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Ryan elected to college basketball Hall of Fame
bo ryan
Former UWPlatteville and Wisconsin mens basketball coach Bo Ryan will be inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame in November in Kansas City.

MADISON — Former UW–Platteville and Wisconsin men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan will join an impressive group of standout former players in this year’s eight-person National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame class that will be inducted in November.

In his third year as a Hall of Fame finalist, Ryan was tabbed to take his place in the Hall, joining Wake Forest’s Tim Duncan, Winston–Salem State’s Cleo Hill, Indiana’s Scott May, Purdue’s Rick Mount, Creighton’s Paul Silas, Gonzaga’s John Stockton and Duke’s Jay Williams.

The 2017 Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on Sunday, Nov. 19 at the Arvest Bank Theatre in Kansas City, Missouri. The National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame is located inside the College Basketball Experience, adjacent to Kansas City’s Sprint Center. The following two days, the Badgers will play in the four-team Hall of Fame Classic, along with UCLA, Baylor and Creighton.

“We coached in the southwest, southeast and central part of the state and had what we felt was an impact,” Ryan told Mike Lucas of UWbadgers.com. “It’s me representing three different colleges. That’s a nice feeling.
“I just wish my folks were still here,” Ryan added. “This is pretty special.”

Ryan compiled an astounding  747–233 (.762) in 32-plus seasons as a head coach, a run that included in Platteville, Milwaukee and Madison.

After eight seasons as an assistant coach with the Badgers, Ryan took over at UW–Platteville, quickly turning the Pioneers into a NCAA Division III dynasty. He went 353–76 (.823) at UWP from 1984–1999, winning eight conference titles, qualifying for 13 national tournaments and four NCAA DIII national titles (1991, 1995, 1998 and 1999). Ryan’s Pioneer teams dominated the 1990s, compiling a 10-year record of 266–27 (.908), winning seven league titles and finishing second in the WIAC the other three years.

After his success at UW–Platteville, Ryan spent two years at UW–Milwaukee before taking over the Badgers in 2001.
Ryan went 364–130 (.737) in 14-plus seasons at UW, before stepping down in the middle of the 2015–16 season. His Badgers won a share of four Big Ten regular-season titles, three conference tournament titles, seven trips to the NCAA tournament’s Sweet 16 and had back-to-back Final Four appearances in 2014 and 2015. His .717 winning percentage in Big Ten play (172–68) is the highest of any coach with at least five years of experience in the conference.

Ryan is already a member of five Hall of Fames (Wilkes College, Delaware County, Pennsylvania Sports, Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association and WIAC). He’s also one of 14 finalists for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame which will announce its class on April 3 before the NCAA title game.