Blogging the Journey: Practice #1

"Baby steps", that's the best way I can describe the first official practice for the 2008-09 Mount Aloysius Men's basketball team. There are a lot of changes taking place from last year's team, different offense, experienced players, higher expectations, higher emphasis on defense and the opportunity to make the playoffs. With the culture change, for the better, our approach to the first week of practice is taking the time to teach more and fine tune the details with a focus on doing the little things fundamentally. Our first practice was filled with bad passes, missed shots and nervous energy, much of what is to be expected. However, the first practice was also filled with eagerness to improve, high energy and talent...all things that you cannot teach! Those are all good signs of what's to come. The passes will get better, the shots will fall and the confidence levels will increase with time and patience. A few eye openers for me, coaching for the first time at the college level, was certainly the amount of talent. As I walked into the gym and looked around and saw guys reaching a foot above the rim to snatch an alley oop pass for a dunk, I knew I would be working with a completely different level of competition. However, the most exciting thing for me was the number of players who are eager to improve and get better! What an exciting time!

Players Don't Care What You Know Until They Know You Care

If there is one coach that defines the word passion, it would be Bruce Pearl. His passion and energy he brings to the Tennessee men's basketball program is unmatched. Below are some hightlights from an interview with Coach and Athletic Director Magazine with Bruce Pearl. Thanks to Eric Mussleman's blog for sharing this article. The full interview can be found here: http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3750364

On the impact coaches have had on his life:

"I can name every coach I ever played for growing up. I can tell you every little team, every youth basketball team, and every traveling team.The point I am trying to make is they make a difference. You know, their patience, and their abilities to teach and communicate, and to care and inspire. And command some discipline without living completely vicariously through the winning and losing of a child. Those coaches, in youth activities and, of course, all the way through high school, had a profound impact on my career."

On working for Dr. Tom Davis at Boston College, Stanford, and Iowa:

"I walked on the men’s basketball team at Boston College and shortly there after got cut. I wasn’t good enough because of my knee. But I stayed on in other capacities. I was the basketball manager and the director of student promotions.By the time I was a senior, I was a student assistant coach. I took on a lot of tasks for Dr. Tom Davis. And I was a part-time practice player on the road when we needed an extra body. I think the biggest thing about my experience at Boston College was — I did graduate cum laude, majoring in marketing and economics — if there is ever a time to be poor it’s when you’re young, and there is such thing as a starving student.I interned and volunteered and just got involved with so many things at BC, most of them involving athletes. I paid a lot of dues by the time I was 22. I encourage a lot of young people to do the same thing. When I graduated from BC in 1982, Tom Davis was leaving to take the job at Stanford and he took me with him."

On his passion for coaching:

" When I was in high school I coached youth basketball and football. And I umpired and I refereed — and some people think I still referee. I was always involved in coaching during high school and even in college.It was never a thought of mine until Tom Davis offered me a job when I was 22-years old to go with him as an assistant coach at Stanford. I had never done anything in athletics to try to prepare myself to be a coach. I was doing it because I loved it. I never dreamed of being a coach. Yet my first job out of college was that job at Stanford and that’s all I have done since. So in a way, if you go back to when I was almost in middle school, I have been coaching my whole life."On former BC, Stanford, and Iowa coach Tom Davis: "He is my mentor. If you’re any good at anything chances are you had a good teacher. And I had one of the best teachers the game had to offer: Dr. Tom Davis .I learned so much. I learned a whole system of basketball. I also learned patience and how to motivate. You got better when you went to play with him. Tom didn’t always recruit the best talent but he recruited enough. He wasn’t afraid to take a guy who a lot of people said wasn’t athletic enough."

On the value he added as a young coach:

"I just think I brought a level of intensity to practice every single day. I had an expectation for the players that was beyond what they had for themselves. I had to make up for what I lacked in not being able to play the game at the high level.So I made up for it with my work ethic and my intensity. And I jumped in with both feet. I tried to complement what Tom needed. Tom wasn’t a yeller or a screamer. He was a teacher. There were a lot of times, as an assistant coach, that I was the bad guy."On taking ownership as an assistant: "Tom had a way of making me feel those were my teams also. I wasn’t working for him, I was working for myself. He gave me ownership. And I was held accountable when we lost games to teams I scouted or when I made mistakes in helping prepare the team. We won some games that we did a good job in as well. But I took the losses very hard and celebrated the wins just as hard. Tom had a great way of making everybody take ownership."

