Just one season ago, Minnesota traveled to the Kohl Center and easily won two games against Wisconsin, including a 9-2 beat down of a Badgers team that looked dejected with little confidence.
In this week's episode, men's basketball beat writers Ben Pickman and Thomas Valtin-Erwin, as well as columnist Zach Rastall, discuss the current state of Badger hoops.
After falling to 0-4 in Big Ten play over winter break, the Badgers had a chance to salvage their sinking ship of a Big Ten record against a weak program.
Jordan Hill spent the majority of Monday’s practice wearing a blue pinnie. The junior point guard, who saw his minutes diminish over the first half of UW’s season, was running Wisconsin’s scout team.
Senior guard Bronson Koenig scored a team-high 16 points, including 12 in the game’s final six minutes, to lead the Badgers in what turned out to be Wisconsin’s most enthused game of the season.
Senior forward Nigel Hayes and the rest of No. 17 Wisconsin’s (4-1 Big Ten, 14-3 overall) starters spent a large portion of Monday afternoon’s practice competing against players in navy blue jerseys.
For the Wisconsin football team, the winter break was bittersweet. There was plenty of good to finish the season, but also several key departures, which could become issues in future years. To begin with the good, Wisconsin began the New Year by winning its first BCS/New Year’s Six bowl game since Jan.
As Badger students headed home for winter break in late December, No. 18 Wisconsin headed into conference play seeking a 16th-consecutive top four finish in the Big Ten. The Badgers began with a tune-up game at the Kohl Center against a new-look Rutgers team that hasn’t posted a winning season in 10 years.
For Wisconsin, the winter break started in the worst way possible. Starting in goal for the Canadian national team in a game against the United States on December 17, senior goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens faced up to a slap shot from Team USA's Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson.
After closing out 2016, the Badgers looked to be turning the corner following a stretch of promising basketball, which concluded with an upset road win at UW-Green Bay.
As the spring semester quietly sneaks up on students, the Badger wrestling team, ranked No. 11 hopes to kick down the door and vault themselves into the Top 10.
After splitting its first conference series of the season before winter break, Wisconsin took a nearly month-long hiatus before returning to the ice with gusto last weekend.
Senior guard Bronson Koenig scored 21 points on five-of-seven shooting from three and senior forward Nigel Hayes added 15 points and four assists as yet again the No. 18 Wisconsin Badgers (3-1 Big Ten, 14-3 overall) bounced back from a loss, upending the Ohio State Buckeyes (0-4, 10-7) by a score of 89-66. The Badgers shot a mere 14 percent from three in their 11-point loss to Purdue over the weekend, but Thursday night, in their last home game before classes resume, Wisconsin regained its three-point stroke. UW, led by Koenig, made 12 of their 22 three-point attempts in what was one of its best offensive performances of the season.
After a week of heavy training in Hawaii, the No. 19/No. 14 Wisconsin swim and dive team is back on the road to take on No. 16/No. 8 USC at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center in Los Angeles this Friday. The Badgers went into the semester break on a high thanks to many top times and school records at the Texas Hall of Fame Invitational, but the level of competition in L.A.
Following their first loss in the Big Ten at the hands of No. 17 Purdue, the No. 18 Wisconsin Badgers (2-1 Big Ten, 13-3 overall) return home to Madison to welcome a struggling Ohio State (0-3, 10-6) team that has yet to win a top-level matchup this season. The Buckeyes got off to a relatively strong start to the year, coasting through their first five games into a date with then No. 6 Virginia.
In the midst of a nine-game winning streak and following a big road win over then-No. 25 Indiana, the Wisconsin Badgers were finally starting to look like the top-flight team they were predicted to be.
A lot can happen in 28 days. Even with practice and conditioning, 28 days without playing a hockey game will inevitably build rust.
Last March, when Purdue forward Caleb Swanigan scored 27 points in a 91-80 victory over Ethan Happ and the Wisconsin Badgers, Swanigan wasn’t even the Boilermakers’ best frontcourt player. A.J.
After No. 13 Wisconsin’s (2-0 Big Ten, 13-2 overall) 53-point victory over Florida A&M in late December, head coach Greg Gard candidly admitted that his team’s “mountain gets a lot steeper” as they enter conference play. With two conference wins, including an impressive 75-68 victory over No. 25 Indiana (0-2, 10-5), the Badgers have successfully reached their first conference plateau. Like any good climbers, the Badgers entered Bloomington, Ind., Tuesday evening prepared for the rough terrain they were set to face.
The No. 8 Wisconsin Badgers beat the No. 15 Western Michigan Broncos in the Cotton Bowl by playing their style of football: a slow, efficient offense complimenting a punishing and consistent defense. Paul Chryst’s team is not one that will have a lot of opportunities to blow opponents out, but they grind and wear down all challengers for four quarters, pulling ahead and staying ahead as they did in their 24-16 victory Saturday in Dallas. It started, as it has all season, with senior running back Corey Clement and the rushing attack.
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