Basketball is very popular in Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Bucks and the Wisconsin Herd compete at professional levels. College basketball is also highly popular in the state. Perhaps even more so than professional basketball.

Several schools field programs that participate in the NCAA's Division I. Bo Ryan is a named that's probably familiar to many who follow NCAA basketball, especially in Wisconsin. Another member of the Ryan family is taking a top-level Wisconsin team.

Will Ryan named the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay head coach

Will Ryan is Green Bay's new choice to lead its men's basketball program, ESPN reports.

He comes from Wheeling University in West Virginia. Wheeling competes in the Mountain East Conference of the NCAA's Division II level.

Last month, Green Bay had dismissed its previous head coach, Linc Darner, notes MSN. The move came as somewhat of a surprise for some observers. Darner had led the program to a Horizon League Conference Championship in his first season. But results since then have more hit-and-miss. A far cry from the school's women's basketball program. Which has become a perennial powerhouse in the Horizon League.

Ryan has coaching experience at the Division I level as an assistant. First, with North Dakota State University. During Ryan's tenure with North Dakota State, the team won two Summit League Conference Championships.

He later worked as an assistant coach for several years with Ohio University.

Prior to becoming an assistant coach, Ryan worked in Division I with the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was the video coordinator and the director of basketball operations.

He is a son of Bo Ryan

Will Ryan's father, Bo, first joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison as an assistant coach during the 1970s.

Several years, later he was hired as the head coach of the University of Wisconsin-Platteville men's basketball team.

At the time, Platteville competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Or NAIA, for short. While Ryan was the head coach, the program made the transition to Division III of the NCAA. In the program's first NCAA season, it won the national championship.

And it would win three more national championships during Ryan's tenure as the head coach. Bo Ryan Court, Platteville's home court, is named in his honor.

Ryan's first Division I head coaching position was a brief stint with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He then returned to the UW-Madison. The men's basketball program would embark on some of the best years in its history. Including seven Big Ten Conference Championships and two Final Four appearances.
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