:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/9527355/gyi0062552874.0.jpg)
There was no surprise in the Big Ten Coach of the Year voting this season. For the first time since 2003, the conference named Bo Ryan its Coach of the Year, as the BTN revealed in its special awards show on Monday.
With a 21-10 regular season and a 12-6 record in conference play, Ryan turned a squad with only Jared Berggren as a second-team All-Big Ten player into a team that contended for the conference title going into the final week of the season. Along the way, Ryan had to deal with injuries and scares (Mike Bruesewitz and Josh Gasser), a position that never had consistent play (point guard) and an offense that had a tendency to disappear at the most inopportune times.
In short, this is a well-deserved award for Bo. This team was held together at times by little more than grit and the fact that Ben Brust can get hot from 27 feet or further. After all, a top-four finish and a reasonably high tournament seed seemed ludicrous at multiple points this season.