Following Wisconsin's upset victory over Purdue, Daily Cardinal sports editor Ben Pickman and men's basketball beat writer Thomas Valtin-Erwin break down what UW's victory really means for the team going forward.
In their final regular season series of 2017-’18, the No.1 Wisconsin Badgers 18-2-2-0 WCHA, 27-3-2-0 overall ) face off against the No. 7 Minnesota Golden Gophers (13-6-3-0, 20-8-3) in a home Border Battle.
In many ways, Frank Kaminsky was a perfect storm of basketball ability. We can only speculate what the basketball gods were thinking as they poured pinpoint passing, lights-out shooting and sensational footwork into the former Badger’s seven-foot frame.
Wearing a cardinal red suit and specially designed Jordan sneakers, Frank Kaminsky walked out onto the court at halftime of Wisconsin’s (5-10 Big Ten, 12-16 overall) eventual 57-53 win over No. 6 Purdue (12-3, 23-5) and promptly hugged his family who was standing on the baseline closest to UW’s bench. More than a dozen of his former teammates including Sam Dekker, Nigel Hayes, Bronson Koenig, Josh Gasser and his best friend, Jordan Smith among others watched feet away on the very same baseline. After the No. 44 banner was raised to the Kohl Center rafters, Kaminsky took the microphone from UW Athletic Director Barry Alvarez and addressed the more than 17,000 members of the Kohl Center faithful in attendance. “I’m a little bit nervous so I’m gonna try to get through this,” he said.
On the night that Frank Kaminsky’s No. 44 jersey was raised in the rafters, it seemed fitting that the first team to score 44 points would emerge victorious.
Entering the final weekend of the regular season, No. 18 Wisconsin wrestling (4-3 Big Ten, 7-3 overall) is looking to finish strong as it welcomes Rutgers and Purdue to Madison before the Big Ten tournament comes into focus. In its first match Friday night UW hosts No. 21 Rutgers (2-6, 6-7). It will be UW and Rutgers’ first time meeting since the 2015-’16 season, where it came down to the wire, and the Badgers pulled out a 18-15 victory.
For the majority of Wednesday night, the Wisconsin women’s basketball team (2-12 Big Ten, 9-18 overall) made it a competitive game against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (7-7, 19-9). The Scarlet Knight’s toughness, grit, determination and senior leadership proved to be too much for the Badgers in the second half, as they secured their first lead midway through the third quarter and never looked back and won 63-50. In the first half the Badgers jumped out to a 17-to-nine lead in the first quarter, led by Marsha Howard who scored the first four points of the game.
Throughout both the 2013-’14 and 2014-’15 Wisconsin men’s basketball seasons, a Nintendo 64 video game console almost always accompanied UW on its road trips.
Thursday evening, Frank Kaminsky's No. 44 jersey will get raised to the rafters. Prior to Wisconsin's matchup with Purdue, take a look back at some of Kaminsky's highlights with UW.
It has been a tale of two seasons thus far for the Wisconsin men’s tennis team (4-4) as through eight games, the Badgers sit at .500. Unlike the frigid temperatures that have gripped the UW-Madison campus for much of February, the Badgers have been red-hot when playing in Madison and they have a flawless 4-0 home record to show for it. It has been a vastly different story for the team when not in the friendly confines of Nielsen Tennis Center, where they have yet to win a match this season.
The Wisconsin men’s tennis team (4-4) trekked out west this weekend for a pair of matches against formidable Pac-12 foes Oregon and Washington.
Coming off of a heartbreaking defeat on Sunday at Nebraska, the Wisconsin women’s basketball team (2-11 Big Ten, 9-17 overall) returns home Wednesday night for senior night to welcome in the struggling Rutgers Scarlet Knights (6-7, 18-9). In doing so, the Badgers will look to surpass their win total from each of the last four seasons. In UW’s loss last Sunday, it came down to a simple inbound pass with 5.2 seconds.
After a regular season full of ups and downs including a Big Ten Record for sophomore Beata Nelson and the departure of one of their captains, the No. 21 Wisconsin women’s swim team is ready to put its last four months in the rearview mirror and move to the penultimate point of its season – the Big Ten championships. “It’s always an exciting time of the year because everyone’s always rested and ready to do some special things,” head coach Whitney Hite said.
Swim writer Kelly Ward and 2016 Olympian Matt Hutchins preview this week’s women’s Big Ten Swimming and Diving championships, which will be held in Columbus, Ohio starting Wednesday.
The Wisconsin Badgers (27-3-2) faced off against Minnesota Duluth (12-14-4) this weekend in Minnesota.
Trailing by one point with 5.2 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, the Wisconsin women’s basketball team had drawn up the perfect play to get itself a game-winning shot opportunity.
After No. 20 Michigan’s (9-5 Big Ten, 20-7 overall) win over Wisconsin (4-10, 11-16), Wolverine head coach John Beilein said that one of, if not the most important point of his team’s defensive gameplan was to prevent Badger redshirt junior forward Ethan Happ from scoring 40 points. Happ finished with 29 points, 11 below Beilein’s target, and Wisconsin, as a team, lost by that very same margin, 83-72.
For a brief stretch in Wisconsin’s (4-10 Big Ten, 11-16 overall) 83-72 loss to No. 20 Michigan (9-5, 2-7), the Kohl Center faithful rose to its feet in excitement.
Last year, the Wisconsin women’s basketball team finished the regular season with nine total wins. Now sitting with nine wins in the middle of February, Wisconsin has a quartet of conference games to bookend its season and to achieve a goal set forth by the team heading into the year: surpass its win total from last season.
Friday nights haven’t been kind to Wisconsin this year — the Badgers have dropped numerous series openers in disappointing fashion — but just about every time they’ve bounced back with a strong performance the following night.
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