Bo Ryan to Retire Effective Immediately

“I’ll see you down the road”, Ryan said. “I brought this up to [athletic director] Barry [Alvarez] back in April”. He did it on his terms, on a quiet Tuesday night following a game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Ryan was in his 15th season at the school.

He was known for his “Swing” offense that required every player to be willing to handle the basketball on the perimeter and score in the low post.

“Can’t put that into words”, Ryan said.

Molesworth was there to witness the last three years of Ryan’s coaching career at Platteville, where he won four national championships, had two undefeated seasons and racked up a score of other record-breaking statistics.

And then comes this season, trying to bounce back from Frank Kaminsky, the best player in college basketball last season, and Sam Dekker, leaving to the NBA. Since taking over in 2001, Ryan has guided Wisconsin to two Final Fours, four Sweet Sixteens, seven Big Ten titles, and 364 wins, while not missing the NCAA Tournament even once in his 14 years at the helm. His teams also finished no worse than fourth in conference play each year he was at the helm.

All of this came after he won four national championships with Division III UW-Platteville.

“Bo Ryan was one of the toughest competitors that I know we had to coach against”, said former UWSP basketball head coach Jack Bennett.

There are a number of schools of thought on the issue already, with some looking to a couple of examples to help explain why Ryan would choose now as opposed to finishing out the season.

Those who know Gard best say he’s the flawless man to step into the captain’s role and guide the Badgers through rough waters.

Ryan did all of this with only one McDonald’s All-American player. But Tuesday night he did.

“Their world has been turned upside down in the last 24 hours, so we need to make sure that they understand that we’re here to help facilitate them through this”, Gard said. “He had the saddest look I’ve ever seen him have when we looked at each other”. Between Bruce and Gary and myself, we got to know him pretty well. Knowing Bennett just a little from having reported on the program for a long time, it seems that Bennett isn’t one to carry around hard feelings.

It was an early sign of what those who follow the Big Ten forecasted for Ohio State this season.

“I imagine they’re going to look exactly the same”, Turgeon said of Wisconsin, which will host Maryland on January 9th.

“I told the team, ‘I don’t change as a person.’ My role will change, my responsibility level will change”. He advised me to take some time to think it over, and I appreciated that. The press in attendance seemed stunned when he made the announcement following the game.

At 6-foot-4 and roughly 250 pounds, Burton is more of a transition forward than Mitrou-Long, a traditional shooting guard.

NEVADA STAR LEAVES TEAM: AJ West, who led Nevada in scoring and rebounding a year ago, has left the Wolf Pack for personal reasons.