On why he left Southern Indiana after nine seasons as head coach:

"I finally left Southern Indiana because my whole deal is to encourage my players to be the best that they can be. And I realized at the end of my ninth season there that I was settling. That I wasn’t being the best I could be. I did not want to ever sit on my front porch from wherever I retire from this game and wonder if I could have done it at the highest level. That’s why I left, because I wasn’t living the life I was asking my players to try to live."

On taking over at a new job:

"When you come into a new program, you are being evaluated by your players. And my guys were well coached. They hadn’t had a winning season in two years but those kids were well coached. And so, I had to be at the top of my game to win them over. While [the previous coach] got them to be competitive, they still didn’t know how to win."

On how his assistants help develop young players:

"Tom Davis did not always get the best players but people knew that those guys got better. And I learned as an assistant coach that it took time in the gym and individual workouts. I have assistant coaches who know how to teach the game and they are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and get in there. [My assistant coaches] put a lot of time in the gym emphasized on individual workouts."

On Tennessee women's coach Pat Summitt:

"Pat is an amazing woman. She is the best mother to her son Tyler and she is the best mother, friend, and coach to her players. She’s got more people into college basketball coaching the women’s game. It’s countless the number of former players and managers and coaches.She is extremely organized, always prepared. And she stays on top the game because she listens and she asks questions and she brings in other minds. She studies international basketball and professional basketball. I have never met anybody as accomplished who is also as hungry. You’d think she had never won one championship, let alone eight."

On the difference between being liked and being respected:

"Billy Donovan’s dominated this league. I don’t think Billy Donovan is anybody’s favorite coach outside of Florida. He’s done it because he’s beaten everybody. You can’t find a better coach. Billy Donavon is at the head of our profession and I have tremendous respect for him. I think our fans have great respect for Billy Donovan. Whether they like him or not, it doesn’t matter — it doesn’t matter to Billy. And so that’s my point; I don’t care if they like me. I want my fans to like me. It would be great if they could respect what we’re doing."

On his coaching philosophy:

"I have been a head coach for 16 years or whatever it’s been. My teams have led the league in scoring for 15 out of 16 years, including three straight years in the SEC. It’s a system that’s very committed, up-tempo basketball. We create possessions with turning people over through our pressure defense, both in the full court and the drop-back.When you press and you attack, even if you are not the more talented team, the other team can’t sit back on their heels. I think kids like to play that way. I know I like to coach that way. And I think that fans like to watch that kind of game.Logic would dictate that when you have less talent — hold the ball, be patient, and be conservative — it sends your kids a big fat message that they are no good and that the other team is better. The key is being willing to run and press, and yet be able to mix in good patience, both offensively and defensively. Ball-control coaches at all levels are somehow deemed to be better coaches than your Jerry Tarkanians and your Paul Westheads."

On the keys to team success:

"It is defense and rebounding that wins championships. The Boston Celtics proved that. You look at the teams that got to the Final Four. Ultimately that’s a huge part. You look at where Kansas finished in the Big 12 in defense and you’ll see why they won a national championship.First of all, I am not a great defensive coach. But I will tell you the teams I had that won championships with made the decision to defend. Kids want to win. My philosophy defensively is not to be on the defensive. The word being defensive is to step back and react to the way the offense moves. I want to dictate. I want to take the stuff away that you like to do and make you beat me a different way."

On develop relationships with his players:

"Players don’t care what you know until they know how much you care. I think the only way you can demonstrate that is with your time and your tough love. I think if you do those things, kids are going to appreciate it and they are going to put up with you when you tell them this is what you got to do because it’s best for you. They will trust that I am doing this because it’s best for them."

