Wisconsin Way not alluring on signing day, but it works

LOS ANGELES — There is a college basketball program that hasn’t signed a recruiting class ranked better than 45th in the past six years. Its star forward will earn most national player of the year awards this season, and yet he played less than 10 minutes a game in his first two years and was so weak, so lacking in skill as a high school player, he couldn’t get off the bench for his AAU team.

In the past four years, the program’s recruiting budget trailed schools such as Kent State and Middle Tennessee State.

Through it all, the program has reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament in four of the past five seasons.

Yes, Wisconsin seems to have done fairly well for itself.

There is a feeling that the Badgers winning a national championship this season would be good for the college game, that in a time when a one-and-done philosophy has grasped the mindset of all elite prep players and even ones who have no business thinking in such terms, when the factory of NBA talent known as Kentucky continues to perfectly roll along toward what most believe is an inevitable date with history, Wisconsin being the last team standing would prove old-school ways can still win big.

That upperclassmen are still important ingredients to any One Shining Moment montage.

It’s a long road still for the Badgers.

Wisconsin plays for the right to reach a second straight Final Four today when it meets Arizona at 3:09 p.m. in the West Region final at Staples Center. Should they win, the Badgers then could face a national semifinal matchup against undefeated Kentucky.

It’s a really long road still.

But there is everything to love about how Wisconsin was built.

Frank Kaminsky is the 7-foot star whose AAU coaches told him to lift more weights and jump more rope, who wasn’t among the nation’s top 200 recruits coming out of high school. Josh Gasser is a fifth-year senior who originally was recruited by coach Bo Ryan to be a walk-on. There are all sorts of guys who flew deep under the recruiting radar wearing Wisconsin jerseys.

Sam Dekker, a junior forward, is the only five-star recruit for the Badgers.

It’s not that Ryan doesn’t chase big-time kids. He wanted Kevon Looney out of Milwaukee more than anything else last year, but lost the nation’s No. 13 player to UCLA. Diamond Stone, a five-star recruit and the No. 5 player in the 2015 class and also from Milwaukee, chose Maryland over Wisconsin on Friday.

“I might be the only head coach in Division I who doesn’t talk to third parties,” Ryan said. “I talk to parents. I talk to the high school coach. There is nothing wrong with guys being (five-star recruits) and all those things, because none of that really tells you who the true person is.

“Get to know the person. See how they treat their parents when you walk into the house and sit down. It doesn’t take a genius to see the interactions of people and be able to tell some things about them.”

Ryan has some dealings with AAU coaches, but usually only ones he has known for years or who played for him. There are some good AAU programs doing good things in terms of teaching the game. They’re not all talent hoarders led by coaches who can’t devise a press break to save their lives.

Not everyone can play for Ryan. Not everyone has the fortitude to buy in at the extreme level it takes to get on the floor for him. Maybe that’s why kids who weren’t recruited so heavily have prospered so much under him. Maybe they’re a little tougher and the chip on their shoulder a little bigger.

“We all had offers out of high school, so it wasn’t like Wisconsin was our only offer,” Gasser said. “We’re pretty good players, too, just not maybe as heralded as others. But (recruiting) rankings don’t mean all that much, and that’s what I like about our program. If you buy in and support the team aspect first, you’re going to develop as a player and see time.”

Kaminsky and Dekker had every opportunity to depart school after last year’s Final Four run and become NBA Draft picks. Each returned to school. Arizona has a fifth-year senior in point guard T.J. McConnell, who also on Friday was being held as an example of the level of success that can find those who remain in college and improve.

It’s not to say the Wisconsin Way is better than the Kentucky Way. Both work. But many fans without an allegiance to remaining NCAA teams believe the Badgers winning it all would send the sort of national statement that college basketball needs right now.

“I think if you look at our program as a whole, that’s what (Ryan) has recruited to,” Kaminsky said. “Guys who want to come in and work hard and make something of themselves. Guys who come in without a lot of expectations, but who want to put themselves in a position to play well for this program.

“It’s a long journey. It doesn’t happen overnight.”

Not one recruiting class ranked better than 45th in the past six years.

Guess coaching still matters.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on “Gridlock,” ESPN 1100 and 100.9 FM. Follow him on Twitter: @edgraney.