Bo Ryan’s Motivational Skills Were Not Enough for Wisconsin against Duke

In order to have any chance of beating Duke in the National Championship game on Monday night, Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan had to channel his inner Herb Brooks and convince his team that the next game was the most important one. That psychological hurdle proved to be too high as Duke won, 68-63, in the National Championship game in Indianapolis.

There perhaps was no other coach who experienced quite the psychological challenge Ryan faced in sports besides Brooks, who had to bring his USA Ice Hockey team from the ecstasy of beating the unbeatable Russians in the Olympic semifinals to get up for Finland and beat them in the 1980 Gold Medal game.

That USA team could have lived like heroes for the rest of their lives on the strength of that semifinal win alone. They just would have had to do it without Gold Medals. Likewise, the Badgers would have been heroes in Madison for the rest of their lives on the simple basis of making 38-0 Kentucky 38-1 Kentucky. They just would not have had a title and now that reality will have to set in for a lifetime.

Ryan hoped his team would overcome the emotion of the win over Kentucky and it turned out to be a futile hope.  In the USA-Finland game, the United States was behind 2-1 going into the third period before hearing a profanity-laced speech from Brooks and winning the Gold, 4-2.

In this one, Wisconsin and Duke were tied and no one knows if Ryan let loose with the language at halftime but he was aware of the history and did his part to avert it. That tough hill was too high this time.

Mike Gibson is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @papreps , “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.