The regular season is entering the final stretch for the No. 2 Wisconsin Badgers (20-1-1 WCHA, 26-1-1 overall), with only three series left to play before the start of the WCHA playoffs.
After his first full offseason as head coach at Wisconsin, Paul Chryst introduced his 2016 recruiting class Wednesday afternoon at Camp Randall Stadium. The Badgers welcomed 31 recruits on National Signing Day, 25 of whom will have scholarships. As expected, and contrary to many other programs, UW’s signing day was drama-free.
Thanks to its recent four-game winning streak, Wisconsin enters February playing for something more than just pride. Now owning wins against Michigan State and Indiana and a conference record that’s above 0.500, the Badgers (5-4 Big Ten, 13-9 overall) suddenly find themselves back in the mix for a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Just this week, ESPN’s resident bracketologist, Joe Lunardi, has Wisconsin in his “Next Four Out,” while Shelby Mast of USA Today has UW among his “First Four Out.” Of course, there’s over a month left in the regular season and a lot can change between now and Selection Sunday, but the very thought of the Badgers being in the NCAA Tournament discussion would’ve seemed almost impossible even three weeks ago. Wisconsin still has four road games left on its schedule against teams currently ranked in the top 25 (Maryland, Michigan State, Iowa and Purdue), and a win or two against those teams would be huge résumé boosters. But before the Badgers can worry about that tough slate of contests down the home stretch of their schedule, they still have to take care of business in a pair of must-win home games, which starts against Ohio State (6-4, 14-9) Thursday at 6 p.m.
Last spring when Michala Johnson decided to forgo playing for the New York Liberty of the WNBA, Wisconsin head coach Bobbie Kelsey was ecstatic, and for good reason.
In this week's episode of the Cardinal Zone Podcast, Lorin Cox, Matt Tragesser and Tommy Valtin-Erwin join sports editors Jake Powers and Zach Rastall to preview Wisconsin's matchup with Ohio State, national signing day and Super Bowl 50 predictions.
Men’s Basketball The Badgers (5-4 Big Ten, 13-9 overall) enter their upcoming matchup with Ohio State on a four-game winning streak, with their last win coming on the road at Illinois.
When head coach Paul Chryst and new defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox took the stage Monday afternoon at the Kohl Center, the word “fit” was used about a dozen times in the 15-minute press conference.
On a night where early foul trouble kept a couple of key players sidelined, the Badgers needed someone to step up from the bench and make a major impact. Luckily for them, Khalil Iverson was ready to answer the call. The freshman scored a career-high 10 points on 3-of-4 shooting and added five rebounds, two assists, a block and an assist to help power Wisconsin (5-4 Big Ten, 13-9 overall) past Illinois (2-7, 10-12) 63-55 for its fourth consecutive victory. Iverson’s contributions were especially pivotal in the first half, where redshirt freshman forward Ethan Happ and junior guard Bronson Koenig both sat out a significant portion of the half after picking up two fouls apiece. Despite losing two starters to foul trouble and trailing 18-10 midway through the first half, Iverson and Co. picked up the slack, finishing the half on a 23-10 run to take a five-point lead into the locker room. The second half was more of the same for Wisconsin. Though the Illini were able to cut the deficit to three early in the half, the Badgers kept them at bay and their lead was never really seriously threatened down the stretch.
It was business as usual for the No. 2 Wisconsin Badgers (20-1-1 WCHA, 26-1-1 overall) at LaBahn Arena, where they took down St.
Sunday afternoon before the Wisconsin Badgers (2-8 Big Ten, 6-14 overall) tipped off against the Michigan State Spartans (7-2, 16-4), all the focus in the Kohl Center was on UW’s “Think Pink” initiative, which raises awareness for breast cancer research.
Wisconsin captured just its second series sweep of the season with a 4-2 victory over Alaska Saturday night.
Riding a three-game win streak, Wisconsin (4-4 Big Ten, 12-9 overall) looks to increase its NCAA tournament hopes with a matchup in Urbana-Champaign against Illinois (2-6, 10-11) Sunday. After beating No. 5 Michigan State, Penn State and No. 19 Indiana, the Badgers have looked promising as of late and will enter an easier stretch of conference games beginning with the Fighting Illini.
After the Badgers (2-7 Big Ten, 6-13 overall) lost to Nebraska Wednesday, head coach Bobbie Kelsey was the most adamantly upset she has been all year.
On the day the 2005-’06 National Championship team was honored in between periods, the No. 2 Wisconsin Badgers (19-1-1 WCHA, 25-1-1 overall) continued their own winning ways, defeating the St. Cloud State Huskies (7-11-3, 11-12-3) 3-0 Saturday.
After reports surfaced Thursday that Wisconsin had concluded its search for replacement for Dave Aranda, UW officially announced Friday that Justin Wilcox was hired as the team’s new defensive coordinator.
On this episode of the Cardinal Zone podcast, Lorin Cox and Andrew Tucker join sports editors Jake Powers and Zach Rastall to discuss Justin Wilcox's hiring as defensive coordinator, Joe Schobert's NFL prospects, Wisconsin's impressive win against Indiana and the NFL Conference Championship games. Check out men's basketball beat writer Matt Tragesser's recap of the Badgers' win against Indiana, and stay tuned to the Cardinal for continued coverage of Wilcox's adjustment to Wisconsin. Subscribe to the Cardinal Zone podcast on iTunes and SoundCloud.
Adele’s hit song “Hello” from her latest album 25 broke an internet record this week, needing only 87 days to reach one billion hits on YouTube.
After the Badgers (1-7 Big Ten, 6-12 overall) lost to Minnesota in their last Big Ten outing, the team remained excited about the future.
After suffering back-to-back two-game sweeps against Penn State and Minnesota, the Badgers (1-7-2 Big Ten, 4-12-6 overall) will look to right the ship this weekend with the Alaska Nanooks (5-11-4 WCHA, 7-13-4 overall) in town.
With eight games left to play in the regular season, it could be hard for the Cardinal and White to stay hungry, as it was announced Monday that the No. 2 Wisconsin women’s hockey team (18-1-1 WCHA, 24-1-1 overall) secured home ice for the first round of the WCHA playoffs.
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