UW-Platteville has narrowed their search for a men’s basketball coach down to 5 candidates (there were 97 who applied). They are:

Will Ryan – The son of former Platteville and current Badgers coach Bo Ryan. The Younger Ryan, played for his father on national championship teams in 1998 and 1999, and spent two years as director of basketball operations at Wisconsin. He is currently an assistant at North Dakota

Jeff Gard – a 2001 UW-Platteville grad and current top assistant at the school. His brother is Wisconsin assistant Greg Gard.

Todd Adrian – current head coach at Edgewood College (44-34 in 3 seasons). Was an assistant at Platteville for 3 seasons under Paul Combs.

Pat Murphy – played on Bo Ryan’s first NCAA Division III national championship team in 1991. He has spent the last eight seasons as the head coach at Monroe High School 138-56) and made four WIAA Division 2 state tournament appearances, winning the state title in 2007.

Lance Randall — current head coach at Cedarburg HS. Has been an assistant at Loyola (Ill.), Beloit College and Saint Louis University and a head coach at Webster University in St. Louis.

Looks like five strong candidates. My feeling is that it will come down to Ryan and Gard. It will be hard not to hire the son of a legend…….