Faced with its toughest test of the young season, Wisconsin looked more like the team that dropped its season opener to Western Illinois and less like the one that impressed in wins over Siena and North Dakota.
Despite starting its season opener with an energized ceremonial tribute to last years men’s basketball squad, the No. 17 Wisconsin Badgers (0-1) received the misfortunes associated with Friday the 13th and fell 69-67 to the Western Illinois Leathernecks (1-0).
With most of the key figures from Wisconsin’s back-to-back Final Four runs now gone, the Badgers will be relying heavily on a crop of young players to step up this season.
Filling the production void left on offense by the departure of Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker will be one of the biggest challenges facing a young Wisconsin squad this season. A significant amount of that responsibility falls on the shoulders of redshirt freshman forward Ethan Happ, who many are expecting to have a breakout year for the Badgers. His performance Wednesday night certainly won’t cause anyone to temper their lofty expectations for the redshirt freshman. Happ recorded a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds, and six different players reached double-digit scoring as No. 17 Wisconsin rolled to a 101-45 exhibition win over Division-III UW-River Falls at the Kohl Center. Happ in particular impressed for the Badgers, scoring his 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting from the field in 19 minutes of game action.
Frank Kaminsky was the best player in Wisconsin basketball history. By the time he left for the NBA, he ranked ninth all-time in total points, eighth in field goals, seventh in field-goal percentage, first in blocks, 11th in rebounds and, believe it or not, 11th in assist-to-turnover ratio. All this despite playing nearly 500 fewer minutes than anyone in the top 10. He played just 8.9 minutes per game in his first two seasons with the Badgers.
Jack Doherty, stunt double for UW basketball coach Bo Ryan, has reportedly grown sick and tired of posing for pictures with Badger fans. He originally enjoyed his position but has since felt it to be more of a burden than a boon, particularly the photo op aspect of the job. “I really don’t mind all of the basketball-related stuff,” Doherty said.
Since first stepping on the UW-Madison campus as a student in the fall of 2013, I’ve had the good fortune of experiencing numerous memorable Badger sports moments that have helped create memories that will last a lifetime.
Wisconsin is not a college basketball blue-blood. As hard as it may be for Badger fans to hear, UW just doesn’t have the 50 or more years of success that teams like Kansas and UNC have enjoyed. However, the lack of elite status is one of the many things that made Wisconsin’s victory over Kentucky last season that much better.
The Milwaukee Bucks will bring part of its training camp and an exhibition game to the Kohl Center this fall, representatives from the Bucks and Badgers announced Monday.
Early Monday afternoon, Badgers fans received news that they had long feared—the Bo Ryan era in Madison is coming to an end.
Since 2001, it’s been death, taxes and Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan. Starting after next season, we'll be back to just death and taxes again.
From unheralded bench player to national player of the year to NBA Draft lottery pick; Frank Kaminsky’s unlikely journey to the pros is complete.
From being that skinny kid from Sheboygan on SportsCenter, to ascending to an NCAA Tournament hero, to garnering a first-round pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, Sam Dekker has been all around the basketball world.
The Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team is coming off the best two-year stretch in program history, but face a myriad of uncertainty heading into the 2014-’15 season.
As the Wisconsin basketball team celebrated earning the first NCAA Tournament 1-seed in program history, unaware of the thrills, laughs and, ultimately, tragedy they would encounter, they were unknowingly cheering another achievement. A far more enduring, and impressive, accomplishment.
Read on Issuu
Solutions by The State News
