10 potential replacements for Bo Ryan at Wisconsin

According to oddsmakers from oddsmakers at BetDSI, Wisconsin is now a 300/1 longshot to win the national championship this season, only a year removed from playing in the national championship game. The unranked Badgers are 7-5 through the first 12 games of the season. Williams coached Maryland for 22 years, while Ryan has now been coaching the Badgers for 15. Already, they have more losses than they had in all of a year ago. The moment was even more special for Ryan as it came on what would have been his father’s 90th birthday.

Ryan’s longtime assistant coach, Greg Gard, will take over as the interim head coach and it is being said that Ryan likely chose this time to retire so that Gard will have a chance to prove that he deserves to coach the team long-term and he hinted as much on Tuesday night. Ultimately, Alvarez and Ryan agreed that Ryan would coach for one more semester to ensure that Gard was ready and fully-equipped to handle the transition.

“I think they’re going to look exactly the same” as under Ryan, Turgeon said. By retiring mid-season, Gard will have a lengthy audition to prove he’s more than an interim coach.

If that is the case, the move could be reminiscent of when the legendary Dean Smith waited several months after becoming college basketball’s all-time winningest coach during the 1997 NCAA Tournament and announced his retirement right before the 1997-98 season began. For him, every year is a contract year and so far, he has not choked under pressure as ESPN points out.

Ryan said Gard’s best attributes in selling himself for the job are his recruiting knowledge to the Wisconsin system and familiarity with the Big Ten, handling the majority of scouting. Bo Ryan had a great career as a coach with Wisconsin and he ended it in a classy way, giving his friend an opportunity to earn the job and all Gard could really ever ask for is a chance, which he will now get.