Coming off consecutive away losses, the men’s basketball team looks ahead in anticipation to its two-game home stand at the Kohl Center this week as a chance to get back in the winning column.
At Monday’s press conference, UW coach Bo Ryan talked about the importance of the Badgers’ upcoming games against No. 22 Ohio State and Northwestern. Ryan is looking for his veteran players to pick up their play as they enter the most crucial portion of the Big Ten season, and he hopes the young players will follow their lead.
“We usually have two days to get ready for a game,” Ryan said. “We’ll say [an opponent] likes to do this, let’s take this away, and each time were doing that, it is not any change; it’s the experienced players that tend to handle the subtleties from game to game better than inexperienced or younger players.”
The subtleties of the game that Ryan talked about are what the younger players, in particular Mike Wilkinson and Devin Harris, need to learn in order for UW to take the step towards elite status in the Big Ten:
“We tell the guys to keep this guy off the boards. Now we say that to a senior or someone that’s been around a bit, how many times do you have to tell them? We tell Mike to do something: ‘you got to get your arm in, deny this lob’. Then we show film . . . and it’s just a continual process.”
Ryan is looking for the younger players to respond to the challenge of playing in the Big Ten, in which they face a tough opponent every game.
“The [younger players] are going through a schedule where every fourth game was going to be a tough game,” Ryan said.
“Well, there are no relax games, comfort games, in the competition that we’re going against,” Ryan said. “It’s every night, it’s hard, it’s physical and we’ve got to come ready to deal with that. It’s all part of the process. Some get through it better than others.”
Ryan added that Harris and Wilkinson need to perhaps do things a bit differently than they have done as of late.
“People have been able to figure out some things with Mike and with Devin.” Ryan said. “The [other teams] hadn’t seen them very much a month ago, but it doesn’t take long to get the tendencies of players.”
To get a change in his players, Ryan has worked to create an environment “where all your players are the kind that really want to get better.” Ryan is optimistic that his younger players will get better and make the team better.
“It seems like they’re coming into the room when we watch video or go out onto the floor and take instruction in an effort to do it [improve],” Ryan said.
After their loss to Michigan, Ryan hopes that the team will respond with intensity and good fundamental basketball.
“We’ll show them [the Michigan game tape] again today and hopefully they will respond,” Ryan said. “They have responded to other things that we have shown them.”
This homestand is critical for the Badgers, not only to improve their conference record, but also to set the tone for the rest of the season with a win against a nationally ranked opponent.
