Wisconsin Basketball Coach Bo Ryan Announces Immediate Retirement 

Longtime Wisconsin’s men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan just announced his retirement, in a heartfelt press conference after his team’s victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The retirement is effective immediately. Ryan said that he and Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez decided the end of the semester—tonight was the last game before finals—was the best time to hand the team over to assistant coach Greg Gard.

Ryan has coached Wisconsin since the 2001-02 season, following 15 years at Wisconsin-Platteville and two at UW-Milwaukee. After Dick Bennett molded Wisconsin into a consistent Big 10 contender in the late 1990s, Ryan continued that work and built the Badgers into a Sweet Sixteen mainstay. The 67-year-old Ryan’s best season was his last one, when he led Wisconsin to the national title game. They lost 68-63 to Duke, and are 7-5 on the current season.

Photo via Getty

E-mail: [email protected] | PGP key + fingerprint | DM: @kevinmdraper