Postseason play is only two games away, and the Wisconsin Badgers look like a team with an identity crisis. A loss to Michigan State—the Badgers’ fourth in their last five games—denied them a tie with Purdue atop the Big Ten standings.
It had been 13 years since the Badgers bested Michigan State at the Breslin Center. Finally, with a Spartan team struggling to win games and without their senior leader Eron Harris, UW had a shot to break a nine-game road losing streak to MSU. But Sunday afternoon, Harris was on the floor and the No. 16 Badgers (11-5 Big Ten, 22-7 overall) dropped their tenth straight game in East Lansing, Mich., to an explosive Spartans team (10-6, 18-11). Though Harris played just eight seconds as he rested with season-ending knee surgery, there was a different energy in the building for his senior night.
In what was probably its most highly anticipated series in years, No. 19 Wisconsin (11-5-0 Big Ten, 18-11-1 overall) came away with a key win and a heartbreaking loss in the Border Battle against No. 4 Minnesota (12-4-0, 21-9-2) for Big Ten supremacy.
It all came together Wednesday night for the Badgers, as they ended their home season with a combination of senior night, a senior reaching her 1,000-point mark and a buzzer-beater shot to seal the victory.
The No. 16 Wisconsin Badgers (11-4 Big Ten, 22-6 overall) thought they had solved a number of problems and righted their ship after last Sunday’s 71-60 win over Maryland.
Wisconsin was riding high, up 5-0 in the second game of their first-round series against Minnesota State and less than 10 minutes away from completing the sweep. Then Sarah Nurse got hit late and high by Minnesota State’s Demi Gardner, and as the senior forward lay in the fetal position on the ice, what had looked seconds earlier to be a sure win suddenly seemed like it might come with a loss. Ultimately the No. 1 Badgers (22-2-4 WCHA, 29-2-4 overall) did come away with a 6-0 victory over the Mavericks (4-21-3, 7-26-4) to extend their 17-game unbeaten streak and secure a spot in the WCHA semifinal behind six goals from their top line of Nurse and junior forwards Annie Pankowski and Emily Clark. “Emily had good energy, good speed; that’s as fast as she’s probably played all year.
Five different Badgers scored goals as top-ranked Wisconsin (23-2-4 WCHA, 27-2-4 overall) routed Minnesota State (4-22-3, 7-25-4) 7-0 to open WCHA playoff play Friday night at LaBahn Arena. “We had good energy,” head coach Mark Johnson said.
The Wisconsin football program announced the hiring of Bob Bostad as the inside linebacker coach Friday, a position opened when Justin Wilcox left to coach at California. Bostad will become the third inside linebacker coach in as many years for the Badgers, with former coordinators Wilcox and Dave Aranda filling the position for the past two seasons.
With the speed and physicality of college hockey, there are often games where both teams spend a considerable amount of time on the power play and on the penalty kill.
The Badgers are clearly enjoying being away from the frigid Madison weather. Wisconsin softball, playing in the Michele Smith Pediatric Cancer Foundation Invitational in Clearwater, Florida, wrapped up their second of three consecutive series in the Sunshine State with success this past weekend.
The No. 16 Wisconsin Badgers (11-4 Big Ten, 22-6 overall) have made losing to unranked opponents a habit in the last two weeks.
In this week's edition of the Cardinal Zone Podcast, women's hockey beat writer Cameron Lane-Flehinger previews the Badgers' first postseason series vs.
The 500-yard freestyle and the mile are two of the most exciting races in collegiate swimming. The length is long enough where there are constant lead changes, and when multiple swimmers are going stroke-for-stroke near the end and one breaks away, the energy around the pool is electric. When I was watching these races on Big Ten Network during the Big Ten Championships last week, they sure didn’t feel electric.
Coming off of two-straight losses for the first time all season, the Badgers needed to fix something.
Born in Oct. 8, 1999 in Madison, Wisconsin’s women’s hockey program has yet to reach its 18th birthday, and the program itself is still younger than all of its players.
All year, the stars of the No. 22 Wisconsin men’s swim and dive team have been seniors Cannon Clifton, Matt Hutchins and Brett Pinfold. Although the three will be heavily relied upon this weekend at the Big Ten Championships, head coach Whitney Hite believes that the meet will be his entire team’s time to shine.
Seniors Connor Medbery and Isaac Jordan were honored at the UW Field House Sunday afternoon as part of senior day for the wrestling team.
When Kyrie Irving joined the Road Trippin’ With RJ & Channing podcast last week, listeners were likely expecting the point guard to reflect on his season thus far, talk about the upcoming All-Star weekend in New Orleans or possibly just dabble in the X’s and O’s of basketball. However, what those listeners heard, at least for part of Irving’s time on the show, were some unexpected scientific remarks from the 24-year-old. Irving claimed that the Earth is flat. “This is not even a conspiracy theory," Irving said on the podcast.
With the highly touted recruiting class that head coach Whitney Hite brought in at the beginning of the year, the Wisconsin women’s swim and dive team was expected to finish in the Top 5 at the Big Ten Championships.
On a campus like UW-Madison, where football and men’s basketball grab headlines week in and week out, women’s sports can go unnoticed, despite achieving continuous success.
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Solutions by The State News