His advice for assistant coaches:

"I think as an assistant, you want to have a certain dimension and bring something to the table that your head coach can utilize. Guys get hired out of jobs that are winning. Choose your head coach wisely, assistants. Don’t get in the game or don’t move within the game unless you think your guy is going to win because that is the only chance you’ll have with the opportunity to move."Assistant coaches, don’t try to be me. Be yourself. Allow your own personality to be brought to the court. Choose wisely what you’re teaching and how you’re teaching it.

"It’s not what you teach; it’s how you teach it." - Bruce Pearl

Make sure it’s a system that fits. Make sure it flows."

Using Passion and Enthusiasm to Turnaround Performance

By Pat Forde
October 8, 2008
BOULDER, Colo. -- Texas had the game won, having beaten the hide off the Colorado Buffaloes. But on the way out of Folsom Field and on to the big game against Oklahoma in Dallas, the Longhorns' second-string defense surrendered a late touchdown that made the final score 38-14.
Will Muschamp has brought fire and passion to the Texas sideline.It was a meaningless touchdown. Unless you're Will Muschamp.
Headset pulled down around his neck and brown eyes smoldering, the Texas defensive coordinator was 5 yards onto the field and fuming.
"Jog off the field!" Muschamp bellowed at his defenders. "Jog your ass off the field, goddammit!"
Once the Horns jogged off the field, Muschamp lit them up even more.
"At that point, you would think as a coach he'd be very lenient," said first-team defensive end Brian Orakpo, who watched the scene unfold. "But he was still coaching. He was getting on them for not tackling."
Muschamp's simple explanation of his urgency: "Every opportunity on the field is an opportunity to stop people."
Every opportunity to coach defense is an opportunity for Will Muschamp to hug, holler, congratulate, castigate, slap hands, slap helmets, teach alignment and preach hustle. He is perpetual passion. Defensive coordinators tend to be among the most intense members of the football coaching profession, and Muschamp is at the far end of the intensity curve.
If you screw up, you're going to hear about it. Loudly.

Stats are for losers. I like winning games.
--Will Muschamp

If you make a big play, you're going to hear about it. Loudly.
"He is not allowing anyone to take a lazy step at any time," head coach Mack Brown said.
One thing is certain: The Longhorns never have to wonder where they stand with their first-year coordinator. They know he cares. He's constantly bathing them in animated feedback.
"We love him to death," Orakpo said. "He gets on us but he praises us, too. When we make a great play, he's out there chest-bumping us.
"Muschamp is the guy who carries the torch."
Through five games, Texas has been torching the offenses it has faced. Stealing Muschamp away from Auburn this past offseason ranks among the best personnel moves Brown has made in his accomplished career.
The Texas defense dwindled in effectiveness as last season went along. In the final five games, the Longhorns surrendered 25, 35, 43, 38 and 34 points. Unable to stop teams, the traditionally stout Horns were reduced to outscoring them.
That's why Brown reached out to snag Muschamp. The former Georgia player and coach at Auburn and LSU left his SEC roots for a new challenge in the Big 12.
He's been up to the challenge so far.

As quick as he is to yell at a mistake, Muschamp is right there with praise.Last year, the Longhorns were fourth in the league in sacks. This year, they lead the nation (3.8 per game) and have thrown opposing offenses for more lost yards (222) than anyone else. They've lived in the offensive backfield.
The Horns are third nationally in rushing defense (51.8 yards per game) and fourth in scoring defense (11.4 points per game). Texas has allowed 14 or fewer points in each of its first five games for the first time in 17 years, and has been particularly tough in the red zone. Opponents have scored on only eight of 15 possessions inside the Texas 20, the second-best defensive percentage in the nation.
None of which dazzles Muschamp.
"Stats are for losers," he said. "I like winning games."
He's won plenty over the years. Muschamp was Nick Saban's defensive coordinator when LSU won the national title in 2003 and followed Saban to the NFL with the Miami Dolphins. After one year there, he returned to the college game, where his pyrotechnic personality is a better fit.
"I like what I do," Muschamp said. "It's my job to get these guys to play well and play physical. I play through them. When they make plays, I make plays. When they make a mistake, I make a mistake."
Muschamp's job has been made much easier by the return to full health of Orakpo, who is having an All-America season so far. The 260-pound end has been a terror off the edge, racking up 5½ sacks, 8 tackles for loss and 6 quarterback hurries this season. He hobbled through the first half of last season after injuring a knee in the season opener.
"It's made all the difference in the world," Brown said. "We saw this in preseason last year. When he got chop-blocked against Arkansas State, it just killed us. Boy, is he bringing it now. In fact, they're having to hold him to slow him down."
For Orakpo and the rest of the Texas defense, there was an adjustment period in the spring and in August camp. Not just to their fourth coordinator in four years, but to the new coordinator's expulsive persona.
"They thought I was nuts," Muschamp said.
Orakpo took one look at the manic Muschamp and thought, "It's a new day and era."
Change is good. But now comes the hard part.

