Academic woes rock Badgers
Jan. 27, 2006
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Madison Wisconsin basketball coach Bo Ryan said Thursday that he might have been more helpful to Marcus Landry and Greg Stiemsma had the players been more forthcoming about their problems.
Stiemsma and Landry are both academically ineligible for the rest of the season. Stiemsma cited his battle with depression as the root of his academic struggles in a press release Wednesday.
Landry cited a slight learning disability when he announced that he was ineligible on Monday.
"Anybody can point fingers, call people names, say this or that, but I'm a solution guy," Ryan said after practice. "We've got to figure out how we can help them and now that they've been more open we can maybe be more helpful."
The losses have rocked the team both were valuable players off the bench and raised questions about the program's approach to academic support.
Ryan suggested that better communication was critical.
"I just think it's easier to help people when you know all the circumstances and they come forth with some things that might have been bothering them," he said. "But that's the same thing with your own kids at home. You can tell something is bothering him or her.
"As parents we go, Hey, what's wrong?' and sometimes kids will clam up. The same thing happens with student-athletes."
Including DeAaron Williams, who left the program on Jan. 5, three of the team's 12 scholarship athletes didn't meet the requirements to be eligible this semester.
Williams eventually tried to enroll at Bradley but, according to the Peoria Journal Star, was not accepted for academic reasons. Ryan said Williams planned to transfer regardless of his academic status and theorized that his impending departure might have caused him to let his grades fall.
"You maybe let a couple of those finals slip thinking, I'll pick these classes up at the next place,' " Ryan said.
Ryan also noted that basketball players faced an additional challenge because their season spans two semesters and many games are played during the week, which takes them away from class. He also said his players' academic struggles weren't a result of a lack of effort.
"So we're not talking about guys who slept in their dorm room until noon," Ryan said. "We're not talking about guys who didn't do their work. It's just that it didn't get done in the end with the finals."
