Disheartening. That is the best way one could describe the end to the Badgers' basketball season last year. Winning only five of its last 13 games, culminating in a 19-point catastrophe in the first round of the NCAA tournament, was a rough way for a team to end the season after beginning it 15-4.
But a new year means a new team and a new season that unofficially started Tuesday as head coach Bo Ryan and the team made its first public appearance at Media Day.
With media outlets across the country, dubbing the Badgers as high as sixth, expectations are great. But as one could imagine, that has little effect on the way head coach Bo Ryan does business.
""It doesn't have anything to do with the expectations of the outside, it will still always be about the expectations from within,"" said Ryan, who is set to enter his sixth season at the helm of UW.
With the team only losing forward Ray Nixon to graduation, the Badgers bring back an experienced squad looking to improve on last year's results. But Ryan emphasizes that high expectations are not something to be simply discarded.
""There's nothing wrong with anybody being excited about any team on any campus or any part of the campus,"" Ryan said. ""With expectations, just comes sticking with your work habits and never changing.""
That sentiment has rubbed off on the rest of the team, as they try to stay away from focusing on rankings.
""That measures a team on the talent they have,"" senior forward and national player-of-the-year candidate Alando Tucker said. ""But you can't go off that until you've played a game, stepped on the court and proven it.""
That first game, an exhibition, takes place Nov. 3 at the Kohl Center against UW-Stout. The first regular season game is against Mercer Nov. 12.
The schedule will certainly be a topic of discussion this season, as the team will face teams like Missouri State, Florida State, Marquette, UW-Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Ohio State and the rest of their Big Ten foes.
""You see where our non-conference schedule is ranked,"" Ryan said. ""It'll be in the top 10 supposedly in the country. RPI wise, it certainly won't hurt us.""
Yet the players will tell you that they are not thinking about those teams, but that they are simply eager to get back on the court after the manner in which the season ended last year.
""Nobody wants to go out like we did last year,"" senior guard Kammron Taylor said. ""Just the way that we played wasn't Wisconsin basketball. I know this team is hungry.""
The other members of the team echo the hunger Taylor speaks about. But it will be difficult for Ryan to manage that hunger because of the depth of this Badger basketball team. The play of sophomore forwards Joe Krabbenhoft and Kevin Gullikson after sophomore forward Marcus Landry and junior center Greg Stiemsma were ruled academically ineligible was inspiring. Now with Landry and Stiemsma back, and an impressive group of freshmen coming in, Ryan has to find a way to divvy up the playing time. For the coach, that has never been an issue.
""I tell them in the beginning, ‘I'm not Santa Claus, I don't have a bag over my shoulder and I don't pull out minutes and say here's yours, here's yours and here's yours,"" Ryan said. ""Our guys know who the better players are. Our guys know who should be on the floor.""
And for players like Tucker, who had to shoulder the burden of scoring last season, the abundance of talent will certainly help to take some pressure off him.
""I hope my assists go up,"" Tucker joked. ""I had to score last year against two, three defenders and so I think it would definitely take a lot of pressure off me and probably make it easier for me.""
Whether it's the expectations from the national media, the team depth or the fact Tucker and Taylor want to win so badly in their senior season, the 2006-'07 Wisconsin basketball season should be one to watch. But until the team steps on the floor, nothing has been accomplished.
""You got to go out whether you're eighth or 80th in the country,"" senior center Jason Chappell said. ""Preseason polls don't really mean anything compared to how you finish up the season, and we haven't done anything yet.""
