Wisconsin women's hockey head coach Mark Johnson might be thousands of miles away coaching Team USA at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, but some of the wisdom he taught his players at UW has been on the Badgers' minds this week.
There is a sort of sickening cynicism taken to college sports these days.
It is crunch time for the Wisconsin women's basketball team. After nearly an entire season of dramatic highs and deflating lows, the team is staying strong and playing some of its best basketball all year.
Rae Lin D'Alie has always been a hard worker, a dedicated athlete and a coach on the floor for the Wisconsin women's basketball team. Now, she has permanently etched her name among the top Wisconsin athletes ever.
During his playing days, now three decades past, Wisconsin head coach Mike Eaves responded to concussions the way most athletes of the time did: he played through them, figuring a simple headache was no reason to miss action. Today, however, Eaves can draw on personal experience and modern medical knowledge from the team's doctors as he monitors the status of senior forward Blake Geoffrion.
Each year Wisconsin usually sends multiple athletes to the NFL and the NHL system, but only once every few years does a Badger make the NBA. Obviously the size of the rosters has a lot to do with that, and the fact that UW rarely lands a hallmark recruit with an NBA future already mapped out for him. Let's take a look at some Badgers on this year's squad and what kind of chances they have at making the league.
Sunday night was, quite simply, one of the best hockey games in Olympic history.
This past weekend the No. 8 Wisconsin women's hockey team traveled to Minneapolis for a pair of border battle showdowns with the No. 2 Minnesota Golden Gophers and came out with a split.
It's hard not to look sloppy and sometimes foolish against Northwestern's signature 1-3-1 defense, but thanks to a strong first half, No. 14 Wisconsin (10-5 Big Ten, 20-7 overall) was able to hold on and top the Wildcats 70-63.
Much has been made of Wisconsin's recent propensity to rely on long-distance shooting. Entering Sunday's game against a much smaller Northwestern team, along with junior forward Jon Leuer playing his first home game since his injury, the Badgers had an opportunity to return to a more balanced offense, and they did that with enough success to hold off the Wildcats yesterday.
It was a big weekend for men's hockey coach Mike Eaves, as his third-ranked Badgers (14-7-3 WCHA, 19-8-4) faced off against the fourth-ranked St. Cloud State Huskies, splitting the weekend series at the Kohl Center.
It was a case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde this weekend for the Wisconsin men's hockey team, which rebounded from one of its worst efforts of the season to salvage a series split with No. 4 St. Cloud State.
For just a moment, senior forward Ben Street seemed all alone on the ice.
MINNEAPOLIS—Wisconsin was supposed to have an added lift entering Thursday's game against hated Minnesota. With UW getting junior forward Jon Leuer back from his broken wrist and with the Gophers being losers of seven of their past 10 games, this contest had a Badger win written all over it.
Facing Big Ten champion and No. 7 Ohio State Buckeyes, the Wisconsin women's basketball team fought hard on both ends of the court for 40 minutes. It was an offensive shootout in which the Badgers (8-7 Big Ten, 18-8 overall) came up just short in the end, falling to the Buckeyes (14-2, 26-3), 83-78. That score marks both the most points scored by Wisconsin this season as well as the most points surrendered on defense.
With the emphasis on tradition in college football, the rumors that the flagship school of the Lone Star State could be joining the only BCS conference with a mathematically incorrect name seem just a bit out of place. Such a move would disrupt geographic harmony, cut off rivalries and possibly begin the death of a top conference.
In college sports, a matchup of teams ranked in the top five nationally usually brings hoopla, hype and the sense of a special occasion. For Wisconsin this weekend, its just another week in the thick of the WCHA title race.
Here we go again. Another year of college football wrapped up, the next class of freshman studs committed and now the inevitable barrage of mock drafts from ESPN gurus Mel Kiper Jr. and Todd McShay.
This was supposed to be the year Minnesota made it big. With the accomplished Tubby Smith at the helm, nine rotation players were back from last season's NCAA-qualifying team and began the year in the top 25.
Like a lot of Canadians, sophomore forward Carolyne Prevost and junior forward Mallory Deluce feel a great sense of national pride during the Vancouver Olympics and want to see their country do well. Unlike a lot of their countrymen, however, Prevost and Deluce have some close ties to players on the other side of a border that divides two countries and creates one of the best rivalries in hockey.
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