The Daily Northwestern
Most college basketball coaches spend their bye week recruiting — as Northwestern’s Bill Carmody did last week. But Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan decided to catch up on some reading.
Over the summer, Ryan received a copy of former Badgers coach Walter “Doc” Meanwell’s book “The Science of Basketball.” Ryan finally got around to reading it this past week, and he took away one key message from the hoops bible: keep an even keel.
“The main thing was not getting too high or too low, even in the 1920s,” Ryan said. “I’m reading this thing and thinking the person I learned this from must have learned it from somebody who learned it from this guy, through the generations.”
The lesson comes at a perfect time for the Badgers (13-4, 3-2 Big Ten), who are riding a three-game winning streak and heading into contests against two teams winless in the conference: Northwestern tonight and Penn State on Saturday. The Wildcats (8-8, 0-5) travel to Madison for a 7 p.m. tip-off at the Kohl Center.
Ryan preaches basketball’s tradition — he often tells his team the story of James Naismith building the first basketball hoops from two peach baskets. So preaching the values of Meanwell, who began his career with 44 wins in 45 games and three straight Big Ten titles, is a no-brainer for the coach trying to follow the legend’s footsteps.
Last year, in his first season as Wisconsin’s head coach, Ryan and the Badgers surprised the Big Ten with an 11-5 conference record and a share of the league title. But the Badgers stumbled out of the gate this season with two road losses to Michigan and No. 13 Illinois.
Ryan didn’t change the team’s practice schedule, he didn’t make line-up changes and he didn’t try to get Wisconsin back on track with corny pregame speeches. Instead, he took another page from Meanwell’s book.
“(Meanwell) talks about a coach getting really emotional over one game,” Ryan said. “If you have to do tricks to get guys to play hard for one game, then how are you going to do that the next game?”
The Badgers rebounded from the two losses with victories over Minnesota and Ohio State, and then came from behind in the second half to upend Iowa on Jan. 22.
The backcourt of Kirk Penney — the only returning All-Big Ten First Team selection — and sophomore Devin Harris has once again been the Badgers’ cheese and crackers. Emerging freshman forward Alando Tucker (12.9 points per game) has given Ryan another weapon in his swing offense.
“Alando Tucker has improved more as a basketball player in a short period of time than any player I have ever coached,” Ryan said. “Coming out of high school, (he had) the ability to get off his feet, but there really wasn’t a lot of other praise that was being heaped at him.
“He will take anything and everything we give him and work on it. He’s exceeded everybody’s expectations.”
Even after his recent literary exploits, Ryan sounds more like a mathematician.
“If you have some adversity, or a success quotient if your team is successful, then you get happy with yourself,” Ryan said. “I never want my family to know if we had a good practice or a bad practice when I go home, because I just try to never change emotionally.
“Maybe that’s why my daughter became an actress.”
NU (8-8, 0-5 Big Ten) at Wisconsin (13-4, 3-2)
7 p.m. tonight
Kohl Center,Madison, Wis.
Player to watch: Wisconsin forward Alando Tucker. The freshman averages 13 points.
