Monday, March 02, 2009

The Wisconsin Mechanism


Sure feels nice to get a quality BigTen home win. Bo Ryan is now 48-0 against unranked BigTen opponents at the Kohl Center. Read that again. The Bo Ryan basketball stats are absurd. Remember them when you hate the swing because we don't score for 7 minutes at a time. 

Is it me, or is Jordan Taylor shrinking? He looked about 5'7" during that game.

It was nice that Pop was making lay-ups this game. He gets plenty of chances during games, but he doesn't always make them. Kbot never makes them. He missed a lay-up so bad that it didn't even hit the rim off the backboard. Luckily Landry cam in for a perfectly timed two-handed put-back lay-in. (every other team power slams this)

There were a lot of things to like about this game. My favorite moment happened near the very end when we were almost fading. Pop Hughes went driving to the lane and tried a wrap around pass to an unsuspecting Jarmz. The ball bounced off Jarmz and went out of bounds for a turnover. Pop looked disheartened. My grief was palpable. It was not good times. The cameras cut to Bo Ryan, who got Pop's attention, and then snarled at him like a an angry badger. He showed his teeth and straight snarled. It was ferocious and he was doing it to instill in Pop an energy and a purpose. Bo wanted to win and he wanted Pop to want it too. You could not help but be invigorated by that look. Pop nodded and would not let his spirit waiver. That's coaching folks. It's not all Xs and Os. It's about guiding young men. 

Bo Ryan puts our cogs into the Mechanism and we win. Feels good. Go Badgers. 






1 comment:

Randy Moss said...

U-65,
sometimes you are 78 years old.
sincerely,
pageantry