Ryan Addresses Media
November 27, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Wisconsin men's basketball coach Bo Ryan addressed the media Monday at the Kohl Center. Ryan fielded questions on the ACC-Big Ten Challenge, his upcoming game against Florida State and getting his 500th collegiate victory last weekend, among other topics. A full transcript follows:
QUESTION #1: Bo, with going into this ACC-Big Ten Challenge, obviously the Big Ten hasn 't won this event yet. But even so, is this still, win or lose, do you see this as a plus for Wisconsin, for the Big Ten, regardless of, you know, whether the league comes out on top this year'
BO RYAN: Well, I'm looking at the positive that it brings and that it 's a topnotch opponent on a home and away basis, which in scheduling is great. You know, if we had one of these with each conference, with three or four or five different conferences, it'd be fine with me because it would guarantee each year, if it 's flip-flopped properly, a home and away, which we try to schedule anyhow.
I mean, we have several highly ranked or high RPI teams on our non-conference schedule anyhow, but this is one that we never have to worry about. It's going to be there, so that's what I like about it. And as far as how the numbers work out and how the, you know, I always wonder who sets these match-ups up and who behind the scenes is doing what. And, you know, so I don't know if it's a pure scheduling, where it's all the factors are the same each year.
But, you know, when they add them up, one league wins X number of games, the other league wins the other amount. And I've watched the National League and American League in the baseball All-Star Game go through some streaks where it seemed like the one league was never going to win another game, and then all of a sudden they make a strong run. So that's what we have to do in the Big Ten. Maybe we can make one of those pushes.
QUESTION #2: I know it's not up to you who you play in this event, but would you like, and I'm sure the fans would like, a chance to see Wisconsin-Duke, Wisconsin-North Carolina. Nothing against Wake Forest or Maryland or Florida State, would you like that opportunity someday'
RYAN: Well, you can get that opportunity in tournament play, whether it's in the ACC-Big Ten Challenge or, you know, we've played an awful lot of good teams. And I'm still young in this league. You know, it's the Kentuckys and people like that who, I mean, we've played, you know, plenty of top-caliber teams, and you don't have to be from one of the top conferences to be a top team, which is being proven every day. So, you know, that's up to them who they want to put us with, and whoever comes out, I go, oh, good. You know, I've never had it come out and go, oh, that's bad. I say, oh, good.
QUESTION #3: How much discussion does this get with when you're meeting with the other Big Ten coaches, and how often do you ever discuss the ACC-Big Ten Challenge and winning the series or whatever' Does it ever come up'
RYAN: I must have taken a break in any meeting that we had, other than just try to represent the league well, as all the coaches would say, is just, you know, whenever the topic was brought up, it was usually brought up by somebody who wasn't a coach in a meeting. But play hard, play smart, good luck. But it's not, I mean, everybody has their own issues that they're working on and trying to get their teams ready for conference play. So there's a lot of other things out there that we deal with that get a lot more attention.
QUESTION #4: It seems like for at least each of the past number of years that we 've all been asking you about the match-ups or not playing this team or that team. How often, if at all, do you hear from your players or hear from fans' Have they ever said to you something like, boy, why don't you guys play Duke or wish you 'd play North Carolina or, Coach, can we play these guys, what's the deal ' Do you get that response at all from any of them, fans or players'
RYAN: You know, I probably do, but it passes like in five seconds, because my mind just goes to other things. I must be different. Yeah, there are people that say, I mean, the year Wake Forest came in here and Josh Howard coming off that injury from the year before and did what he did, wow. Hell, he proved he was a pretty good player. Wake Forest only won the ACC that year. Well, we won the Big Ten. So little did people know in that early stage of the non-conference season what two opponents they were watching.
So, you know, when you look at Florida State and you say look what they have back, look how talented they are, you know, that's a team that could be there at the end of the year too, so I don't, they're all good. They're all trying to beat you. And I've always respected the opponents and the competition, because as the saying goes, if you don't, then that means you don't respect yourself. So it really never matters to me.
QUESTION #5: Alando referred to Joe as Mr. Intangible, and I've heard Garbage Man or whatever. Is there a phrase that best suits Joe Krabbenhoft with all he does for you ' Do you use anything other than just Joe'
RYAN: You're average Joe is anything but average. He works so hard. He 's constantly trying to learn as much as he can. He's very attentive in all the video sessions. You can see that in his improved play, bettering his assist-to-turnover ratio from a year ago. You always like those guys that listen and get better, and whether it's every game, I don't know, but on an average, I think Joe will have a better year this year than last year.
