Steve Silverman

Achievement must be its own reward.

Take Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan. All he’s done is coach 23 years of college basketball and eclipse the 500-win mark. One might think that an accomplishment like that would have made him one of the most celebrated coaches in the game.

Oh, he is beloved in Wisconsin and well known throughout Big Ten country, but outside of the Midwest, he just doesn’t get the credit.

College basketball is usually a game that celebrates its leaders. Thanks to analysts like Dickie V, Bill Raftery and sneering Billy Packer — all former coaches — basketball coaches have been regularly anointed as larger-than-life images of greatness.

Whether those accolades are truly deserved is a matter up for debate. In the case of Ryan, the Badgers have a gem of a coach who has built one of the most consistent teams in the Big Ten.

This year’s edition of the Badgers may turn out to be his best team ever. Power forward Alando Tucker, point guard Kammron Taylor and big men Brian Butch and Jason Chappell have given Ryan a team with talent and versatility. Marcus Landry, Kevin Gullikson and Joe Krabbenhoft have given the Badgers spark off the bench. Few coaches in the country can take advantage of outstanding talent the way Ryan does.

He may not have gotten his share of national publicity, but he certainly knows how to coach the game. When he gets into his crouch on the Badgers’ sidelines — picture Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench behind the plate — Ryan sees all and knows how to make adjustments on the fly.

He is an excellent recruiter, a demanding taskmaster in practice and excels at making in-game moves. But the one constant from his days at Wisconsin-Platteville in Division III basketball, to Wisconsin-Milwaukee and finally to Madison has been toughness.

Ryan’s teams take the floor with no fear. That has manifested itself with consistently excellent play at home. Now in his sixth year with the Badgers, Wisconsin has put together a 13-2 record at home against ranked teams and is a substantial 42-2 against Big Ten opponents.

His colleagues in the Big Ten recognize his accomplishments. “Bo has had such a great coaching career. I don’t care if it’s Division-III, Wisconsin-Milwaukee or now at the University of Wisconsin, he can just flat-out coach and he does it the right way,” said Iowa head coach Steve Alford. “From day one in his coaching career, he’s done it the right way and won a lot of games as proof that he knows what he’s doing.”

Ryan hasn’t had a losing season since Wisconsin-Platteville was 9-17 in 1984-85, his first year on the sidelines. Since then it’s been nothing but winning seasons.

Perhaps Ryan, who leads all active coaches with 20 years or more on the sidelines in career winning percentage, would have a higher profile if he were more of a self-promoter. The Pennsylvania native who was raised outside of Philadelphia is chatty on all subjects outside of basketball, but he does not like to give too much away about his profession.

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But the Swing offense he employs is his pride and joy. It emphasizes movement and opportunity and even guards get a chance to post up.

“It’s an equal-opportunity offense that allows everybody in the post but still utilizes everyone’s strengths,” says Ryan. “Everyone makes passes from the post out and from the outside in, and that helps the development of our passers and keeps us in the top one percent of teams with the fewest turnovers over the years. We cut to the rim off back-screens and up-screens, and we also have fade-screens and ball-screens. There’s a variety.”

It’s all about making good passes and catching the ball, basics that Ryan emphasizes all the time “Maybe that’s a benefit of having played three sports growing up, baseball, basketball and football, and the pass and catch is extremely important in every one of those,” Ryan added. “It was engrained in me from the time I was three years old.”

His players have genuine affection for him, but more importantly they have full respect for him.

“We buy into what he’s saying, and that is out of respect,” sophomore forward Joe Krabbenhoft said. “What he’s done in the past, his record, all those statistics that he never talks about but we know. That’s where the respect comes from.”

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Star players often have differences with head coaches. But there is none of that friction between Tucker and Ryan. “All his players that play for him, respect him, period,” said Tucker. “I think for him, the respect that he has from every player on the team is unmatched. You never hear anything bad about coach Ryan.”

Opponents know that Ryan has not taken any shortcuts to his success and is the direct result of living and breathing the game. “I’ve always known who Bo Ryan is, and I think when you look at coaches, and I mean true coaches, he to me is what a coach should be,” said Ohio State coach Thad Matta. “I have great respect for what he’s done. I love the fact that he started as an assistant at Wisconsin, then went to Platteville, then to Milwaukee and then back to Wisconsin — it just seems he’s done it the right way.”

He’s got a powerful team that is breathing fire and kicking butt. If the Badgers continue to stay on track, Ryan may find himself unable to avoid the spotlight that has rarely come his way.

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