MINNEAPOLIS — Win and you are in. That was the magnitude of the semifinal matchup in the WCHA Final Face-Off between the second-seeded Wisconsin women’s hockey team and third-seeded North Dakota Friday night in Minneapolis at Ridder Arena.
The first 39 minutes, 56 seconds weren’t the prettiest, but No. 22 Wisconsin (12-6 Big Ten, 21-10 overall) escaped with a win at Penn State (2-16, 10-20) on sophomore guard Traevon Jackson’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer Sunday at the Bryce Jordan Center.
The Wisconsin softball team (14-3 overall) will return to the Midwest for the first time this season when the Badgers take on Belmont (6-7), Eastern Kentucky (9-5), Illinois-Chicago (3-12) and the host team, Southern Illinois (9-8), at the SalSaluki Invitational in Carbondale, Ill., this weekend.
Either No. 22 Wisconsin (11-5 Big Ten, 20-9 overall) or No. 10 Michigan State (11-5, 22-7) will be eliminated from regular season conference championship contention after the teams’ showdown Thursday in East Lansing.
While Wisconsin hockey fans have grown accustomed to the comfortable seating and the rowdy Crease Creatures at the Kohl Center since its existence in late 90s, the program started the makings of their dynasty elsewhere in Madison—Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The current Wisconsin hockey team will relive the Wisconsin glory days at the building former head coach Bob Johnson built this weekend, where they will look to add another WCHA championship banner against St. Cloud State. With the Badgers closing their season at the Coliseum this weekend, it is only appropriate to revisit the once-great spectrum in college hockey.
The Wisconsin women's basketball team (3-13 Big Ten, 11-18 overall) will need a win against Illinois (9-7, 16-12) to keep their season alive. History is not on the side of the Badgers, as they have lost to the Illini all three times they have met up in the Big Ten tournament and have lost the teams' two meetings this season.
The Wisconsin men’s golf team fired rounds of 310-303-311--924 at the USF Invitational at the Lake Jovita Golf and Country Club in Dade City, Fla., to finish 16th out of 17 teams.
The term “March Madness” may be colloquially tied to college basketball, but heading into the last weekend of the regular season, it feels like that phrase was tailor made for college hockey, especially in the WCHA.
The Badgers (14-3 overall) took home four wins in their six-game run this weekend at the Easton Invitational in Fullerton, Calif. Wisconsin took on Cal State Fullerton, No. 18 Stanford, No. 8 California, CSU Bakersfield and Cal Poly, playing Cal State Fullerton twice. UW picked up four wins over the weekend but lost games to Cal State Fullerton and California.
The Wisconsin men’s tennis team (1-0 Big Ten, 7-2 overall) was unable to continue its early season success, losing 5-2 to No. 29 Notre Dame in Sunday’s action at Nielsen Tennis Stadium.
The race for the 2013 WCHA conference tournament crown is underway and second-seeded and No.6 ranked Wisconsin women’s hockey team (17-9-2 WCHA, 21-9-2 overall) will look to build upon their late-season momentum, as they host seventh-seeded St. Cloud State (5-21-2, 9-22-3) in the first round of the WCHA Playoff series—the first ever playoff series at the LaBahn Arena.
Following a tough 3-2 overtime loss Monday night, the Wisconsin men’s hockey team looks to regroup and make a run over its last two series of the season.
Five Badgers will suit up for their final game at the Kohl Center Sunday when Purdue (6-9 Big Ten, 13-15 overall) visits Wisconsin (11-4, 20-8) in the midst of UW’s push to capture a share of the regular season conference championship.
After sweeping the competition last weekend in Orlando and getting off to the best start in school history, the Wisconsin softball team (10-1 overall) will travel to the Golden State looking to continue its success against some top-caliber competition. The Badgers open up Thursday with a game versus Cal State Fullerton before playing in the Easton Invitational over the weekend.
Women's Basketball
While it was not lacking in chances, the Wisconsin men’s hockey team could not take advantage of them as they fell to Penn State 3-2 in overtime.
Nebraska (4-10 Big Ten, 13-14 overall) has been more competitive this season than its four conference wins would suggest. While the Cornhuskers have yet to come away with a win against the Big Ten’s upper echelon, they have certainly made things interesting in a handful of such games.
When it comes to overhyped sporting events, nothing takes the cake quite like the NFL scouting combine. What began as simply a series of physical tests for NFL-bound athletes has been transformed by the 24-hour news cycle of the sports media world and their talking heads, desperate for a discussion point.
Two weeks ago, I subtly made the statement that the German Bundesliga is “the most competitive league in Europe over the past couple of years” in my column. This statement is more than just my opinion; there is some concrete evidence to support this notion.
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