Imrem: If Wisconsin can, why not us?

Wisconsin's success must be maddening for myriad other programs in college basketball.

You know, like all that cheesy behavior up there, all those cow chips scattered throughout the state and all those no-good Packers weren't irritating enough.

Now there's this groan: "If Wisconsin could build this, why can't we?"

The Badgers are almost likable enough to be an antidote for cheeseheads, cow chips and Packers.

There is the fatherly grumpy head coach Bo Ryan, the likable big man Frank Kaminsky and their likable teammates.

The only explanation for Wisconsin's likability is that Kaminsky rubbed off on the others after playing his high school ball down here at Benet Academy in Lisle.

Since Ryan became coach the Badgers went from supporters whispering "On Wisconsin" to outsiders responding to the team's progress with "Oh Wisconsin" to now opponents groaning "Ow Wisconsin."

So many other basketball schools around the country are becoming restless because of their Badgers envy.

This is reminiscent of when Northwestern football climbed out of the abyss to win the 1995 Big Ten title and go to the Rose Bowl.

All of a sudden traditionally Bottom Ten schools around America had no more excuses for being in the Bottom Ten.

Northwestern had alumni, boosters, students, faculty members and university-town townies elsewhere mumbling and grumbling.

Now substitute NU football in the mid-1990s for UW basketball in the mid-2010s.

Wildcats head coach Gary Barnett urged fans and players to "expect victory" and today Bo Ryan doesn't even have to urge Badgers fans to do likewise … it comes naturally.

Yes, maybe even expect it Saturday in a national semifinal game against mighty, undefeated, top-ranked Kentucky.

Actually, Arizona coach Sean Miller turned the "maybe" around.

"Maybe Kentucky is the school that can beat (the Badgers)," Miller said after Wisconsin beat Arizona to reach the Final Four.

The quote was in a San Diego Union-Tribune article headlined, "Kentucky should be scared of Wisconsin."

Wow!

Yes, other schools must be following all this and asking, "If Wisconsin, why not us?"

Ryan doesn't exactly have a gaggle of blue-chip high school players to choose from around Wisconsin like coaches down here have.

As an Illinois alum I'm at least curious why the Illini aren't the Badgers, annually qualifying for the NCAAs, preparing to play in their second straight Final Four and considered legitimate challengers to Kentucky.

During the past 14 years Ryan has displayed for other schools - including Illinois, Northwestern and DePaul - the ingredients for upstarts to win big in college basketball.

All you need is a coach who worked his way up through the sport's lower levels by learning fundamentals and teaching them to his players.

Then you let that coach implement his system, instill his philosophy and recruit players that fit them.

Finally that coach creates a culture in which players are comfortable staying four years and improving every season.

"(Ryan) recruited guys that wanted to come in, work hard and make something of themselves," Kaminsky has been quoted as saying.

Sounds so simple that so many other basketball schools around the country believe that they can become what Wisconsin became.

Minus the cheesiness, cow chips and no-good Packers.

mimrem@dailyherald.com