BY MIKE LUCAS
UWBadgers.com Senior Writer
MADISON, Wis. — Former Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett always used to praise Mike Kosolcharoen for his work habits and adaptability. Traits that served him well. Back then – on the basketball floor as a tough-minded defender. And now – in the financial world as a concierge advisor.
His resilience has been invaluable. Whether earning a scholarship after walking on as a freshman. Whether returning to school for his degree after leaving the program upon falling out of love with the sport. Whether surviving the 2008 economic crisis as the owner of a mortgage and real estate company.
While adapting to the bends in the road, Kosolcharoen played to his strengths. His traits.
"My work ethic," he said, "is something my dad taught me."
John Kosolcharoen was 14 when he came to the United States from Thailand. He was a foreign exchange student at a Wisconsin high school. That's where he met Lois. He ended up staying. They dated and married and had a family. John was a teacher before getting into the construction business.
"My dad always told me, 'If you want to be successful, you put the work in' – I carried that little chip on my shoulder when it came to athletics," Kosolcharoen said. "I've always approached life this way … if someone believes you can't do something, it's your job to prove that you can.
"I've always had that underdog mentality. If someone is going to say something about me, I'm going to show them that it's something I can achieve. I had a lot of people tell me, 'You're not good enough to be on the floor (at Wisconsin).' I didn't believe that."
Seeing was believing … his father's roots.
Kosolcharoen was in his early 20's – out of school for the semester, living in California and thinking about becoming a teaching golf pro – when he traveled with his dad to Thailand. His aunt and her family owned a hotel in downtown Bangkok. New perspective came out of the trip and experience.
"It's something I really hadn't put much thought into until getting to spend more time with my dad and hearing his stories," he said of his heritage as an Asian Pacific Islander Desi American. "He would get out of school and the first thing he would do was run to the end of the docks.
"He would put his wood fishing pole – with his made-up dental floss line – in the water and catch fish. He grew up on the docks in Thailand. It was just the way they lived. You find out in a lot of those countries, if you have money, you send your kid to American to live the American Dream."
• • • •
Growing up in the Adams-Friendship school district – 30 minutes north of Wisconsin Dells – Mike Kosolcharoen always gravitated to competition. Bantam basketball. Punt, Pass and Kick. By his own admission, "I was a small-town kid who loved to play sports. But I was never a kid that dreamt of that."
That was the Big Dance. The NCAA basketball tournament. That was out of his frame of reference. Until … As a prep senior, he averaged 22.3 points, 6.7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2.3 steals. He was all-conference and all-state and the team MVP. He was even more accomplished in football.
While starring as a quarterback, receiver, defensive back and return specialist, Kosolcharoen received letters from Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan, among some Ivy League schools. "The one thing I regret in the recruiting process," he said, "is I never took my visits to Ohio State or Michigan."
Once on the Madison campus, he had a light moment with then head coach Barry Alvarez.
"I remember we were working out at the McClain Center," Kosolcharoen said. "It was at the same time Donald Hayes was playing both football and basketball (for the Badgers). And he (Alvarez) joked, 'Hey, did you ever think about playing both sports?' I told him, 'Basketball is hard enough.'"
As a frosh walk-on (1995-96), the same season Hayes crossed over, Kosolcharoen came off the bench in 18 games. On the prospect of playing a bigger role in the rotation, he said, "I don't know if I really knew that at that time. I just knew I was a talented basketball player, and I was confident."
His confidence took a sizeable leap the summer before his sophomore year. Kosolcharoen was the only UW rep on a Big Ten All-Star squad that played in Italy. Among his teammates were Purdue's Brad Miller, Indiana's Neil Reed and Minnesota's Quincy Lewis. The head coach was PU's Gene Keady.
"We came back from that trip," Kosolcharoen recounted, "and Coach Keady called Coach Bennett and said, 'Hey, are you planning on putting Kosolcharoen on scholarship? Because if you're not, I'm going to offer him one.' Lo and behold, I got my scholarship. I grew a lot that summer."
