Even though it is only the start of the fall sports season, the UW men's basketball team is back at work preparing for the upcoming year. Beginning this past week, the men's squad is back to conditioning with one of its most infamous routines-the hill at Elver Park. Since Head Coach Bo Ryan took over in 2001, the hill has been a staple in preseason conditioning workouts and this year is no different.
This week's requirement for the hill was eight-meaning the guys must sprint up the hill and then jog back down eight times-and each week until practice officially begins, the number increases by two until the team reaches 20. The Daily Cardinal's Arvind Gopalratnam got a chance to catch up with the coach with several other reporters following the team's first workout at the hill on Thursday.
Daily Cardinal: Is it good to see the group out here, especially Sharif [Chambliss] and Alando [Tucker] out here too?
Bo Ryan: Yeah, the more the merrier. Andreas had a class until 2:10, but yeah, it's good to see you guys here. They've obviously been doing some stuff over the summer and in the off season. They showed me today, they're pretty much ready.
DC: What is the team allowed to do in the summer?
BR: They are allowed to use the facilities. But we can't check up on anything, we can't say 'You didn't get x number of miles in, you didn't lift x number of pounds,' we can't do any of that.
DC: When you watch guys run the hill now, who are the guys that have really made strides?
BR: I don't know if any of you guys were out here last year, but Brian Butch by far. Knocking those eight out that way. But, I was real impressed with the freshmen, because freshmen sometimes get excited about being out here with the group the first time. But, I have a feeling those two have been out here before. DeAaron [Williams] and Michael [Flowers] really showed good drive, good stamina. It's not uncommon for tall guys to struggle when they first get out here. Everybody else, Clayton [Hanson], Jason [Chappell], Kam [Taylor]-all of them looked good. I wasn't disappointed in anybody.
DC: Are Sharif and Alando being monitored?
BR: They're monitored by Henry [Perez-Guerra]. I say 'Henry, that's your job. I'm out here to abide by anything you say.' He's the one that makes the determination on how many, and that's the way it should be. Because those two guys would probably-Sharif would probably try to run all of them and he's rehabbing right now. We don't want to get too far ahead of the doctor's and trainer's plans.
DC: Practice starts in another month or so, but right now, could Alando play?
BR: We get eight hours per week once school starts, six hours of conditioning and two hours of individual workouts.
DC: So as far as October, he's a full go as far as you know?
BR: Yeah, he will be ready.
DC: So with Andreas, you have 14. Can you add any more?
BR: Yeah, we have a walk on. Tanner Bronson, our manager from last year. He worked really hard. A spot opened up after Clayton went on to take Devin's [Harris] scholarship.
DC: Last year, you talked about if a guy does not red-shirt and if he's around for that fifth year, that he can practice with the team as if he were a redshirt. Is that something with Freddie [Owens]?
BR: Yeah, he'll be doing that at times, but he also wants to get his degree, so he's making sure he's got everything covered there. Then he'll help us in some other ways. And if he ever wants to look at this profession down the road, he needs to learn a little more about why we do things the way we do them as coaches. Then he can find out some of the psychology that \old man Ryan"" uses every once in a while.
DC: How is this a foundation for once you start in October?
BR: Basically, I do it just to get everyone out of the gym for a while. Get outdoors, on the hill. Is there a better view than that? That is one of the best views in Madison. But, this is good. The guys come out here together, they accomplish something together, you can see if there is a guy who struggles or two that the other guys help to pick him up and encourage him, because they've all been there. It is really nice to see that camaraderie developing already. It's obvious these guys have been doing a lot on their own, because that's as good of an eight hills I've seen by a team in 21 years in being a head coach having teams run hills.
DC: Do you get a sense of the condition these guys are in?
BR: Not only condition, but you get a sense for how they feel about one another. I saw some good communication taking place. It's not always with what you say, it is how you handle certain things. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the guys in their experience today.
-Arvind Gopalratnam
Questions were also asked by the Wisconsin State Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
