Wisconsin basketball is off to a tough 2015-16 start, already dropping games to Western Illinois, UW-Milwaukee, etc. Add that to the fact that their head coach Bo Ryan already indicated that this season would be his last (though he did leave the door open that he'd change his mind) and you have a potential mid-season Steve Spurrier situation on your hands. That's apparently what happened tonight after UW's victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi when the 67-year-old Ryan announced in a press conference that he was stepping down from the program, effective immediately.
Ryan had coached in Madison for the past 15 years, beginning in 2001, after serving his time in D-3 and the Horizon League. In his decade-and-a-half leading the Badgers he won four Big Ten regular season titles (the most recent of which was 2015), three Big Ten tournaments (the most recent of which was 2015) and made two Final Fours appearances (the most recent of which was...2015). Last year, during a run where the Badgers won a school-record 36 games, he led his squad to an upset of undefeated Kentucky before losing 68-63 to Duke in the National Championship game.
On top of those highlights he was 364-130 at Wisconsin, and made the NCAA tournament every freakin' year there. His team struggled early this season, though most team's that've lost two first-rounders to the NBA Draft would have a fall-off.
In the meantime the team's interim coach will be assistant Greg Gard, whom Ryan previously indicated would be his choice for a successor.
[via ESPN]
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