Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan announces retirement

With it’s finality, Ryan’s unexpected announcement that he will not coach another game for the Badgers elicited an even bigger flood of reflection on the golden age of Wisconsin basketball than his proposed retirement this past summer.

“I wanted to give Coach Gard plenty of time to get the guys ready”, Ryan said at his postgame news conference.

Wisconsin basketball coach Bo Ryan announced his retirement Tuesday night after the Badgers beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 64-49. As part of his statement in June, he said he hoped that his “longtime assistant Greg Gard eventually becomes the head coach at Wisconsin”.

During his time at Wisconsin, the Badgers made two Final Four appearances, including in 2015, when the team lost to Duke in the national championship game. In 14 plus seasons, Ryan and the Badgers captured 364 victories, by far the most in program history.

Ryan, 67, went out on top – or close to it. Ryan never won an NCAA tournament championship, but the Badgers did appear in back-to-back Final Fours, the highlight coming with a victory against previously undefeated Kentucky last season.

Ryan is now the winningest coach in both Wisconsin and Big Ten history.

“Here’s what I told the players: I got six months with this group, because of the circumstances”, Ryan said.

Bo Ryan is more than a coach. Interim coach Brad Soderberg coached the rest of that season before Ryan arrived in 2001-02. Ryan won it in his first season and has never finished lower than fourth in what has been a very tough conference in recent years.

In what was believed to be a non-scripted plan, one of the best coaches in the Big Ten decided that it was time for him to step down.

He now turns the program over to Gard, who spent 22 seasons alongside Ryan. And Ryan had to know that stepping away now would also eliminate the cloud of uncertainty hanging over recruiting, which ultimately harms Gard’s chances in relation to other head coaching candidates. “For me, it’s about putting these young men in the best position to have success as student athletes”.

Past players, as well, voiced their support for Bo Ryan and everything he’s done for them and Wisconsin basketball.

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

That didn’t happen Tuesday night, but at least Wisconsin avoided a third consecutive loss at the Kohl Center and sent Ryan out a victor. Early-season losses and perhaps a feeling of not getting through to this team could have also taken their toll.

Bronson Koenig and Ethan Happ each had 15 points for the Badgers, and Happ was feeling under the weather.

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