Rob Jeter has spent much of his adult life around Bo Ryan.

The UWM head coach played for Ryan at UW-Platteville from 1987-1991 (winning a Division III National Championship his senior year), and joined Ryan's coaching staff in 1994. Jeter followed Ryan to UWM in 1999 and then, two years later, to Madison when Ryan was hired to lead the University of Wisconsin.

To say that Jeter has learned more than a few things from his mentor would be an understatement. And he can think of no better way to show what he's learned and how much he appreciates Ryan's lessons than to beat his former coach, boss and current close friend at his own game.

"The best respect I can pay to him is to kick his butt," Jeter said. "It's no different than going against my brother in the back yard. It's the only was I could help him to get better, then we get together and kick everybody else's butt."

Unfortunately for Jeter, that didn't happen on Wednesday night as Ryan's Wisconsin squad came into the U.S. Cellular Arena and handed the Panthers a 61-39 loss. It was another tough outing for Jeter and his young team.

"It was the teacher giving it to the pupil," Jeter said. "It's tougher for him because he was my coach and he's one of my best friends," "He can see what we're trying to do. For him to be one of the guys that keeps us down, it hurts him. But he's a competitor; you play hard and you play to win."

Ryan was charged with building the Panthers program into a winner while Jeter has a similar task at hand now. The only difference between what Jeter is experiencing now and what his mentor when through from 1999-2001 is that the expectations at UWM - which has been to three NCAA Tournaments and the 2004 NIT - are much, much higher now.

"I see a lot of similarities," Jeter said. "I look back to that first year, we were fortunate to inherit a few guys and get a good base. We're trying to get that base with these guys. We had a great transfer in James Wright and we've got one now in Torre (Johnson)."