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Wisconsin Badgers (2001: 18-11)

The following team preview is provided by Blue Ribbon. For the nation's most comprehensive look at this and all Division I teams, be sure to order the 2001-02 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, on sale now at 1-800-775-2518.

Like most basketball coaches, Wisconsin's first-year coach Bo Ryan has plenty of people giving him advice. But the one tip he hopes to remember throughout his rookie year at Wisconsin is the one given him by the woman he married.

"My biggest challenge this year is to heed my wife's advice," said Ryan, who comes to Madison after a 15-year run at UW-Platteville and two years at UW-Milwaukee. "She reminded me the other day, 'Patience isn't your strongest suit.' And it's true -- I've got to remember that we've got a ways to go. I've got to keep reminding myself to stay patient, and a couple of years down the road we've got a chance to get some things done. But I think with our experience and schedule, it's going to be a challenge this year."

Indeed, the deck appears to be stacked against the Badgers, who lost five of their top six players to graduation, another to a transfer, and return only five letter winners from last year's fifth-place team in the Big Ten.

Gone are forwards Andy Kowske, Mark Vershaw and Maurice Linton, and guards Roy Boone, Mike Kelley and Ricky Bower (a sophomore who transferred to Brigham Young). That represents 73 percent of the Badgers' scoring and 68 percent of their rebounds from last season, along with 80 percent of their steals and 75 percent of their assists.

And that's a pretty big hole to fill.

"When you lose a lot of seniors you lose game experience," Ryan said. "Not just on-court experience, but how many guys have been to Indiana and been there when the ball is tipped? Or Michigan, or Purdue, or Iowa? Then when you factor in a new coach with a little bit of a different system, it makes for an interesting challenge."

Ryan is going to attack the season with only 11 scholarship players, holding back two grants until next year when he's gotten to know his players better and assessed the team's needs. Consider that four of the scholarship players are freshman who weren't in camp this spring, and it made for a lot of "Hello, my name is ... " name tags this summer in Madison.

Not that Ryan is a stranger to transitions. After winning four Division III national titles at Platteville, he took over a UW-Milwaukee program that had never had back-to-back winning seasons. But in his two years there the Panthers went 15-14 and 15-13 and he caught the eye of the Wisconsin brass with a sparkling résumé that includes a career .788 winning percentage.

Ryan is replacing Dick Bennett, a legend in Wisconsin who stepped down early last season, a victim of stress and burnout. But this is Ryan's second tour of duty in Madison -- he was an assistant under Bill Cofield and Steve Yoder from 1976-84. And he's got Bennett's son, Tony, on his staff to further ease the transition.

Backcourt

On the court, the lone holdover from last year's starting lineup is junior Kirk Penney (11.2 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 1.1 apg).

The 6-5 guard is one of the top shooters in the conference -- he's already cracked the top 10 in the school's career three-pointer list, and he led the Big Ten with a .478 percentage from behind the arc in conference games last year. He played for his native New Zealand in the 2000 Olympic Games, becoming the first basketball Olympian in school history.

Joining Penney in the backcourt could be point guard Travon Davis (2.2 ppg, 1.6 rpg, 1.3 apg). The 5-10 senior missed the start of last year because of the NCAA violation that struck throughout the Badger athletic program -- a number of athletes received discounted shoes and apparel at a local retailer. Davis came back with a solid conference season as the backup point guard, compiling a 2.63-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio in Big Ten games, and he enters the season as the leading candidate to succeed Kelley at the point.

Davis excels in the Wisconsin-style pressure defense, so if he improves his offensive performance, he's the most likely man for the point.

His main competition will be freshman Devin Harris, a 6-3 guard from Milwaukee's Wauwatosa East High School. He has played the point in high school and AAU ball and flew under the national radar because he was injured much of the summer before his senior year and didn't attend the usual round of national camps and tournaments.

"He's wiry and has good court instincts," Ryan said of his freshman point guard. "The only way for him to improve now is to get him some experience, to get him some scars out there on the floor."

Others in the backcourt mix are 6-3 freshman Latrell Fleming and 6-5 freshman Neil Plank, players Ryan says are hungry, eager and looking to settle into the right position for his system. Freddie Owens, a 6-2 sophomore, is a returning letterman at guard as well.

Frontcourt

On the front line, 6-8 senior Charlie Wills (4.2 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 0.7 apg) returns with 29 games of starting experience in his career. He's a fifth-year senior who hasn't missed a game in his career, and his toughness will be needed on this young squad.

In the middle, look for 6-11 junior Dave Mader (1.1 ppg, 1.6 rpg) to earn some key minutes this year. Ryan said his staff is working with Mader to improve his lateral movement, but he's hungry and worked hard in the off-season on perfecting some of his post moves.

Freshman Andreas Helmigk, a 6-10 Austrian who enters the program this year, could battle for time on the front line. Mike Wilkinson, a 6-8 red-shirt freshman, and 6-6 sophomore Julian Swartz are also in the mix.

Bottom line

Ryan has his work cut out for him in his first year at Madison. While he's got some potentially strong guards, there's not much raw material up front for him to work with right now. With such a short-handed team, the Badgers will take their lumps this year.

However, enthusiasm should not be a problem, as Ryan is an energetic, upbeat motivator. He'll keep the Badgers playing their trademark scrappy defense, and being the consummate coaches' coach, you can bet that Dick Bennett fans won't even miss a beat.

Oh, they'll miss going to the NCAA Tournament once again, especially after getting pounded by a brutal non-conference schedule that includes UNLV, Georgia Tech, Temple, Tennessee and Xavier. But in the long run-when Ryan has more players and his players have more experience-the Badgers will be just fine, thank you.