Bo Ryan

William Francis "Bo" Ryan Jr. (born December 20, 1947) is an American former college basketball coach.

After a playing career at Wilkes University, Ryan graduated in 1969, and began graduate work, attending Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania.

Ryan's coaching career began in 1972 at Brookhaven Junior High School in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, where for one year he worked as a history teacher and basketball head coach.

In 1973, Ryan began his collegiate coaching career at Dominican College of Racine in Racine, Wisconsin.

He won a Coach of the Year award as head baseball coach at Dominican while serving as an assistant basketball coach under Bill Cofield.

In 1974, Dominican College closed down.

Ryan then became head basketball coach at Sun Valley High School in Aston, Pennsylvania in 1974, where he was named conference coach of the year in 1976.

His success at Dominic College and Sun Valley led to a job as assistant head coach at the University of Wisconsin–Madison under head coaches Bill Cofield and Steve Yoder from 1976 to 1984.

After his stint as an assistant, Ryan accepted the head coaching position at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville.

Ryan served as the head men's basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville from 1984 to 1999 and at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee from 1999 to 2001.

His overall collegiate coaching record was 747–233.

From 1984 until 1999, Ryan's Platteville team posted a 352–76 overall record, an .820 winning percentage.

During Ryan's tenure, UW-Platteville was the winningest NCAA men's basketball team of the 1990s (all divisions) with a 266–26 (.908) record.

Ryan guided the UW–Platteville Pioneers to four national championships (1991, 1995, 1998 and 1999).

He also won eight Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships and set a Division III scoring defense record in 1997, with his team only allowing 47.5 points per game.

On the strength of his success at Platteville, Ryan was hired as head coach at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee for the 1999–2000 season.

In his two seasons as coach, the team had its first back-to-back winning seasons in nearly a decade.

Ryan also brought a 161 percent increase in home attendance at UWM, giving the program a new energy that continued into the tenure of his successor Bruce Pearl.

Following the Badgers' 2000 Final Four run, head coach Dick Bennett retired two games into the 2000–01 season.

Assistant coach Brad Soderberg finished the season as interim head coach, but was not considered for the full-time job.

The coaching search began to concentrate on Rick Majerus of the University of Utah (who was a Milwaukee native) and Bo Ryan.

He was the head coach of the Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball team of the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 2001 to December 2015.

In the 2002–03 season, the Badgers won their first outright Big Ten regular season title in 56 years and advanced to the "Sweet Sixteen" in the NCAA Tournament.

The Badgers won the Big Ten tournament Championship in 2004, led by Devin Harris, and once again received an NCAA Tournament invitation.

On January 27, 2007, UW-Platteville officially honored Ryan's 15-year tenure by naming the playing surface at Williams Fieldhouse "Bo Ryan Court".

Ryan, along with the 2007 Wisconsin Badgers team, attended the event.

After Majerus pulled his name out of consideration, UW athletic director Pat Richter made the decision to hire Ryan as Wisconsin's 13th head coach.

Ryan's first season was much more successful than anticipated.

The team was predicted to finish as low as ninth in the Big Ten in pre-season polls.

The team, led by Kirk Penney, surprisingly finished in a four-way tie for the Big Ten regular-season title and received an invitation to the NCAA tournament.

Ryan was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.

Ryan began playing basketball at a very young age.

His father, Butch Ryan was already a legend in the area, coaching youth sports including basketball to under-privileged children in Chester, Pennsylvania.

Butch taught him the skills to be a successful point guard, generally the position of the on-court team leader.

He became a star basketball player, leading his high school team to a 25–1 record in his senior year.

In addition to basketball, Ryan was a high school quarterback.

The center snapping him the ball was Ted Cottrell, who later served as a defensive coach and coordinator for a number of teams in the NFL.

Ryan lettered in football, basketball and baseball, and was president of his class.

After high school, Ryan starred as a point guard at Wilkes College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

His love for the game drove him to remain involved with the sport, choosing to delve into the coaching profession.