It is not an easy decision that confronts Barry Alvarez. Let’s get that out of the way right up front. Never in more than a century of college basketball has there been a more daunting time to hire a major college coach.
The cost has become so great, the stakes even larger, and the difficulty of extricating a program from an errant hire is most profound.
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And yet Wisconsin and its athletic director have more information available than most who, by choice or by chance, find themselves in the position of needing to hire a new head coach.