In a chaotic week full of upsets for the top-10 teams in the College Football Playoff rankings, the Big Ten conference hardly had any surprising results.
Brad Davison spent the majority of the first half of Wisconsin’s 80-70 to No. 15 Xavier (3-0) pestering Musketeer players, making contested jump shots and pumping his fists in excitement.
Wisconsin has been on a run of revenge, and Thursday night it was a dish best served cold. The Badgers (4-3-1 Big Ten, 11-4-5 overall) continued their five-game winning streak as it knocked off the UIC Flames (6-2-1 Horizon, 11-6-3) with a 4-1 win on a frozen night in McClimon Park to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. All of the teams who Wisconsin beat in the postseason had previously handed UW a defeat.
After two 30-point blowouts to open the season, the Wisconsin men’s basketball team (2-1) used just about every possession to decide its third game of the year against the No. 15 Xavier Musketeers (3-0). In a hotly contested affair, the Musketeers ultimately pulled away from the fresh-faced Badgers to win 80-70. Each half was a tale of two halves for the Badgers.
Sports editor Ben Pickman and football beat writers Lorin Cox and and Jake Nisse preview Wisconsin's upcoming matchup with Michigan.
Soccer’s mystique is built on its brief moments of magic that populate the field. The praise and adulation is often heaped onto strikers who steal the headlines with their goals despite the hard work of everyone around them.
“We are, Green Bay! We are, Green Bay!” roared the jubilant Phoenix faithful in the waning seconds of Green Bay’s (2-0) 67-34 drudging of the Wisconsin Badgers (1-1). Filling up the entire section behind the Phoenix bench, the Green Bay crowd created a home-game-type atmosphere that exceeded a subdued and energy deficient Badger crowd. On the floor, the Badgers seemed to lack the energy and enthusiasm that most teams have headed into a rivalry game as UW was beaten soundly on both sides of the ball as well as in the intangible aspects of the game, such as hustle and heart. “That was a Green Bay butt-kicking,” head coach Jonathan Tsipis said. Shooting woes plagued the Badgers as they finished shooting 26.9 percent from the field and were unable to convert on any of their 16 3-point field goal attempts.
Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard knows his team is young and learning. And after an extensive preseason slate, the Badgers’ early non-conference schedule presents no shortage of tests, a schedule he said is meant to put the newcomers through a trial by fire. “It's a challenging schedule,” he said.
Fresh off an 80-66 victory over the Charlotte 49ers, the Wisconsin women’s basketball team (1-0) will host an in-state rival, the Green Bay Phoenix (1-0), at 7 p.m.
As far as I’m aware, there are no T-shirts with Paul Chryst’s face on them. While I personally think they’d be a hit, they sadly don’t seem to exist.
Philipp Schilling and the Wisconsin Badgers seem to love penalty shootouts. The senior goalkeeper saved a penalty and scored his own, then senior forward Mark Segbers cooly slotted home his penalty to give the Badgers (4-3-1, Big Ten, 10-4-5 overall) their first Big Ten title since 1995 with the 4-2 win in the shootout over the Indiana Hoosiers (5-0-3, 15-0-5). “Philip and the guys came through in a pressure situation – hats off to them,” head coach John Trask said.
After facing a tough season last year, the Wisconsin women’s basketball team (1-0) knew it was going to have to make some serious improvements if it wanted to make an impact against teams this year.
After Khalil Iverson posted a zero-point, four-turnover performance in the Badgers’ season opener against South Carolina State, head coach Greg Gard’s confidence in his third-year forward didn’t waver. “There’s gonna be some nights when it’s [Iverson], as it has been in some of the exhibitions, and there’s gonna be nights when it’s other guys,” he said.
In the middle of the season, it is a common theme for coaches to dissect how a team is playing potentially above tangible results.
Falling from No. 8 to No. 10, the Wisconsin Badgers (8-8 Big Ten, 17-8 overall) split their weekend series in Indiana as they swept the Indiana Hoosiers (1-15, 12-16) 3-0 before getting swept by the No. 25 Purdue Boilermakers (10-6, 20-7). The Badgers’ road trip results paint a similar picture to their overall conference play this season.
After a tune-up game to open the season against South Carolina State, Wisconsin (2-0) faced its first test of the season as Yale (0-2) came to town Sunday.
The top-ranked Wisconsin women’s hockey (16-0-0) team continued its perfect season this weekend with a sweep of the then No. 7 Cornell Big Red.
Wisconsin’s women’s basketball team prepares to face UNC Charlotte on Sunday to get its season officially underway.
Field position isn’t a sexy stat, but it makes all the difference in a tight game where neither offense can consistently sustain long scoring drives. Lost in the defensive dominance and late offensive push by the No. 6 Wisconsin Badgers (7-0 Big Ten, 10-0 overall) was a redemption story for sophomore punter Anthony Lotti, who repeatedly flipped in the field in its 38-14 win over the No. 25 Iowa Hawkeyes.
Even after the departure of four of its five starters from last year’s team, head coach Greg Gard is confident that his 2017-’18 Wisconsin Badger (1-0) group has plenty of offensive weapons. “This team is going to have a variety of scorers,” Gard said after UW’s 85-50 win over South Carolina State Friday night.
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