Whereas he had been a screener/blocker in Bennett's offense, he noted, "The thing coach Keady told me was, 'Kosolcharoen, will you shoot the ball? When you're open, shoot it.' That confidence on the offensive end is what changed my game and outlook coming into my sophomore season."
Even though he was still viewed as a defensive stopper, Kosolcharoen had an expanded role during the 1996-97 season, Bennett's second at Wisconsin since taking over from interim coach Stan Van Gundy. Early on, the 6-1, 200-pound Kosolcharoen was utilized as a small forward in some lineups.
In fact, he wound up starting four games when Bennett brought Sean Daugherty off the bench and went small with Paul Grant, Sam Okey and Kosolcharoen on the front line. For the bulk of the schedule, he was among the reserves, including Duany Duany, Hennssy Auriantal and Booker Coleman.
Weathering a season-ending knee injury to Sean Mason and a 2-4 Big Ten start, the Badgers got on a roll in February and March. In what some saw as a make-or-break matchup for the NCAA tournament, they faced league champ Minnesota in the regular season finale at the UW Field House.
The Bobby Jackson-led Gophers were ranked No. 2 in the nation and in line for a No. 1 seed. But the Badgers were spurred on by an electric home crowd and clutch playmaking by Ty Calderwood who sank two free throws with 11.8 seconds left and stole the ball from Sam Jacobson to seal a 66-65 victory.
Kosolcharoen logged 19 minutes (one under his average) and made the only shot he took – a clutch 3-pointer at 14:11 of the second half that gave the Badgers their first lead since 2:24 of the game. The following day, the Badgers drew a No. 7 seed in the Big Dance, their second appearance since 1947.
"It was one of the coolest experiences you'll ever be a part of," Kosolcharoen said of Selection Sunday and the build-up to Wisconsin's first round game against Texas in Pittsburgh. "I remember every experience from the places that we went. Then you get a quick wake-up. We're here to play basketball."
The Badgers could have used a wake-up call. Falling behind 15-3 in the first five minutes, they had no answer for the overall athleticism and quickness of the Longhorns. Or Reggie Freeman, who had 31 points. Texas never trailed in a 71-58 win. Okey had 17 and Grant 16. It was not nearly enough.
Kosolcharoen had 3 points in 19 minutes. It was the last time he wore his No. 23 Badger jersey.
"After my sophomore year, at our coaches meeting," he related, "we had an evaluation of where you're at, how you're helping the team and what the expectations were. All the coaches said, 'You're a huge part of our team. We're expecting you be a huge contributor the following year.'
"But to be honest, I had kind of fell out of love with basketball. I'm a truest at heart. If I'm in it, I'm in it 100 percent. If I'm not … well, I guess the way I felt about it at the time was that I'd be taking up someone else's spot who's looking for that opportunity.
"I didn't want to do that just to get my schooling paid for … to play a role and get through it … I'm just not that type of person. I told the coaches, 'Look, I just don't love basketball the way I did love it. I'd feel bad taking a roster spot from someone who does have the love of the game that I've lost.'
"I remember coach Bennett saying, 'I think that's a huge mistake. I think you'll regret that in your future, and I want you to take some time to think about it.' I did. But I still felt that way. I had kind of known that my heart wasn't in it. You just kind of know. And I made the hard decision …''
To walk away from the program just two years after he had walked on.
Kosolcharoen subsequently left school and moved to California to live with an aunt.
"Part of it was the unexpected departure (from basketball) – there was a lot of chaos around why I left and what happened," he acknowledged. "It got to be overwhelming, and I just said, 'I've got to clear my head and get away a little bit.'"
Using golf as a focal point, he added, "That's where I poured all of my athletic and competitive nature. I was going to enroll in a golf academy in San Diego and be a teaching professional. My brother brought me to my senses, 'You're not going to make money playing golf. Go back and get your degree.'"
