Former Wisconsin Badgers basketball coach Bo Ryan has no interest in watching the 2015 national title game loss to Duke.
Mike Lucas published an incredible interview with the iconic basketball coach Saturday, and Bo dived into the win over Kentucky and the loss to Duke. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
Despite being five years removed from the loss, the legendary Wisconsin coach hasn’t watched it.
“I have never looked at the Duke game,” he said. “There’s absolutely no way that I could sit there and watch knowing what I saw during the game. I wouldn’t put myself through it again. I just refuse.”
It would appear to be a direct shot at the officials who oversaw the game. As Lucas noted, Coach K worked the refs at half and the Badgers went from two first half fouls to 13 in the second half. Duke went from seven to six.
Even more infamously, Justise Winslow touched a ball right before it went out of bounds late in the game, and the Blue Devils were still given possession, which pretty much ended the game.
On the Badgers upsetting 38-0 Kentucky the game prior, Ryan knew his team was going to win before the clock hit zero, and said he “could just see it in their eyes.”
He also told Lucas, “People will tell me where they were. People were in their den. Or they were in their man cave. Or they were with their kids at a restaurant and the game was on and they didn’t leave the restaurant. It’s kind of neat to have your team appreciated like that by the public.”
That interview from Lucas is incredible from start to finish and I’d encourage all the college basketball fans out there to read it.
It’s the perfect kind of way to kill some time after coronavirus ended sports for the time being.
More importantly, I’m glad Bo Ryan is still holding his grudge from the national title game five years later. Trust me, he’s not alone.
The entire state of Wisconsin is riding with him when it comes to the Duke game. We got screwed, and it’s that simple.
The refs screwed us, and anybody who says different is simply lying to themselves.
Don’t forget, he also stepped out of bounds late in the game as well????????♂️ #OnWisconsin???? pic.twitter.com/7cXoZxUpRj
— Marcus S. Horton (@MarkyMark03) April 2, 2020
We’ll always have the win over Kentucky in 2015, but getting the national title ring stolen right off of our finger is something that will always sting.
Shoutout to Bo Ryan for keeping it real. The man is a damn legend and the greatest coach in Wisconsin history.