On Bo Ryan...

I had the strange experience this morning seeing my twitter feed explode over the interview Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan did with Mike & Mike in the Morning when he gave a bumbling rationale for placing restrictions on freshman Jarrod Uthoff's transfer.

I couldn't watch or listen to it at the time, so I had to wait to get the scoop.

But from what I was reading, I was prepared for a "Couric-Palin" trainwreck from which Ryan could never possibly recover. An epic meltdown, such was the feedback I was seeing.

Then I listened to the interview. And, I was underwhelmed. I'm not saying I agree with Ryan or think he came off well by any means, but geez, he just rambled on and talked himself in circles. It's not like he went full Colonel Nathan Jessup, cracking up while wildly incriminating himself.

Like I said, I don't necessarily agree with Ryan, nor do I necessarily hate media "firestorms" when the criticism is justified. I felt the criticism of Jim Boeheim, for example, over his response to the Bernie Fine story, was wholly justified.

But I do hate "firestorms" when the media seems to just selectively pick an outrage-of-the-day, and that's what this feels like.

Earlier this month, Tubby Smith, a coach spoken of glowingly by all those within college basketball, placed restrictions on junior Colton Iverson's transfer from the Golden Gophers. Smith prohibited Colton from transferring to any team in the Big 10 or anyone known to be on Minnesota's schedule next season.

But since there was other news that day, Tubby's actions went unnoticed. Ask anyone in the sport and Tubby will still be spoken of as a saint, a true gentleman of basketball.

Now compare that to Ryan's restrictions, who sought to restrict Uthoff's transfer to teams outside of the Big 10, the ACC (the Badgers have an ACC opponent next year, they are just not sure who it is yet), Marquette (their biggest nonconference rival) and Iowa State (whom apparently the Badgers have long suspected of tampering with players).

I'm not defending Ryan or Tubby, let a kid transfer wherever he wants for all I care. Change the rule.

But to pillory one while continuing to canonize another who did just about the same thing within this same month is hypocrisy, and does nothing to dispel the notion of the media haphazardly pointing its flashlight around. Today's "outrage" was yesterday's "yawn".

It's going to be a long offseason.

Plus I feel the need to defend Ryan since I'm pretty sure he wants to eat my liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.