24 // VARSITY April 10, 2014
M
inutes after Wisconsin's Sam Dekker
and Traevon Jackson nearly dropped to
their knees out of shock and disappoint-
ment when Jackson's game-winning field goal at-
tempt failed to drop against Kentucky ― "Some-
times we don't know why things happen," Jackson
later said ― UW coach Bo Ryan was trying to lift
everybody back up figuratively in an emotionally-
charged locker room.
"Obviously, it was pretty tough on everyone
when you come so far and so close to playing for a
national championship," said junior forward Duje
Dukan, who had helped put the Badgers in a posi-
tion to advance. "But Coach Ryan recognized the
run that we made and he told us to keep our heads
up.
"He thanked the three seniors for everything
they did for this team and everything they gave us.
And for the guys returning, he said, 'Get ready to
work because we now know what it takes to make
it to this level and if we want to make it back (to a
Final Four), we have a big off-season coming up.'"
Wisconsin associate head coach Greg Gard has
been around Ryan the longest ― their friendship
dates back to their Division III championship days
together at UW-Platteville ― so he kind of knew
how Ryan would handle Saturday night's gut-
wrenching loss to Kentucky in the national semi-
finals.
"It was like he has handled every season-ending
loss," Gard said. "He does a good job of putting it
into perspective and relating it to life in terms of
how you're going to have some tough situations
that you're going to have to handle and how you
need to be appreciative of the people that help you.
"In the locker room, he thanked the people
around him and he had a special tribute to the se-
niors for all the time they've put in. Then to the
guys who are coming back ― and obviously there's
a lot of them ― he said, 'You've gotten a little taste,
how hard do you want to work to get a little more?'"
At his postgame news conference in front of the
assembled national media corps at AT&T Stadium,
Ryan's opening statement included this admission,
"I really love coaching this team. I knew they had
something in them ― it was just trying to get it out
of them sometimes that was a little bit of a chal-
lenge. But they answered it. They answered every-
thing. And that's how we got here."