Healthy once again, Brian Orakpo has been a beast on Texas' defensive line.Beginning Saturday with Oklahoma's explosive offense, Texas will face four straight teams averaging at least 48 points per game -- Missouri, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech follow the Red River Rivalry. All four rank in the top five nationally in scoring.
If the Horns hold up through that gauntlet, they'll have more than just an impressive record. They'll have a hot head-coaching candidate in Muschamp.
You can already find Tennessee fans clamoring for regime change: www.muschampforut.wordpress.com. There assuredly will be other enamored fan bases, although perhaps not more Web sites devoted to his hiring.
But that's a long way off in football time, and Muschamp knows it.
"It's a week-to-week profession," he said. "You can be a real good coach one week and an idiot the next."
Hugs one week, heat the next. That mirrors the way Will Muschamp mingles with his defense on a play-by-play basis.
"He's just like one of us, but he's got the headset on," said linebacker Roddrick Muckelroy. "If you give him a helmet, I believe he'd run out there."

Leading Thru Adversity: Stay Positive & Get to Work

Anatomy of a comeback
By Rick Pitino, with Pat Forde

With 15:30 to play on Fat Tuesday night in Baton Rouge in 1994, my University of Kentucky basketball team was getting killed. We trailed Louisiana State 68-37. If you asked anyone in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center at that moment, the game was over.
Anyone that is but the guys in the blue uniforms.

Against all odds, we kept believing that we had a chance and kept playing. Why? Because we had an enormous amount of pride and self-esteem -- and a little arrogance as well. We were accustomed to winning, and imposing our will on opponents. Nobody treated us the way LSU had treated us, and we were determined to do something about it. Still, we had to stay in touch with our fundamentals and make this comeback in small steps.
If I had called everyone into the huddle with 15 minutes left and said, "We're definitely going to win," that would have been false bravado and the players would have seen through it.

One thing you must do in the face of adversity is to be honest with yourself,
and with the people you're trying to lead. Acknowledge the difficult spot you're
in and commence digging out of it. Don't point fingers, don't recriminate, and
don't make excuses. Stay positive and get to work.

