Bo Ryan Steps Down as Wisconsin Basketball Head Coach

The school sent out a release after the Badgers’ 64-49 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday night, December 15, 2015.

“This game we did and he had the saddest look I’ve ever seen him have”, Hayes said.

And if I’m Alvarez, I expect to be sacked if I don’t make that ask.

“I’ve never anxious about the standpoint of what the end result will be”, Gard said.

But that week was still very memorable to me. “I discussed this with Barry, and I appreciate him giving me the space to make this decision”. One of his first orders of business today will be to meet with administrators to figure out how to fill out the coaching staff. Ryan’s career at Wisconsin includes 364 wins as Wisconsin Badger’s winningest coach, as well as two Final Four trips in his last two seasons coaching basketball.

Ryan’s retirement is effectively immediately.

The 45-year-old Gard inherits a young roster but a roster he helped piece together. Gard has been with the program long enough that he should have no problem taking Ryan’s role.

“Time wise, I know how things get out and how people talk; if anything, if we had planned something, you know it would have happened that way”, said Ryan. “Last year, we had some kid who ate nothing but Froot Loops!”

Davis, who coached the Hawkeyes’ men’s basketball team from 1986-99, was finishing his fifth season at Boston College back in 1982 and received feelers from other programs.

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. It was Gard’s time now. Now he calls it an opportunity.

But Gard said he does not feel any pressure because he has never had anything more than a one-year contract in his lifetime as a coach. Thus far they are just 7-5, with losses to Western Illinois, Georgetown, Oklahoma and, perhaps most painfully, Milwaukee and Marquette in in-state nonconference contests the last two games before Tuesday’s win. Unless Gard totally flames out in B1G play, Wisconsin is likely to retain him with the expectation that continuity with the Ryan era is what’s best for business.

“His record speaks for itself”, Alvarez said, per Wisconsin’s Twitter account. He is a Hall of Famer. “He’s won his way at every level”.

“I want to thank Bo Ryan for everything he has done for our athletic department, the state of Wisconsin and certainly the Badgers basketball program”, Alvarez said.

“My response has always been ‘Absolutely, there should be, ‘” said Gard. “That’s his job, and I’ve never flinched or blinked from that”.

The gentleman who was promoted from the staff to be interim coach, Brad Soderberg, was an exceptional talent who went on to do an impressive job.