Maryland Basketball: Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan to retire
By Chris Bengel
Just months after a national title game appearance, Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan is retiring.
The school announced that the move will be effective immediately. After the team’s 64-49 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Ryan did not appear at the postgame press conference.
Assistant coach Greg Gard will take over in an interim capacity. Gard has been with the program as an assistant since 2001.
Ryan led the Badgers to a 36-win season a year ago, and saw his team fall just short in the National Championship game to Duke. He also led Wisconsin to eight seasons of 25 wins or more to go along with an NCAA Tournament appearance in every season while in Madison.
Ryan is currently the winningest coach in both Wisconsin and Big Ten history. During his collegiate coaching career, he accumulated a 393-157 (.715 winning percentage) during his time at Milwaukee and Wisconsin.
Through 12 games during the 2015-16 season, the Badgers are tallied a 7-5 record with losses at the hands of Georgetown, Marquette, and Oklahoma. Wisconsin lost a considerable amount of talent from last season’s championship run, including Sam Dekker, Josh Gasser, Traevon Jackson, and Frank Kaminsky.
Ryan has put together a phenomenal program during his time at Wisconsin. There’s rarely a season in which the Badgers aren’t one of the top 10 or 15 most talented teams in college basketball.
Ryan is one of the respected coaches in the history of the sport. His 36 wins during the 2015-16 season are tied are the ninth-most in the history of college basketball.
Obviously, this isn’t exactly news from a Maryland standpoint. However, this directly affects the Big Ten conference and one of its most storied coaches is leaving the ranks.
Ryan will certainly be missed.