MADISON, Wis. -- After meeting Friday, the UW Athletic board opted to renew the five-year contract of men's basketball head coach Greg Gard through the 2022-23 season.

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Wisconsin missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998, but Gard's squad showed tremendous growth near the end of the 2017-18 campaign. Despite fielding one of the nation's youngest teams (average experience of 1.04 seasons), the Badgers won five of their last eight games, only falling to Big Ten regular season champion Michigan State (twice) and eventual national runner-up Michigan by an average of 6.3 points per game.

After taking over for hall of famer Bo Ryan midway through the 2015-16 season, Gard has compiled a 56-36 overall record, including two Sweet 16 appearances. In his two and a half seasons at the helm, the Badgers have six wins over Associated Press Top 10 ranked teams, the most in the Big Ten.

In his opening season as head coach, Gard was named Jim Phelan National Coach of the Year, becoming just the second-ever first-year head coach to claim that honor. He followed that up by guiding Wisconsin to 27 wins in 2016-17, the fifth-highest win total in school history. Gard was just the third coach in the last 20 years to lead his team to the Sweet 16 in each of his first two seasons, joining UCLA's Steve Lavin (1996-97) and Gonzaga's Mark Few (2000-01).

A native of Cobb, Wis., Gard worked his way up through the coaching ranks, beginning with stints at Southwestern (1990-93) and Platteville ('94) High School, where he coached his way onto Ryan's staff at UW-Platteville ('93-'99).

After winning three NCAA Division 3 titles with the Pioneers, Gard followed Ryan to UW-Milwaukee ('99-'01). Gard then served as UW's associate head coach since 2001 before becoming Ryan's successor.