So the first thing we had to do was salvage our dignity over the next few minutes -- to simply stop the bleeding and start making a small dent in that deficit. Down 31, the grand scheme at that very moment wasn't to emerge with a victory at night's end; looking that far ahead would have blurred our focus on the gradual progress that comprises every comeback. The goal was to get within 20 points as quickly as possible. To do that, we concentrated on three things: using our press to create turnovers, fouling the two shaky free throw shooters LSU had on the floor, and getting high-percentage shots.
All three worked, and the turnaround actually happened faster than expected. In about five minutes of clock time, we'd shockingly chopped the deficit from 31 to 14. Our frantic style of play helped -- speeding up the game and increasing the possessions for both teams gave us more chances to rally. Stubbornly, we kept whittling away at LSU's lead, as the celebrating crowd turned more and more nervous. Every timeout Tigers' coach Dale Brown called in an attempt to slow our momentum actually raised our spirits. We knew we had them rattled; we knew we had a chance.
We had little-used reserves making shots, stealing passes, and grabbing rebounds. Finally, Walter McCarty dropped in a three-point shot with 19 seconds left and we took the lead, 96-95, and went on to win 99-95. To this day, it remains the biggest comeback in college basketball history on the road. The game quickly became known nationwide as the Mardi Gras Miracle. It was certainly memorable, but it was no miracle. It didn't take divine intervention to win that game; it took an unbreakable optimism, and a plan for coming back.
I've been a part of other great rallies: When I coached the New York Knicks in the 1980s, we came from 27 points down to beat Portland; in 1995 my Kentucky team trailed defending national champion Arkansas by six points with 38 seconds left in overtime in the Southeastern Conference tournament championship and won; we rallied from 10 down in the final minute to beat Tennessee my first year at Louisville; and in 2005 we trailed West Virginia by 20 points in an NCAA tournament regional final game and won to reach the Final Four.
Here is the important common denominator in all those comebacks: They began with positive energy on the floor, on the bench, and in the team huddles.
They began with a belief that things would get better if we persevered through adversity, trusted each other and worked together.
They began with a conviction that consistent effort, even against long odds, inevitably would turn the tide. They began with a reliance on the fundamentals that made us a successful team to begin with, and we didn't desert them in a crisis. They began with a single good play, and a certainty that one good play would lead to another and another and another until the deficit was gone and the game was won.
The most important thing I did in the course of those comebacks was to build my players' self- esteem. Don't tear them down for the mistakes that got the team in those holes to begin with; build them up to the point where they felt capable of making the plays that would result in victory.

When people feel extraordinary, you get extraordinary
results. When people feel ordinary, you get ordinary
results.

