Ryan didn’t want Gard to be stuck in the grind of recruiting as his father dealt with this illness, so he remained the head coach, allowing Gard to fly to see his father, visit him in the hospital, and spend precious minutes with his dad in his last days.
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Ryan retires as the winningest coach in Wisconsin history.
Ryan announced his retirement Tuesday night following UW’s 64-49 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Badgers struggled as Ryan wrestled with his future and that of his loyal assistant Greg Gard – a man he cosigned as his potential successor, a man who now moves forward as the interim coach of a program that is rarely in flux.
Late at night after losing in the NCAA tournament championship game to Duke in Indianapolis last season, Bo Ryan was asked what it meant to have a successful season come to a close.
The 2015 Badgers under Bo Ryan may at first be known for their current record of 7-5 but that is not what Ryan should be remembered for.
“After months of conversation with (Athletic Director) Barry Alvarez and his administrative staff, as well as my wife, Kelly, I have decided that now is the right time to step down from the head coaching position here at Wisconsin”, said Ryan in a statement after the game. His 364 wins overall at Wisconsin are the most in school history, and his 747 career victories put him 27th on the NCAA’s all-time list. “I just felt like we had some opportunities and we didn’t convert and we lost a lot of confidence over the course of the game”, Ryan said. So in October Ryan removed the certainty of that timing, suggesting he’d never really said it was “only” going to be one more year and that we in the media had, again, gotten it wrong.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi proved to be both a mouthful and a handful for the Badgers, who were coming off back-to-back home losses to UW-Milwaukee and Marquette.
Those that have watched and listened to Ryan for 14-plus years in Madison are familiar with who he is. He finished 172-68 (.717) in Big Ten play, the highest winning percentage in conference history.
Ryan was in his 15th season at the school.
Six different Wisconsin players earned All-American honors under Ryan. Ryan has been coaching college basketball since 1984, and was an assistant for nearly a decade before that.
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.
“We’ve got to remember he’s an old guy”, Hayes also said.
Bo Ryan knew there was life after basketball. “That takes a toll on your health”.
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