Photo Courtesy: Mike Jodar
Wisconsin Badger Men’s Basketball head coach Bo Ryan will be ready to call it a career after next season after what has been one of the great runs at any single school.
It was announced on Monday through a press release from Bo Ryan and Wisconsin that outlined that this decision has actually been a topic of conversation since the end of last season’s run to the national championship game. Here is the statement in full:
“Back in the spring, in the days after the national championship game, [athletic director] Barry Alvarez and I discussed the possibility of me retiring,” Ryan said in the statement. “I’ve always been told that is not a decision to make right after a season is completed. Barry thankfully encouraged me to take some time to think about it and I have done that. I considered retiring this summer or coaching one more season.
“I’ve decided to coach one more season with the hope that my longtime assistant Greg Gard eventually becomes the head coach at Wisconsin. I am looking forward to another year with our program, including our players, my terrific assistant coaches, our office staff and everyone who supports Wisconsin basketball here in Madison, around the state and across the country.”
It is more than understandable that Coach Ryan would step away after this upcoming season. The basketball season which can have such great rewards such as seeing players reach new level of success, develop and grow personally and then as a team can be very fulfilling for any coach especially for Bo Ryan, who has always been about his players and helping them get as much out of their time with the basketball program and university as humanly possible.
Their is also though all the long days and nights that go along with preparing and teaching a young group of men how to play basketball how he and his staff want them to play. Also the many, many hours of scouting opponents, focusing on building a game plan for each game can be very taxing on the mind and body of coaches,even for the best ones like Bo Ryan.
At 67, he is at a point in his career that he has achieved just about anything that he could have dreamed of when he began his coaching career. His record at Wisconsin speaks for itself, in 14 seasons he has a 357-125 record, including two Final Four trips in the last two seasons, which has only cemented his place even more as one of the all time great head coaches and a potentially inducted into the Hall of Fame down the road.
The consistency with which he has guided his teams with has and continues to be something to marvel at. It is rare especially in today’s changing landscape of college basketball that a program can have such longevity in terms of sustaining success, it makes you as a fan appreciate the work and great basketball IQ that Bo Ryan has.
It is also a testament to Ryan’s ability to have selected a great staff to help out through the years to assist him in all aspects of the basketball program. So many coaches have benefited from being under the guidance of Bo Ryan and have gone onto head up their own programs and be successful in their own right.
His coaching tree will only continue to grow by leaps and bounds moving forward as more of his coaches get opportunities to make that next step to being head coaches on their own.
Though this will be his last season at the helm of the Badgers, Bo Ryan has provided the university, their fan and college basketball overall with many memories that will last a lifetime for all of us to enjoy and look back on.
