Pat Richter has become a master at knowing when to say when. The ability of an athletic director to have the wherewithal to hire and fire coaches is not an easy one, but Richter has seemed to find the perfect way of bridging the gap between the old and the new.
Not many gave Bo Ryan, a former UW assistant (1976-1984), much of a chance to succeed this season. He embarked on coaching a group of guys with little to no experience, and his Division I record was not spectacular.
Richter hired Ryan at the perfect time.
Having five seniors (Roy Boone, Mike Kelley, Andy Kowske, Maurice Linton and Mark Vershaw) graduate after a disappointing first-round exit in the NCAA tournament a year ago, there was no better time to take the risk of changing systems.
Gone was the half-court, slow-down style of Dick Bennett and Brad Soderberg, which garnered a Final Four appearance for the university, and in was the swing offense of Ryan.
The former Platteville and Milwaukee coach had two seniors, Charlie Wills and Travon Davis, on roster — neither saw more than 19 minutes per game in one season. Imagine if Bennett retired after the 1999-2000 season and Richter decided to go with Ryan then.
A first-year head coach, leading a group of five seniors that had been schooled on a completely different style of play, now having to change their make-up for one year — likely a rebuilding year. Give immense credit to Davis and Wills for making the transition from Bennett to Ryan smoother than anyone could have ever imagined.
Within one year the Badgers have gone from Bennett-ball to Bo-ball, and while doing so won a Big Ten title and a round in the Big Dance. Good timing.
Richter’s intelligent decision making continued this week when he hired former Badger hockey great Mike Eaves as the club’s replacement for the recently retired Jeff Sauer. It was widely known that the two men vying for the vacated post were Eaves and Mark Johnson — a Sauer assistant and son of the legendary Bob Johnson.
Taking nothing away from Sauer, the team underachieved numerous times over the last few years. Maybe a new direction was best for the program — by hiring Eaves, Richter and the Badger-faithful will get that new direction. Nine seniors will graduate in May, but the Cardinal and White will return 10 underclassmen from this year’s team, not including the incoming freshmen, and thus it again seems like the right time to implement a new style with a new voice behind the bench.
With this theory in tact, one wonders how long UW women’s hoops coach Jane Albright will last. She seems to be a victim of her own success. The program was not even on the map before the 46-year-old came to Madison and now eight years after her arrival she is the all-time winningest coach in the program’s history. Albright never got over the proverbial hump — her squad made the NCAA tournament five times during her reign at UW but has not gotten past the first round since her second year at the school in 1995-96.
Albright arguably had her best team ever this season and again was unable to get past the first round. The unit will graduate Kyle Black, Sarah Jirovec, Tamara Moore and Jessie Stomski, the winningest class in school history, which will leave only three seniors on the roster: Leah Hefte, Kristi Seeger and Candas Smith. All three will undoubtedly contribute in 2002-03, but none of the three have played an overload of minutes where a change of system will destroy their respective games. Albright has been terrific for the program — she has made the program.
But maybe it’s time for both parties to amicably move on; based on Richter’s track record it seems likely.
Move on.
