When you think of Big Ten athletics, perennial powers Michigan, Wisconsin and Northwestern come to mind. Wait ... Northwestern? Evanston, Ill., was not a friendly home for the visiting Badgers this season. Northwestern rolled up 421 yards in total offense and trailed for only five minutes and 11 seconds in a 16-7 upset victory over the No. 20 Badgers in football.
Later in the year, the basketball team repeated the upset using a 27-5 run to hand the Badgers a 69-51 defeat. Badger fans were only left to watch in wonder as a strangle hold was applied in Illinois.
It was just the second bowl defeat in nine tries for UW during the Barry Alvarez era, and this loss exposed the weaknesses the team had all year. Two late fourth-quarter touchdowns snapped a 14-14 tie and gave Auburn a 28-14 victory. UW had one last shot, but Auburn's fifth QB sack of the game caused a Sorgi fumble and the Tigers took over on the Badgers' six-yard line. Sorgi took many crushing hits on a day that saw the Badgers tally only 58 yards on the ground. Bowl games before January 1 are becoming the norm for a program once destined for greatness.
In a year that injected life back into Badger hockey, the Seawolves ended UW's road to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs with a 4-1 victory at the Kohl Center. Winning the round one best-of-three series, Alaska-Anchorage advanced to the WCHA Final Five, while the Badgers watched from the outside. Dan Boeser provided a glimmer of chance when he set up UW's first goal at 13:05 on a Badger power play, but that was the lone bright spot on this day. The potential for a championship year was abruptly ended at the hands of UAA.
First-year UW Head Coach Lisa Stone was left with a sour taste in her mouth after her first stint in the Big Ten. The Badgers tied for eighth in the regular season with a 10-17 record, and had their season come to an end at the hands of Indiana, who made easy work of them 57-39 in the first round of the conference tourney. The team did have seven academic all-Big Ten honorees this year but they may have needed to spend more time studying the playbook. With two players already electing to quit the team in the off-season, Stone is left with more questions than answers as they look to improve on their dismal season this year.
Watching the Gophers celebrate at the expense of the Badgers is one thing, but to have our axe taken by a kicker named Rhys Lloyd is just unacceptable. Wisconsin fell victim 34-31 as Lloyd and the rest of the Gophers triumphed on a field goal as time expired. Adding insult to injury, Wisconsin native Benji Kamrath orchestrated the Gopher offense when starter Asad Abdul-Khaliq injured his shoulder right before halftime and didn't return.
Last three minutes of UW-Pittsburgh NCAA game.