And that's what you hope for in players, is to see development and to see the absorption of information that you're trying to pass out, and Joe always is interested in learning. He doesn't think he's the best player. He 's just going to try to be the best player by what he can contribute to a team playing well, to being on the left-hand side. And I've been lucky to have a lot of those kind of guys in X number of years of coaching.
QUESTION #6: What was the best thing you got out of the South Padre trip, whether it was you personally or you for your team' What was the best thing you got out of the trip'
RYAN: Playing two teams, one a real veteran team who added a guard, who made a big difference, and he's going to make a difference in that Missouri Valley Conference. That transfer from Missouri, he's the real deal with the ball. He creates a lot of positive things for Ahearn. And that team just, really he was the part I think, and what other people have mentioned to me, saying wait until you see when he gets on the floor.
So we played a team with a good leader, a guy that came from out of nowhere, because you never know about the guys that are sitting out, the transfers. But we obviously had seen a couple games on tape, but what a difference-maker he was. So I think that helps us in making sure that our guards all the time know that the leadership position with the ball, making good decisions is extremely important.
And then playing an athletic defensive team like Auburn and not turning it over, you know, less than 24 hours later, I thought our guys in one day showed some improvement. And then we've got Florida State coming in, and athletically they can do a lot of those same things. So from one day to the next, guys showed hopefully that they grasped a few concepts a little bit better than what we had going down there, and that's all you hope for in a trip like that. You've got to come out better, but you won 't know that until you play your next (opponent).
QUESTION #7: You mention Missouri State, and Wichita State goes into LSU and gets a win this week, and the media always likes to group those teams into the category of mid-major. Do you think that category shouldn't exist anymore in college basketball '
RYAN: It's been going on ever since I was in diapers. I can remember, well, maybe not diapers, but going in in the `50s, going up to the Palestra with my dad or uncles or whoever I went up to the game with and had teams come in and play LaSalle, and I 'm sure people were like who's LaSalle in the rest of the country, or who 's Penn or Temple or when some of the other powerhouses would come into Philly. Well, we all knew who those teams were because we lived there and that's who we were exposed to.
And then when a powerhouse team would come up into Philly and get knocked off, it would be, but nobody said, oh, how about this unknown team from an unknown conference or a less-advertised conference or a less-publicized conference. Fifties, `60s, `70s, `80s, `90s, now, this has always been going on. It's just there's more lips moving now, more being written, more paper being used.
I mean, it just, it's gotten so much attention because of all the different, it used to be you had one or two sources for information. Now with the Internet and everything else, you've got thousands. So when you say, there's a lot of good teams out there in basketball, and a lot of us have known this for a long time. So be it.
But it's made the sport what it is, so I'm not complaining about it. I just know that every time we play, and especially if you're marked as a team that has this or has that, you still have to play and do it and perform, and the other guys are always looking to knock somebody off in that position, but that's not new. So I just think because of all the different forms and types and the way information is out there now, it just dramatizes everything.
QUESTION #8: Coach, you've got 500 now. What kind of advice or conversation would you have with yourself after you won your first game'
RYAN: What did I have after the first game'
REPORTER: No. What kind of advice, you being yourself now at 500, what kind of advice or what kind of a conversation would you have with yourself if you could go back in time to the day after you won your first game'
RYAN: Well, I thought we should have won the game before that at Dubuque. I got a technical early in the game and we got beat on the other side of the river. I just thought the Mississippi was a dividing line for how you're supposed to play the game. I didn't realize the game was played different on the other side of the Mississippi. Well, every time we went back over the Mississippi after that for the next 14 years, we won. So I learned how to coach on the other side of the Mississippi.
What conversation did I have' None, because after the first one, it was you get ready for the next one. But yeah, the only thing a guy like me says is should have been the second one, should have won the one before it. You said it, private conversation' That was the private conversation.
My dad was there at that game too, and he almost got thrown out, but I just, I just said, wait a minute, this is not, I think I'm going to coach for a long time, but I'm not going to put up with this. Imagine that, a coach thinking that he wasn 't getting any breaks. My buddy Phil Martelli had one of those games here recently at Penn State. But I don't want people thinking I talk to myself out there, after you asked that question.