Kosolcharoen took the words to heart and re-enrolled at Wisconsin.
"I just kind of wanted to be a normal person – just a student and do student things and I did," said Kosolcharoen who attended a few basketball games here and there. Mostly, he'd watch on TV. One of his roommates was Jon Bryant, the 3-point shooting star of Wisconsin's run to the 2000 Final Four.
Kosolcharoen confided that "when JB came home with the nets" that were cut down after the Badgers upended Purdue in the regional finals, it prompted him to think, "Oh, man, I could have been a part of that.' That's the only thing I regret, an occasional thing like that."
To Bennett's contention he'd forever regret his choice, he said, "I didn't. I can honestly look back and say that I did everything I wanted to do and more in college. The booster club and program itself has done a good job of embracing the time I did give them. I'm pretty happy with the way it ended."
Why wouldn't he be? He met his wife, Erin, at the UW. They were acquaintances before he dropped out for that semester and went to California. Not long after he had returned to Madison, they reconnected and started dating. In October, they will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary.
In 2000, Kosolcharoen got his UW undergraduate degree from the School of Consumer Science (personal finance major). He worked locally at a bank before moving back to California where his brother and father were living. He started a mortgage company and got involved in real estate.
"Then the market crashed," he said of the 2008 depression. "All the work that I had put in to starting that company, I lost. It was a tough business to be in at that time. But a huge career learning lesson for me. That's when I transitioned back into banking which I knew."
Kosolcharoen joined Johnson Financial Group in Arizona before transferring back to Madison, where he spent three years in private banking. In 2015, at halftime of a Badger game, Kosolcharoen and former UW player Mike Wilkinson had a "shootout" to raise money for Clean Lakes Alliance.
Draining three 3-pointers, Kosolcharoen raised $16,000 for Lake Waubesa and Lake Kegonsa.
But it wasn't long before he was on the move again. Back to California. Kosolcharoen enjoyed the financial advising, wealth management side of the business. Not to mention the warmer weather and an abundance of sunshine. So, he took a job with Edward Jones. He has an office in Ladera Ranch.
"Edward Jones is a pretty traditional company, and you start by going door to door, introducing yourself and your business, face to face," he said of their client prospecting. "When I came out there it was September and 90 degrees and I lived in San Clemente, a very hilly community.
"I remember going up the hills, knocking on doors, knowing I had 300 houses to knock on. And it was like running stadium stairs with weight vests on. You never look at the top. You always look at the stair in front of you. That (athletic) experience got me through all those weeks of door knocking.
"One house at a time – just like it was one stair at a time. I still take that approach in my career.
"Put your head down. Do what you're supposed to do, and success will follow."
Kosolcharoen still applies that attitude on the court. He will turn 45 in June. Yet he plays serious hoops in a competitive League. A month ago, he was matched against former UCLA guard Darren Collison who has started over 500 games in the NBA and had a 10-day contract this year with the Lakers.
"I may not be the same defensive player – he scored 47 on me that night – but I scored 37 on him, so I've still got some game," Kosolcharoen laughed. "I still play a couple of days a week. That's my stress relief. It's funny because it was the cause of stress back then (as a second-year collegian)."
Mike and Erin Kosolcharoen have three boys, ages 12, 14 and 16. Volleyball has generally been their sport of choice. Mike took his youngest to Milwaukee this season for a Bucks game. He stayed with a former UW teammate, David Burkemper, who like Kosolcharoen was originally a walk-on.
Today, Burkemper is a rising star in the coaching profession. He has guided Pewaukee High School to back-to-back WIAA D-2 state championships. Burkemper and Kosolcharoen were able to catch up on family and old times. They got up to speed on mutual friends. Like Virginia's Tony Bennett.
Maybe they just reminisced about the paths that each has taken since the mid-'90s.
"I've done a lot in a short period of time," Kosolcharoen thought. "That's kind of my nature."
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Where are They Now: Mike Kosolcharoen - University of Wisconsin Badgers
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