Bo Ryan - Liberal Fascist

I am now seeing everything in terms of Jonah Goldberg's book, even NCAA basketball.

When I read the following at This Just In, it clicked that Bo Ryan basketball is fascist basketball. His focus is on the team, not the individual; and he doesn't focus his recruiting on finding superstars. His team also plays a physical style some might liken to street-thug fascists. This really jumped out at me when the article quoted the B-ball coach from La Follette High School promoting the Ryan system. How appropriate.

When Ryan’s Platteville teams were dominant, the respect for his tactics rose quickly, and high school coaches from all over the state flocked to watch his practices. Ryan did not have the best talent in the world, but he implemented a system that worked for his players and hammered fundamentals through endless drills. NCAA officials would marvel at his players’ practicing rudimentary tasks like chest passes during the postseason.

“We used to joke that our kids didn’t look the greatest getting off the bus, but they just executed,” said University Wisconsin-Platteville Athletic Director Mark Molesworth, who had to turn down several offers for tickets to the court dedication game.

Now it seems almost the entire state is running Ryan’s so-called swing offense, which is predicated on patience, precision and teamwork.

“The thing about the swing offense is that a lot of high school teams are starting to run it, and it’s almost like a feeder system,” said Reggie Williams, the coach at Madison’s La Follette High School, where the Badgers senior Michael Flowers played. “You have to be a cerebral player and you don’t have to be great one-on-one.”

I take some solice from UW's loss to Davidson when I look at the Badgers in these terms. A victory of the individual (Davidson star Stephen Curry) over the State (Bo's autonotrons) is something any free-market proponent can cheer.

On the other hand, Davidison out-played Wisconsin as a team, because they have better athletes playing as a team. Getting back to the linked article, if Ryan wants to advance his Badgers past the Sweet 16 with any regularity, he will need to upgrade his talent. That isn't going to happen by concentrating his recruiting in and around Wisconsin.