In this episode of the Cardinal Zone podcast, sports editors Jake Powers and Zach Rastall are joined by Thomas Valtin-Erwin to preview the NCAA Tournament, evaluate Wisconsin's draw and reveal their Final Four picks.
This year’s women’s NCAA swimming and diving championships start Wednesday in Atlanta. This is usually the biggest event of the year for collegiate swimmers, but this year it is overshadowed a bit by June’s Olympic Trials. The No. 12 ranked Wisconsin women have qualified in 17 swims, including four relays, and are poised for a strong finish.
One year ago today, the final chapter to the Bo Ryan-Tom Izzo rivalry was written. When Wisconsin and Michigan State met on March 15, 2015 in the Big Ten Tournament title game, no one knew that it would be the final installment in the iconic Ryan-Izzo rivalry, which had helped define Big Ten basketball for a decade and a half. But their meeting in Indianapolis did, in fact, end up being their last, which perhaps was fitting given the significance and high quality of that game. Wisconsin entered the game as the favorites after winning the outright Big Ten regular-season title.
For the first time since the Joel Stave versus Tanner McEvoy competition began brewing in 2014, the Badgers are working through spring practice without knowing who their starting quarterback will be come fall camp. With the graduation of both Stave, who left as Wisconsin’s all-time winningest quarterback and McEvoy, who found his niche at wide receiver and safety, redshirt senior Bart Houston and redshirt freshman Alex Hornibrook have both been working with the first team in UW’s first two practices at Camp Randall Stadium.
Women’s Hockey No. 2 Wisconsin (24-3-1 WCHA, 31-3-1 overall) defeated No. 13 Mercyhurst 6-0 in the NCAA quarterfinal round Saturday and clinched a Frozen Four matchup with WCHA rival No. 3 Minnesota (24-3-1, 33-4-1). Head coach Mark Johnson believes the pressure won’t affect his veteran team. “Having been there and having had players that have been in this game last season, other than our three freshmen, I think everybody will be somewhat comfortable under the circumstances, but getting a chance to practice at the Kohl Center and playing a familiar opponent, you know, there is nothing really new other than the magnitude of the game,” Johnson said. “So we will go about our week similar to going about our week for playing Minnesota either here or up in their building and do the things that put us in this position and not try to do things outside of that, make them aware of some things, and then it's going to come down to when they drop the puck, who can execute.” With a matchup of two teams that know each other well, Johnson said UW needs to play to its strengths and execute. “I think for both teams, you know, as we prepare for the game Friday night, what are our strengths and how can we play to those strengths and I'm sure they're probably doing the same kind of things?
The Daily Cardinal has created its own predictive rating system to project winners of any matchup in the NCAA Tournament.
Growing up in a family of athletes, Chase Kinney has always had a competitive streak and strong work ethic, and it’s definitely translated over to massive success at the college level.
Wisconsin earned its third Big Ten win Friday against No. 19 Minnesota, but could not match that effort in the Saturday game and fell to the Gophers (14-6-0 Big Ten, 19-16-0 overall). In a similar fashion to their win over Penn State the previous weekend, the Badgers (3-13-4, 8-18-8) took a two-goal lead late into the third period and nearly allowed the Gophers to come back.
1.Grayson Allen If this list was broken into tiers, Duke sophomore guard Grayson Allen would be in a tier of his own.
March Madness is here. It's time to check out our comprehensive tournament coverage, print one of our brackets and prove to your friends that your basketball I.Q.
Last March Madness, I achieved international fame (not really) for unequivocally predicting that 14-seeded Georgia State would upset mighty 3-seed Baylor in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The greatest three-week stretch in all of sports is here, and The Daily Cardinal has you covered for all your March Madness needs. We have a bracket, an NCAA Tournament calculator to help fill out said bracket, a roundtable discussion of Wisconsin tournament odds, a Pittsburgh preview, an overview of each region, a preview for every No. 1 seed and much, much more.
The Daily Cardinal sports staff takes a look at five pressing questions leading into Wisconsin’s first-round matchup with Pittsburgh in the NCAA Tournament.
The NCAA Tournament can get pretty wacky, pretty quickly. Here's a quick overview of some of the oddities surrounding this year's edition of March Madness. The University of North Carolina system has three different schools in the tournament—No. 1 North Carolina, No. 15 UNC-Asheville and No. 13 UNC-Wilmington.
In looking for big underdogs last season, I looked at the statistics of underdog teams that win in the first round and how they differ from those that lose.
The dust has settled and the bracket is out (officially this time, none of that leaked nonsense), and the Big Ten has seven teams in the tourney spanning three of the four brackets. The Big Ten Tournament champion Michigan State Spartans were the Big Ten’s highest seed, but were robbed of a No. 1 seed and will settle for the Midwest Region’s No. 2 seed.
Player to Watch: Kris Dunn, Providence Senior guard Kris Dunn and his nine-seeded Providence Friars began the season with high expectations.
Player to watch: Buddy Hield, Oklahoma It’s not exactly a reach, but the fact of the matter is that there are few, if any, players in college basketball as good as Buddy Hield.
Player to watch: Melo Trimble, Maryland The Terrapin point guard’s sophomore slump has been inexplicable and extremely frustrating for Maryland fans, but Trimble is still the kind of player who can catch fire and lead his team on a deep tournament run.
Player to Watch: Denzel Valentine, Michigan State Without a doubt, the top player in this region would have to be Michigan State’s Denzel Valentine.
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