Columnists - The Daily Cardinal

COLUMNS

Column: ESPN manages to lose more credibility with coverage of Tebow, Collins

By Matt Masterson and Jon Spike | Apr. 29, 2013

The last three days have had their fair share of big moments in the sports world. The NFL Draft was as unpredictable as ever. Steph Curry further cemented his status as one of the best young guards in the NBA against the Nuggets. Washington Wizards center Jason Collins became the first active player in a major American sport to come out as gay.

COLUMNS

Column: Going out strong with Bayern Munich-Dortmund prediction

By Matthew Kleist and Christine Knapp | Apr. 29, 2013

For those of you who don’t know—and probably don’t care, but I’ll tell you anyway—The Daily Cardinal and The Badger Herald held their annual spring softball game Saturday on the fields of Vilas Park.

COLUMNS

Column: To my good friend Aly, who was taken from the world far too soon

By Rex Sheild | Apr. 25, 2013

“Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever.” Those words were famously spoke by the late Jim Valvano during his 1993 ESPY speech and were proudly carried out by Aly throughout her life.

COLUMNS

Venerating the verisimilar and the unreal

By By Sean Reichard | Apr. 23, 2013

If it isn’t already a given, the things that happen in novels don’t happen in our lives—at least, not in the same way they do in novels.

COLUMNS

Column: 2013 NFL mock draft: a look at this year's first round

By Matt Masterson | Apr. 22, 2013

So I decided to write a mock draft in preparation of this week’s NFL draft. You may be asking, “What qualifies you to write anything on the NFL or football in general? You don’t seem particularly bright, and you probably are ugly.” Well, my only defense to that would be to tell you I have better hair than Mel Kiper, and that covers me on all counts—so take that. Plus most of these “experts” have a worse history of predictions than your local weatherman. So, here we go.

COLUMNS

Column: Athletes must be more careful with alcohol

By Rex Sheild | Apr. 17, 2013

You’ve had a couple of drinks and you’re feeling courageous enough to talk to the good-looking girl across the bar. You have a couple more drinks and realize that time is flying by, forcing you to drunkenly shuffle your hands through your pockets to find your keys. As you tell your friends goodbye with a drunken slur, you stumble your way to the car and force your keys into the ignition, putting yourself and everyone on the road at risk in the wee hours of the night.

COLUMNS

Column: Boston Marathon aftermath puts sports ‘heroes’ into perspective

By Vince Huth and Stephanie Castillo | Apr. 17, 2013

The Masters’ final round is, in my opinion, the pizza of sporting events. You won’t regret the decision to park yourself on the couch for six hours, because Sunday at Augusta will always leave you with some sense of satisfaction.

COLUMNS

Floating in the froth with ‘roman a clefs’

By By Sean Reichard and Alex Pacheco | Apr. 17, 2013

“A River Runs Through It.” “On the Road.” “All Quiet on the Western Front.” “The Bell Jar.” “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” What do these books have in common, you might ask? Well, for one, they’re all rooted in autobiography, and their official title is roman a clefs (“novels with keys” in French).

COLUMNS

Column: Tragedy in Boston creates far more heroes than villains

By Molly Reppen and Matt Masterson | Apr. 16, 2013

It is easy to get angry when looking at the images in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings. It’s simple to focus on the rage you feel toward the person or persons who would attack innocent runners and bystanders on a citywide day of celebration. If we stop there though, we are doing a disservice to all those who put themselves at risk to help people who they likely had never met, let alone seen, before today.

COLUMNS

Column: Bayern Munich, Dortmund should meet for Champions League final

By Matt Kleist | Apr. 15, 2013

I have written a fair amount this year about Bayern Munich’s rise to the top of the soccer world, and along with it the German Bundesliga’s ascension as king of European football. Now, as the semi-final matchups of the Union of European Football Associations Champions League have been set, the Germans are on the cusp of solidifying their seat on soccer’s throne.

