New era for Badgers as Gard becomes interim head coach

“Greg’s ready”, Ryan said after the Badgers beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 64-49 at the Kohl Center.

“I might be totally misreading this, but I really like what Bo did”. “This way we get to finish out the last game of the semester”.

In a span of 34 games, Ryan was able to accomplish what hadn’t been done at Wisconsin in 55 years: win a share of the Big Ten Championship.

According to The New York Times, Ryan won 75 percent of the games he coached, something that not many coaches can say they did.

“This was a decision months in the making”. Ryan said he brought this up to Athletic Director Barry Alvarez in April.

Former Maryland head men’s basketball coach Gary Williams and retiring Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan have a good bit in common. “But I couldn’t make the decision at the time”.

In June, Ryan appeared to be giving his boss Barry Alvarez a year’s notice to find his replacement, yet he never left any doubt as to whom he sees fit to run the program in the future. Last year, he was nominated for the first time to the Naismith Hall of Fame. “He will be missed”.

Ryan had been talking retirement for months.

Now that the info is out, the speculation as to why immediately begins.

Ryan was in his 15th season at the school.

“Obviously our brand of basketball and our pillars of success are pretty well cemented and time-tested”, said Gard, who has worked with Ryan for 20 years, including the last 14-plus in Madison.

Sitting with a 7-5 record now, the Badgers will look to regroup without Ryan, and it won’t be easy.

“I shared with them the same thing I’ve shared with two football teams in the last three years: Don’t be afraid of change”.

Fourteen straight NCAA Tournament appearances, coming off of back-to-back Final Fours, seven Sweet 16s and never finishing lower than fourth in a consistently hard Big Ten conference, Ryan took a program that had just five trips to the Big Dance before and turned it into a juggernaut.

It may have been created to give longtime assistant coach Greg Gard the best possible chance to guide the Badgers for the long term.

747-233 Overall record in 32 seasons. Gard, 44, is Ryan’s longest-serving assistant, dating back to UW-Platteville and UW-Milwaukee.

How the Badgers go about getting better remains a big question.

Keeping Gard in place going forward seems like the smart choice, but there’s certainly more at play here, particularly as it pertains to Virginia Head Coach Tony Bennett. Gard, 44, could contend with Northern Iowa head coach Ben Jacobson, Valparaiso’s Bryce Drew, and Virginia head coach Tony Bennett. UW had 25 in his 14 seasons. However, this directly affects the Big Ten conference and one of its most storied coaches is leaving the ranks. Ryan also won four national titles at Platteville.