I'm not talking about false patronage; don't tell little Johnny he's going to be president when he's not doing well in the classroom. They have to deserve it -- and when they do deserve it, you have to reinforce it in stressful times.
There have been times when I've not been as positive with my teams during games. I have succumbed to the frustration of the moment and filled the huddle with negative energy, telling them, "This is what you deserve because you practiced poorly." There certainly is a time for constructive criticism and even an outright tail chewing, but it's generally not when you're trying to rally people to redouble their efforts and perform at a higher level. That deprives your team of the hope that it can come back in adverse situations.
When it comes to team dynamics -- on a basketball court or in a corporate setting -- maintaining a positive atmosphere is crucial.
The most positive basketball team I've been around was in the 1986-87 season at Providence College. We played an excellent Georgetown team four times that season. We won the first game at home -- a game where I almost got into a heated verbal altercation on the sidelines with the great coach of the Hoyas, John Thompson. Afterward Big John, a glowering, six-foot-ten Providence alum, draped an arm around my shoulders and said, "I'm proud of what you're doing with my alma mater. But when you come to D.C., we're going to kick your ass."
Big John was true to his word. His team not only killed us at home, but did it again in the Big East Conference tournament.
After that game, I tried to stay as positive as possible with our team going into Selection Sunday, when the NCAA tournament bracket is unveiled. I told my players, "Let's enjoy this experience, work hard, and see what we accomplish. The only team that has our number is Georgetown, and we won't see them again."
Sure enough, the bracket was released and we were in the same region as Georgetown. If both of us won our first three games, we'd meet in the regional final for the chance to go to the Final Four. Still, that seemed like a long shot for us. But lo and behold, we won our first three games and squared off with the Hoyas for a fourth time. Before that game, I poured on the positive energy. I told our players, "In every great achievement, you need some luck. And you guys are the luckiest bunch I've ever seen. The one thing you'd want is to play a team that will take you lightly, and that's Georgetown. You have the biggest psychological advantage of all time."
We also went to work tactically for that game, completely changing our offense from shooting three-pointers on the perimeter to attacking the basket. It worked. We shocked the Hoyas and won easily, advancing to the Final Four to highlight a fairytale season.
Current University of Florida coach Billy Donovan was the best player on that Providence College team. Years later, Billy asked me whether I really believed that pep talk about how lucky the team was to draw Georgetown again. "Absolutely not," I told him, laughing, but when you're trying to overcome an obstacle, sometimes that's what it takes. Being relentlessly positive can be the only way to come back and defeat towering negativity.
In recent years, I've had to apply those same comeback fundamentals to adversities greater than anything encountered in a single basketball game. In about eight months, from January 8 to September 11, 2001, I was hit with a series of setbacks far more difficult to overcome than a 31-point deficit in Baton Rouge.
During that time I resigned as coach of the Boston Celtics -- my first professional failure -- and then I lost two brothers-in-law to sudden death in New York City. One was hit by a taxi, and the other, my dearest friend, was killed in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. This combination of events left me with some questions to answer and choices to make: After so many years of success, would I let that failure with the Celtics define me? Or would I learn from it and become a better coach? Would I stew in bitterness over the senseless deaths of Don Vogt and Billy Minardi? Or would I gain a new perspective and appreciation for life?
I had to make a two-pronged comeback: one in my professional life and one in my personal life. Chances are good that at some point in time, you'll have to do the same. Nobody goes through life without setbacks and struggles, some of them significant enough to cause you to doubt everything you believe in. You might be fired. You might face serious illness for you or your family. You might have a major financial setback, face an ethical dilemma, or find yourself starting over later in life. You might see a lifetime goal disintegrate, leaving you in a place you never imagined when plotting out your career path.
Will you have a gameplan in place to make your comeback?
You should, because the comeback is a classic American trait: We are a second-chance people. The story of the United States was not written by people who were handed everything. It was written by people reinventing their lives after encountering adversity -- by immigrants and cast-offs from foreign lands who took a leap of faith to make a new start in a new land.
After my job ended with the Celtics, I had to pull myself out of a crater by rediscovering what I call my PHD -- my passion, my hunger, and my drive. I had to quit beating up on myself and elevate the self-esteem that I always have tried to keep so high in my players. It was time for me to coach myself.
It took weeks of reflection, but I eventually got through to myself. When I decided to return to college coaching and got my current job at Louisville, I had repaired and prepared my psyche.
I was ready to make a comeback -- but the tragic deaths provided another hurdle in the midst of making that comeback. This time I had to think more than usual about other people -- how to help my family deal with these losses and how to help those who had lost a husband and a father. I had to step outside myself.
As difficult as it was going through those things, I've emerged as a wiser and happier person. I wouldn't wish some of those moments on anyone, but they've been learning experiences that will shape the later stages of my career and my life after basketball. My perspective now is totally different. Basketball is my passion, but not my life. Helping my players, family members, and friends achieve happiness counts more than the final score of any game.
I'm still enjoying what I do immensely and my energy to work remains extremely high -- but there is a greater balance at the end of the day.
There are plenty of books about succeeding in life and in business, but there aren't a lot of books that tell you how to prepare and execute a different strategy if your original path doesn't lead to the end of the rainbow. Rebound Rules will help you make your own comeback. It delves into the insidious nature of self-doubt, and tells you how to combat it by facing your fears and failures and learning from them. It explores the emotional trauma of tragedy, how it can affect your life, and how you can eventually overcome it and gain a new perspective. It details the personal fundamentals that can be relied upon daily to help you get through those difficult times. It examines the painstaking rally we must make to achieve greatness without shortcuts; living the "practice-makes- perfect" credo. It discloses the dangers inherent once greatness is achieved -- complacency, grandiosity, and a blurred focus -- and how to combat them. It explains the poise and confidence needed to keep your long-range goals intact in an accelerated world, where impatient pursuit of a quick fix can turn temporary setbacks into major setbacks.
This book proposes how to turn new challenges into new methods of success, while also improving our old methods. It shows the necessity of identifying great talent, surrounding yourself with it, fostering its growth, and using it as a support system in tough times. It probes the formula for great chemistry within an organization -- and finds ways to prevent a rogue element from ruining that chemistry. It promotes a different means for calculating your net worth -- your net worth to others, that is, not to your company's bottom line. It presents a means for rejuvenating yourself on the cusp of retirement by finding a fresh set of challenges to undertake. And once you reached a career's end, having survived all the ups and downs that can be encountered in a life's work, it provides a game plan for your final act, how to make it your greatest act yet.
Being confronted with adversity -- in sports, in business, in any walk of life -- can happen more often than anyone wants to admit. It will test you in ways most of us have never contemplated. Having a plan to deal with it can make your comeback a great one.
From the book "Rebound Rules: The Art of Success 2.0," by Rick Pitino with Pat Forde. It is published by HarperCollins and available at bookstores nationwide and online.

