Hlas: Why not Wisconsin?

On, Wisconsin!

Since I'm watching the Final Four from two states away, I can be a fan Saturday. A Wisconsin fan.

It isn't because I'm among the millions of Kentucky-haters. National-titles are won by teams with multiple NBA prospects, not MBA candidates. Why wouldn't John Calipari take out a lot of one-year leases on star players?

I'm not cheering for Bucky because Wisconsin is a Big Ten team, either. It's already a tired storyline that the Big Ten was underrated this season.

Wisconsin has been highly rated since November. The Big Ten has two Final Four representatives because Michigan State got its act together in March after being nothing special for four months. The rest of the conference was just OK, and no one but the Badgers and Spartans got out of the NCAA tourney's first week.

The three best teams in the nation are at the Final Four. The fourth finalist is Michigan State, which probably wouldn't be going to Indianapolis had it faced Notre Dame, Arizona or Gonzaga in the Elite 8.

Heck, the Spartans wouldn't have ermeged from the Round-of-32 had they, and not Iowa, been the No. 7 seed that faced Gonzaga in Seattle.

Anyway, about Wisconsin ... The consistent excellence the Badgers have shown since the day Bo Ryan took the job in Madison is incredible. Especially since Wisconsin basketball was a face in the crowd before that even though it went to a Final Four under Dick Bennett.

All 14 of Ryan's UW teams have finished fourth or higher in the Big Ten and gone to NCAA tourneys. That's crazy-good.

His teams used to get a rap for being hard on the eyes. But when he has had the offensive talent like he has had the last couple seasons, his guys are both supremely efficient and entertaining.

Ryan has two certain NBA first-rounders in Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker, and a possible future third in Nigel Hayes. You're an outlier if you go to a Final Four without a couple of NBA players-in-waiting.

Most importantly, Wisconsin's players are likable. There was a reason video of Hayes and two of his teammates being fascinated by the skills of an NCAA tournament stenographer went viral. It showed big-time college athletes who were the opposite of self-absorbed.

Then, when Hayes deftly threw out some multi-syllable words at an NCAA press conference to mess with that stenographer, it showed humor as well as a vocabulary.

Ryan is a bit of a curmudgeon who can go off on all sorts of tangents. Here's what else he does: Develop talent and mold teams that are hard to beat.

He alienated many Iowans and others for his inelegant response to player Jarrod Uthoff's decision to leave the Wisconsin program three years ago. Ryan didn't want him going to another Big Ten school, or Iowa State, or Florida, or anywhere in the ACC. It wasn't a proud moment for Wisconsin, and Uthoff ended up at Iowa, anyhow.

Things have worked out great for Uthoff, who could ascend to first-team All-Big Ten next year. Things have continued to work out pretty well for Wisconsin, too.

l Comments: (319) 368-8840; mike.hlas@thegazette.com