row. If those hustle plays can’t inspire your teammates, nothing will.
After three years in a program, it’s understandable to think a player had reached his potential, but the best part about Hughes and Bohannon is that they wanted more, and they worked for it.
“I think they talked amongst themselves in the summer, because conditioning-wise, strength-wise, our guys didn’t all the sudden turn into Charles Atlas’s, but our guys are definitely stronger than they were last year,” head coach Bo Ryan said Monday. “I thought they were in better shape when we started in September, and that has to come from somewhere, some place, and it isn’t always seniors, but I think those two definitely have led the way. I think they’ve seen some results. They want to see more.”
In this week leading up to the home finale, there has been a wide array of articles lauding the efforts and leadership of the two senior guards here at UW, and they have earned all of the credit they’ve received.
But the performances we’ve seen from Hughes and Bohannon this season are what we expect to see from players at the end of their career here in Madison. Because at UW, senior leadership is more than just a reason to advance the Badgers in your bracket, it’s the foundation this program is built on.
Max is a junior majoring in journalism. Have you been impressed with the leadership of the UW seniors? E-mail him at mhenson@badgerherald.
