Head coach Bo Ryan addressed the media two days after Wisconsin's 83-55 win over Indiana, as his team now prepares for a road game against Minnesota Thursday.
It's time for me to level with you, dear reader: I really don't know a damn thing about the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
Whenever Wisconsin faces Minnesota State, a few things are almost certain. Both sides will deliver their share of hits, elbows and shots, and there would be more than a few post-whistle mêlées or shoving matches.
When you are a WHCA hockey team chasing the McNaughton Cup, like this year's Badger squad, four-point weekends are supremely beneficial, even necessary at times. Usually, in order to sweep a conference opponent, one team must out play the other for a vast majority of the 120 minutes of action in a series. At the Kohl Center this weekend, Wisconsin separated itself from Minnesota State by controlling play during penalty minutes, of which the two teams racked up a combined 109. Put another way: The Badgers' special teams units throttled the Mavericks this weekend, and UW is still in the race for a league title because of it.
The Badgers have lost six games this year, and heading into Saturday's contest, had rebounded from each of the first five defeats with wins the next time out. So when Wisconsin played host to a struggling Indiana squad just four days after suffering a 63-56 home loss to Illinois, head coach Bo Ryan had some simple words.
The Grateful Red were given free towels to cheer on the Wisconsin men's basketball team Saturday against Indiana, but it was the Hoosiers who threw in the towels moments after the tip-off.
Senior forward Jasmine Giles has never missed a game in her playing career at Wisconsin, but Sunday's win over Minnesota State is probably one that won't get lost among her countless starts. After starting the game with a ceremony honoring the graduating class of four seniors, the Badgers made sure their last game at the Kohl Center would not be a disappointment.
Coming off a weekend that saw two very different performances from the Badgers against Bemidji State, the No.10 Wisconsin women's hockey team looks to have a big weekend against another WCHA rival, Minnesota State, as points become increasingly crucial.
Every year, the four weeks of February seem to produce a knockdown, drag-out fight for bragging rights atop the WCHA, and this year is no different. With four weeks remaining in the regular season, the top five teams are separated by only four points. The Badgers (11-6-3 WCHA, 16-7-4 overall) enter the stretch run looking to gain ground against a Minnesota State team that has long since exited the race and is attempting to play spoiler. The puck drops at 8 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday night at the Kohl Center.
It has been a roller-coaster few weeks for the Wisconsin women's basketball team. The Badgers (7-6 Big Ten, 17-7 overall) have gone just 2-3 over their last five games. That stretch has included a few heart-wrenching, second-half meltdowns, a double-overtime win against Minnesota, and a last-second loss last Sunday night against Purdue.
Last Tuesday, the unthinkable happened when Bo Ryan's Badgers dropped a home contest to an unranked Big Ten squad, something which has never happened before under his watch. But after another loss by Michigan State, Wisconsin has an opportunity to stay in the Big Ten race with a home game against a squad in the lower-half of the Big Ten —Indiana.
With so much talk about how the Pro Bowl is irrelevant, and with the NBA's All-Star Game this weekend, I felt it would be a good time to discuss the highs and lows of each of the Big Five's—yes, I counted soccer—superstar showcases.
When the over seven-hour experiment of hockey in Camp Randall finally came to a close, the waves of praise came as quickly as the Badger forwards chasing dumped pucks into the corner.
The Wisconsin men's tennis team will try to follow up last Saturday's double victory by tallying another against No. 66 Nebraska Thursday afternoon at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
I couldn't believe what I heard after Super Bowl XLIV. After a season of reading and watching virtually every NFL analyst declare Peyton Manning the best quarterback in NFL history and a player performing at the height of his career, sports pundits were now debating whether, after one game, Drew Brees is now better than Manning.
Down four with just over two minutes remaining before the Badgers would be hit with their first home loss of the season, sophomore guard Jordan Taylor split between two Illinois defenders and saw an open lane to the basket. The lay-up would cut the Fighting Illini's lead to two, and just like Wisconsin has done all season in the Kohl Center, they would ride the momentum to escape defeat.
Sophomore forward Matt Thurber has been suspended from the men's hockey team for unspecified alleged violations of the UW Department of Athletics' Student-Athlete Discipline Policy, the department announced Tuesday. Thurber did not take part in team practice Tuesday afternoon and will not be a part of any games or practices until the suspension is lifted.
In his second year as a Badger, sophomore center Derek Stepan has become one of the team's top players. The Minnesota-native was second on the team in points last year and has become a fixture on this year's top power-play unit, garnering six goals and 25 assists.
The Badgers entered the contest with home-court advantage and a higher ranking than the Fighting Illini, but with junior guard Demetri McCamey playing well, the Fighting Illini knew they had a chance if they received offensive production from their frontcourt against the much smaller Badgers. That's exactly what the underdogs did to earn a major victory for their team this season.
Two storms are brewing on their inevitable paths toward campus. One brings drifts of snow, and the other, if weathered, could bring the Wisconsin's men's basketball team another Big Ten regular season title.
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