Press Conference: Badger athletics prepare for upcoming playoffs
By Jake Powers and Jason Braverman | Mar. 3, 2014Men’s Basketball
Men’s Basketball
The Badgers found themselves down 21 points with just four events to go, but came up big down the stretch to win their second Big Ten Indoor Track & Field Championship in a row and their 10th in the last 15 years.
As conference-tournament play began in Madison, the Wisconsin women’s hockey team (21-5-2 WCHA, 27-6-2 overall) defeated the Minnesota State Mavericks (7-20-1, 13-23-1) 2-1 in a best-of-three series.
In the last home game for seniors Morgan Paige, Taylor Wurtz and Daria Kryuchkova, the Wisconsin women’s basketball team (3-13 Big Ten, 10-18 overall) lost a hard-fought battle to Northwestern (5-11, 15-14) 77-73 in overtime Sunday at the Kohl Center.
The 2014 Winter Olympics officially came to a close this past week, but not before the United States, and the world, learned the name of a very unique 18-year-old.
The Wisconsin men’s basketball team (11-5 Big Ten, 24-5 overall) started off college basketball’s most notorious month with a victory at Penn State Sunday afternoon.
With the regular season coming to a close, the possible season outcomes for Wisconsin (10-5 Big Ten, 23-5 overall) have begun to tighten up. The No. 3 Badgers lie two games back from conference leader Michigan, with Michigan State in between, and hold a 1.5-game lead over No. 4 Ohio State.
A week after going to Mankato and sweeping Minnesota State, No. 2 Wisconsin now welcomes the Mavericks (7-20-1 WCHA, 12-21-1 overall) into Madison for the first round of the WCHA playoffs.
The Champions League returned only to affirm what members of the media were expecting: English teams are not among Europe's elite.
By halftime, it seemed like Wisconsin had tempted fate by giving the student section ‘three’ signs. The Badgers (10-5 Big Ten, 23-5 overall) were down 29-19 to a reeling Indiana team (5-9, 15-12) and had shot an anemic 1-for-10 from deep.
A little over a month ago, then-No. 3 Wisconsin suffered its first loss of the season at Indiana. Tomorrow, the Badgers (9-5 Big Ten, 22-5 overall) will look to avenge their loss and earn their sixth straight conference win.
The Wisconsin athletic department announced Monday that Thomas Brown will take over the role of running backs coach after Thomas Hammock took a position with the Baltimore Ravens earlier this month.
Swimming
Here’s the thing about the vast majority of bad decisions in sports: They are at least partially explainable.
After being swept by top ranked Minnesota, Wisconsin handed out a sweep of its own to Minnesota State (7-20-1 WCHA, 12-21-1 overall( this weekend in Mankato, by a score of 5-1 Friday and 3-1 Saturday. The series marked the final regular season matchup of the season for the Badgers (21-5-2, 25-5-2), as post-season conference play begins Feb. 28.
In a battle against their third-straight top-25 opponent, the Badgers could not pull out a victory against Purdue and left West Lafayette Sunday afternoon with a loss, marking their sixth-consecutive defeat.
As Wisconsin reveled in its sweep of Michigan State, the nine seniors on the Badgers’ roster turned to face the student section. Together, they sang “Varsity” on home ice for the last time.
In the past decade of Big Ten basketball, the Badgers (9-5 Big Ten, 22-5 overall) have only finished lower than fourth once. Their quest to continue this trend was put to the test in Iowa City Saturday morning.
The Badgers skid continued after another conference loss.
As the Badgers prepare to play in the Kohl Center for the last time this season, they also will be saying goodbye to nine team members.