Wilkes College (now University) graduate Bo Ryan has stepped down as head basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin.
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Ryan explained how the health of Gard’s father Glen, who passed away in October, may have delayed this retirement.
And on Tuesday night, minutes after a nondescript victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Ryan retired. So far this season, Wisconsin is 7-5. Tuesday’s 64-49 win came during the semester’s final game, giving Gard a week to prepare for his first game as a head coach.
Ryan, who turns 68 on Sunday, has the most wins in program history with 364 and also has the highest winning percentage in conference history at. His back-to-back Final Fours, the four Big Ten regular-season titles and three conference tournament crowns in 14-plus seasons. He finished with a career mark of 747-233, good for 27th on the NCAA career wins list when you include his time at Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Division III Wisconsin-Platteville, where he won four national titles.
In either case, Wisconsin will feel the potentially crippling impact of Ryan’s absence immediately as the season marches on without it’s legendary coach. He considered retiring last April, but credited Davis for preventing him from making a rash decision.
The younger brother of Ryan’s assistant coach, Greg Gard, Jeff Gard stepped into his brother’s shoes years ago to begin coaching at Platteville.
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 was promoted to associate head coach in July 2008. He is in his 23rd season as an assistant with Ryan, and athletic director Barry Alvarez said he will make a coaching decision at the end of the year.
“I think they’re going to look exactly the same” as under Ryan, Turgeon said.
Gard is considered one of the top assistants in the game. Early in the South Carolina Gamecocks football season this year, legendary head coach Steve Spurrier stepped down, but his season was certainly a losing one. Wisconsin lost a considerable amount of talent from last season’s championship run, including Sam Dekker, Josh Gasser, Traevon Jackson, and Frank Kaminsky. Hayes said never makes eye contact with Ryan as the lineup is announced. I’ve got so much respect for Coach Ryan and the way he approaches every day the same way as well.
Ryan did not take questions after his announcement, saying he still had not told some staffers because he didn’t want to break the news before the game.
Under Ryan, the Badgers were 16-11 against the Buckeyes.
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“He’s been really good for me, on and off the court, stressing the importance of getting good grades and getting your degree”, junior guard Bronson Koenig said of Gard, who recruited the four-star point guard out of La Crosse, before the season.