COLUMNS

Column: Like him or hate him, you have to respect Tiger Woods

By Max Sternberg and Leah Leonidas | Apr. 12, 2013

Having already amassed three PGA Tour victories heading into the first major of the year, the Masters, Tiger Woods is seemingly back on top of the golf world. But even if Sunday comes and goes without Woods picking up his first major title since 2008, there is no doubt he has proven himself more than capable of continuing the push toward Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 major titles.

COLUMNS

Column: Louisville’s team unity leads to championship

By Rex Sheild | Apr. 10, 2013

As I contemplated what to write my column about this week, I came to a standstill. Should I write about the mess at Rutgers and the mind-boggling severance package head coach Mike Rice received? Eh, perhaps. What about the allegations regarding the 2010 Auburn national title championship team? No, allegations surrounding championship programs should be old news by now. While I could have torn Rutgers and Auburn a new one, I had the odd urge to be nostalgic and sentimental with my column for the mere reason to shy away from the norm.

COLUMNS

Column: Wrapping up the men's hoops season

By Max Sternberg | Apr. 10, 2013

As great as the NCAA Tournament is, March Madness comes packed with a brutal reality: one misstep and its all over. With one half of poor shooting, Wisconsin found that out the hard way, falling to 12th-seeded Ole Miss to bring a quick end to a postseason run many thought had a chance to go the distance.

COLUMNS

Stuck between stations with Berryman

By By Sean Reichard | Apr. 9, 2013

Apropos of nothing I picked up “The Dream Songs” by John Berryman, two years after I last read it. I can remember when I last read that book: driving to Madison with my dad in March, a weekend trip. I had known since December I was accepted to the university, but this March trip was the first time I had visited as an actual student, not an applicant. Perhaps that association is why “The Dream Songs” possesses so much poignancy in my memory.

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Men's Tennis: Badger prospects lack elite talent but provide good depth in draft

By Matt Masterson | Apr. 8, 2013

As the calendar turns over into April, football fans everywhere gear up for what is arguably the most important day of the NFL year: the draft. While free agency has made the practice of building a winner a more expedited process, you can look at the roster of any successful team and see that their corps was put together on a late April day.

COLUMNS

Misleading marketing, a malady maligning modern movies

By Nikki Stout and By Austin Wellens | Apr. 3, 2013

Movies are all about perception. And not in an “our perception of a subjective reality created by the editing of time and space is what defines out movie going experiences” sort of way.

COLUMNS

Column: Brewers viable option to fill sports-viewing void in spring

By Steven Wishau - The Daily Cardinal and Rex Sheild | Apr. 3, 2013

There is a distinct cycle in terms of sports viewing in the state of Wisconsin. Throughout the fall, Saturdays have traditionally been reserved for Wisconsin football, while Sundays are religiously dedicated to the Green Bay Packers. As the Wisconsin and Marquette basketball programs get underway, some attention may be diverted toward those teams, yet they will still never amass the type of die-hard viewing reception the Packers or Badger football team receive.

COLUMNS

Column: Once again, unpredictability of Final Four reigns supreme

By Vince Huth | Apr. 3, 2013

Most of the fun is over. We have just three games left in this year’s NCAA tournament, and then I can’t write another college hoops column for... well, until next week.

COLUMNS

Column: NFL scouting reports relying too much on race as a factor

By Matt Masterson | Apr. 1, 2013

With the calendar finally turning the page into April, NFL fans everywhere know that the draft is fast approaching, and if there is an overabundance of one thing on the Internet, it is certainly prognosticators telling us which player will go where and why they will succeed or flop in the pros.

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Column: Ole Miss' Henderson's antics overshadow exciting opening round

By Rex Sheild | Mar. 28, 2013

As many college basketball fanatics expected, the opening weekend of the NCAA Tournament was indeed filled with “madness.” While it was highlighted by the unexpected Sweet 16 berths of many double-digit seeds like Florida Gulf Coast University, Oregon and LaSalle, the pageantry, excitement and passion of the games was somewhat negated in nature by the bone-headed comments and overall arrogance of Ole Miss guard Marshall Henderson.