Will Ryan, the oldest son of well-known College Basketball Hall of Famer and former University of Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan, will join Southern Utah after spending three seasons as the head coach of the Green Bay Phoenix Men's Basketball Team.
Ryan and Coach Jeter have a long history. Jeter was an assistant on the team at Platteville when Ryan played for them, and then again when Ryan transferred to Milwaukee and played under Jeter and his dad, Bo Ryan. They ended up on the same coaching staff at Wisconsin from 2003-05.
In 2020, Will was named the eighth Head Coach for the Green Bay Phoenix. In his first season at the helm, he guided a young team to an 8-12 record in Horizon League play and 8-17 overall. Lucas Stieber was named to the League's All-Freshman Team. Despite a 5-25 record in his second season, Cade Meyer and Kamari McGee were named to the All-Freshman team.
Before being named the Head Coach at Green Bay, Ryan had a highly successful season at Wheeling University in West Virginia. In his lone season as the leader of the Cardinals, he took a team picked last in their conference to a fifth-place finish, all after taking over the program in July and with only five players on the current roster at that time.
Ryan, a Platteville native who won two national championships as a player for the Pioneers while his father was head coach, has over 15 combined years as a Division I assistant. Before his year at Wheeling, Ryan was the head assistant coach at Ohio University and an assistant coach at North Dakota State University. While with the Bobcats, Ryan helped coach 14 All-Conference players and a pair of second-place finishes. His tenure with the Bison was even better, where he helped lead NDSU to two NCAA Tournaments and a memorable upset win over No. 5 seed Oklahoma in the 2014 NCAA Tournament.
In his seven seasons in Fargo, Ryan helped the team advance to four postseason tournaments, tutored two Summit League Player of the Years, and a program-record 26 wins in 2013-14. Ryan coached under Saul Phillips while at NDSU and Ohio.
Ryan spent five seasons with the Wisconsin Badgers as a Video Coordinator Director and Director of Basketball Operations, joining the program in 2002-03 as a volunteer assistant. He also served as head coach for the Wisconsin Swing AAU team in 2005.
Ryan graduated from UW-Milwaukee in December 2002 with a Bachelor's degree in educational studies and youth leadership. During his senior season, he played for Bruce Pearl, the current head coach at Auburn University.
Will and his wife, Emily, have three sons, Owen, Liam, and Callen.
