Alvarez: Great coaching is about caring for the players
November 25, 2017 | Football, Men's Basketball, Varsity Magazine
Thoughts on Bo Ryan’s induction into the Hall of Fame and the battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe
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UW Director of Athletics
MADISON, Wis. — Every successful player or coach has done it their own way. That's why I thought it was interesting to hear the different stories Sunday at the Hall of Fame basketball event in Kansas City.
Bo Ryan's story is a reminder that there's not one magical formula to winning, regardless of the level of competition or the sport.
Bo had certain things that he believed in — core principles that he taught and coached — and it was sound at every level: Platteville, Milwaukee and at our place.
Watching his teams play, you could see that his coaching was based on the fundamentals and he never got away from that. It's pretty much how we run our football program.
Don't try to create something you can't do. Be true to who you are. Play to your strengths.
We knew it for years Last night, it became official Bo Ryan, the winningest coach in #Badgers history, took his rightful place in the Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) November 20, 2017
After Bo retired, Greg Gard has emphasized the same things. He took over a team that wasn't playing very well and he turned them into a good team.
He never lost the kids. You saw them get better. That's good coaching.
I can still remember going in and talking to Greg after a couple of tough losses that year. I told him, "You're getting better. You're getting closer. Trust yourself." And you saw what happened.
Greg and Paul Chryst have taken comparable approaches. Unlike many coaches today, they truly care about the players. It's not about their next job and it's not about breaking the bank.
It's about coaching and caring about those kids.
I just talked to a grad school class this past week and they asked me for a piece of advice.
I told them if you're going into coaching, go in for the right reasons. Make it about the players, not about hitting a home run with the contract.
• • • •
That was a tough, hard-fought game against Michigan. We had terrible field position but our defense played lights out again. It has been a reoccurring theme all season.
I just like the way our guys keep grinding; they just keep playing. They don't flinch; they don't get rattled by anything — from the quarterback all the way through the team.
No matter what happens, they just play and they play off of one another. If you've watched us play, you've seen us wear people down mentally and physically in the fourth quarter.
Alex Hornibrook put the ball into some tight windows Saturday.
Michigan has some very good players, too. That's a fast, athletic defense, especially in the front seven.
Alex is a totally different player than Mike Samuel, who was the quarterback on our 1999 Rose Bowl team. But they're similar in attitude. They don't let anything distract them. They just keep playing.
The players loved Sammy and I'm sure it's no different with Alex. He gets things done. Look, it's a tough position and you're going to get scrutinized and criticized regardless of who you are.
I love Alex's attitude. He has won a lot of games. That's how you judge a quarterback.
• • • •
In the early years of our Axe rivalry, Minnesota was making it a big game and I wasn't. That's what I learned after I hired Jim Hueber, who had been an assistant with the Gophers.
He taught me that you have to educate your players on the history of the rivalry so that they understand that it's not just another game on the schedule.
Axe Week #OnWisconsin
— Wisconsin Football (@BadgerFootball) November 20, 2017
From that point on, we did things that we don't do for other games. Whenever the players walked into the locker room, they saw a video of an Axe celebration after a win.
We would give them a history lesson each and every year.
Obviously there's a lot riding on Saturday's game and that makes the Golden Gophers even more dangerous. Their fans have given them a mandate: "Whatever you do, beat Wisconsin."
They'll put a lot of emphasis on this. We just have to do what we've been doing. We just have to keep grinding.
