They are some of the smuggest words that can ever be uttered in the world of college sports.
Since junior forward Jon Leuer went down with a wrist injury over two weeks ago, Wisconsin has done more than stay afloat. The Badgers are 3-1 without Leuer and have risen to second place in the Big Ten. But tonight brings Wisconsin's greatest test without Leuer, as the No. 16 Badgers (6-2 Big Ten, 16-4 overall) travel to West Lafayette for a critical matchup with No. 12 Purdue (4-3, 16-3).
When it comes to defenseman, Wisconsin has a history.
The Wisconsin men's tennis team opened dual season play Saturday with three overwhelming victories over non-conference foes Butler, UW-Whitewater and Green Bay.
After a series like the battle between No. 3 Wisconsin and No. 1 Denver this weekend, there is a temptation to focus on the immediate themes like the massive momentum swings and how the Badgers took the final swing to get a three point weekend.
After the Wisconsin women's hockey team's 4-3 loss to St. Cloud State Saturday, reality set in for sophomore forward Brooke Ammerman. Coming into the series the Badgers sat at No. 7 in the national rankings, placing them on the bubble for a berth in the eight-team NCAA tournament.
When thinking of some words to describe the performance of sophomore guard Jordan Taylor in the win against Penn State, resilient and incredible come to mind first, especially considering his recent struggles.
Not long after the Wisconsin men's hockey team took three points from their series against No. 1 Denver, reporters uttered the two words that instantly set the bar of expectations for the rest of the season: national championship.
It's a refrain Wisconsin hockey fans are used to hearing: their team may recruit well and have the talent to make a run at the NCAA title, but for whatever reason they never convert on that potential. That conventional wisdom held true last year, as a promising squad collapsed in the last few series of the year and failed to make the NCAA tournament.
For the previous three games, the Badgers had been living dangerously. They recovered after falling behind Northwestern in the second half and survived a disastrous start against Michigan, but on Sunday it looked like that lifestyle had caught up to them.
If there was any question as to what a series between two premier college hockey teams should look like, the No. 3 Wisconsin Badgers and No. 1 Denver Pioneers provided a clear answer at the Kohl Center this weekend. After battling back from a two-goal deficit in a frantic third period to force a tie on Friday night, Wisconsin took to the ice on Saturday in front of a sell-out crowd and grabbed an early lead. Denver clawed back into the game late, but senior forward Michael Davies notched the game winner for the Badgers with less than seven minutes to play, earning UW a three-point weekend while solidifying a spot in the thick of the conference championship race.
The person at the forefront of my first column may be the most hated sports figure of the new decade: Lane Kiffin.
Eleven months ago, the Denver Pioneers entered the Kohl Center for a home series against the Badgers with a lot on the line. At the time, Wisconsin, Denver and North Dakota were fighting for the WCHA's regular season title and the MacNaughton Cup, and in two of their final three series of the 2008-'09 season, the Badgers would face both of those teams.
For just the second time all season, and the first against a conference foe, the Badgers (5-4 Big Ten, 15-5 overall) dropped a game at the Kohl Center, falling to the Penn State Nittany Lions 54-43 Thursday night.
After narrowly avoiding their first multi-game losing streak of the season against Michigan, the Badgers shift their focus to their second meeting of the season with Penn State Sunday.
Every game, Trevon Hughes wears the number three across the chest of his jersey. After nights like Wednesday against Michigan he might need to trade that three for a Superman ""S.""
Since hoisting the NCAA trophy in 2006, the Badger men's hockey team has always seemed to be just a bit less than the sum of its parts.
The effect of junior forward Jon Leuer's hiatus was in plain sight Wednesday night and put Wisconsin in an unfamiliar place at the Kohl Center—trailing its opponent.
It sounds like the script from a Hollywood movie: after a heartbreaking loss to Canada a few days earlier, the U.S. national hockey team scored a game-winning overtime goal to upset the host country, silence a hostile crowd and earn the gold medal.
With all of the decade retrospectives that went on last month, I started wondering about what the biggest sports controversies were of the past ten years.
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Solutions by The State News