Conditioning at a Higher Level

Ryan takes Badgers' conditioning to higher level

By Dana O'Neil
MADISON, Wis. -- Bo Ryan can never work in Nebraska. The current Wisconsin coach also can't call the courts in Kansas home. Nix the Dakotas, too.
Just count out all the plain states.
No hills, no Bo. That simple.

More than 20 years ago, Ryan was an assistant at Wisconsin, watching his players run the steps at Camp Randall Stadium for conditioning. By the end of the season, virtually all of the Badgers complained of gimpy knees and sore backs.
Ryan got the ear of a track coach who told him that many top international track and field teams -- particularly those in Cuba and Russia -- had changed their training programs.
"They were running across hills or just running hills," Ryan said. "It got me to thinking."
And so a sadistic plan was hatched.
"Running the hill" is now a Ryan tradition, a preseason conditioning drill in which players gradually increase their trips to the summit, ending at 20 per session by the time official practices begin.

In each of his head-coaching stops -- from Platteville to Milwaukee to Madison -- Ryan has made finding a perfect hill one of his first pieces of business. He sends an assistant out in search of a spot in town that has just the right elevation to make a player adequately miserable.
For the past seven years, Elver Park has been the torture site of choice for the Badgers. The hill more closely resembles a bunny ski slope, arcing upwards for about 120 yards (Ryan had the engineering students at Platteville plot the angle of the hill there -- 11 degrees -- but hasn't enticed any UW students yet).
But on this bunny slope, there are no tow ropes or chair lifts. Just sneakers, tired legs and ruts worn into the hill over time.

"It's awful," senior Joe Krabbenhoft said. "Coach brought a recruit out recently. I was like, 'What are you doing? You don't want him to know we do this. He'll never come here.'"
On this particular Monday in September, the Badgers were in for 16 trips up the hill. The thermometer pushed to an uncharacteristically toasty 80 degrees as the players poured out of the white vans that carted them to the park from campus.
All around them, happy people ran leisurely or sat at picnic tables. A few students showed up to play the disc golf course that zigzags the hill.

His team doesn't return to campus until every player has completed his trips.The players assembled, looking somewhere on the far side of happy.
"It's tougher mentally than it is physically," Krabbenhoft said. "And it's so tough physically, so that tells you something."
To guarantee safety, Ryan has his athletic trainer, Henry Perez-Guerra, check the heat index. Based on that, Perez-Guerra will determine how much of a breather the players get between trips.

Each player also wears a heart monitor, and his heart rate is checked on every trip by another member of the training staff positioned midway up the hill with a computer.
Ryan is the winner of the ultimate game of king of the hill, standing in the breeze in a wind shirt and pants with a stopwatch as his players trudge toward him. The Badgers run in groups by position, and Ryan announces each group's split as they ascend the hill.
"I think it gets harder as you get older,'' senior Marcus Landry said. "When you're a freshman, it's all adrenaline. You're trying to prove a point to Coach. When you're established, it's not that you don't need to prove a point, but there's not that pressure.''
The guards breeze up the hill, barely panting. The forwards lumber steadily and the big men, well, the big men make it.

No one gets back into the vans until the last person has completed his trips.
"This is what it's about as much as anything -- team building," Ryan said. "There are times, especially early, when guys are really struggling and the other guys will run with them to make sure they finish."
As Ryan spoke, 6-foot-11 sophomore J.P. Gavinski slowly made his way to the top.
"How you doing, J.P.?" Ryan asked.
"Just great, Coach," Gavinski replied as he bent over, hands on knees.
And then he turned and trudged back to the bottom.
He had four more trips to go.