On their way to Big Ten championships and the Final Four, all eyes were on the Badgers in 2014-15 and that was confirmed by the attendance figures released by the NCAA on Monday. A capacity average of 17,279 packed the Kohl Center to help UW lead the Big Ten and finish fifth in the nation in home attendance, the program’s highest finish since 2011-12.
Noted: According to UWPD spokesman Marc Lovicott, more officers means higher price tags.
“It’s a holiday, you’re talking about double pay for officers we call in, in addition to the double pay that the officers are getting for working that day. So it’s an expensive event for us and the city of the Madison Police dept who brought many officers in as well so when you’re talking dollar amount wise, it costs us quite a bit of money,” added Lovicott.
However, the bigger issue lies not within the dollar amount, but within operational costs. This means fire fighters and paramedics can’t respond to other 911 calls while they deal with false alarms.
Three Badgers who hope to take the college football world by storm this season are among the preseason leaders for a pair of major national awards.
Junior RB Corey Clement was named to the watch list for the Maxwell Award, while junior OLB Vince Biegel and senior S Michael Caputo are among the candidates for the Bednarik Award, the Maxwell Football Club announced Tuesday.
With vivid memories of a run to the Final Four, an Outback Bowl victory and a regional final in volleyball, the Wisconsin athletic department was ranked No. 7 in the CBS Sports Best in College Sports award race for 2014-15.
Noted: Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald called the measure a “broader issue” and said “other governmental entities have issues” with law as it is currently written, including the UW System.
“It came from a number of different sources,” Fitzgerald said. “Some of them were related to certainly the lawsuit that Sen. Erpenbach was involved in. There was some suggestion from UW System on open records request related to some of their research and some issues related to the legislature and executive branch on dealing with open records requests.”
UW-Madison police are still searching for the man they say made a fake emergency call on the 4th of July and reported an armed man inside the Helen C. White Library on campus.
They say it may be part of a national problem, “swatting.” The FBI defines “swatting” as, “making a hoax call to 911 to draw a response from law enforcement, usually a SWAT team.”
Noted: The threats don’t just disrupt schools, though. University of Wisconsin-Madison police say they are still investigating a threat of a gun at a library Saturday night that forced the evacuation of the Memorial Union Terrace on the busy July 4 holiday.
A recent Gallup poll found that a mere 13 percent of us actually enjoy the time we spend on the job. And there’s a real cost to that, not just to our emotional state, but also to our health, experts say.
But we can turn all that around just by adopting some simple practices to make our work lives happier and, as an added bonus, our bodies healthier, experts say.
“There’s now overwhelming evidence to indicate that happier people are actually healthier,” Dr. Richard J. Davidson, a “positive psychologist,” professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as well as founder and chair of the Center for Investigating Healthy Minds at the Waisman Center, told TODAY. “I would say that anyone can learn to be happier at work.”
The Milwaukee Bucks plan to play a preseason game at UW-Madison’s Kohl Center and will hold a training camp this fall in the Capital City, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The team plans to announce more details at a news conference in Madison Monday afternoon.
University of Wisconsin-Madison police gave the all clear around Memorial Union and the Helen C. White building Saturday night after investigators say they could not find an armed suspect in the area.
Noted: A University of Wisconsin-Madison report released last year found Delavan-Darien had the highest proportion of Latino students of any school district in Wisconsin. Recent statistics from the state Department of Public Instruction show it’s now essentially tied with Arcadia School District for that spot.
“A lot of the higher-percentage districts were not in places that you would think of on the map as being Latino centers,” said David Long, a UW-Madison researcher in the Applied Population Laboratory who co-authored the 2014 report on Wisconsin’s Latino population. “It’s pretty striking, and Delavan is a great example of that.”
Biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, water technology and university research are all promising segments of the Wisconsin economy — and all need a special ingredient to stay in business:
Water that is so ultra-purified and sterile that it will never exist in nature and humans are not even advised to drink it. In 2003, it moved into a larger headquarters in Madison as it began to build water treatment reactors for the fast-growing companies related to biosciences, genomes, stem cells and drug manufacturing. It installed the ultrapure water infrastructure inside the city’s Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery, the massive University of Wisconsin-Madison research facility.
Noted: The proposed changes came as Walker is being sued for refusing to release such records related to his proposal to alter the University of Wisconsin System’s mission statement to eliminate the Wisconsin Idea.
For all the physical and mental adjustments Frank Kaminsky will make in transitioning to the NBA, his goal for now is a simple one: play a consistent game from start to finish.
“It’s been like a tale of two halves in both games,” the former University of Wisconsin standout said after his second game as a rookie with the Charlotte Hornets, playing in the NBA Summer League. “A lot of it for me is feeling things out right now. That might come in the course of a game… the second half felt a lot more comfortable.”
A provision sneaked into the state budget bill by the Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee would deal a significant blow to open government in Wisconsin.
The provision, part of an omnibus motion of changes affecting the University of Wisconsin System, would exempt universities from the rule in place for all other state agencies regarding the naming of finalists for key positions. No longer would they need to identify the five most qualified applicants, or each applicant if there are fewer than five.
The Milwaukee Bucks plan to play a preseason game at UW-Madison’s Kohl Center and will hold a training camp this fall in the Capital City, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The team plans to announce more details at a news conference in Madison Monday afternoon.
Noted: Two months ago, Walker declined to make public records related to his proposal to rewrite the University of Wisconsin System’s mission statement and release the Wisconsin Idea from state law. He argued he didn’t have to release those records to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and others because they were part of his office’s internal deliberations.
Madison police are searching for a man who allegedly entered a UW student’s off-campus apartment Sunday morning and attempted to sexually assault her there, an incident report said.
The Milwaukee Bucks will hold training camp in Madison this fall and also will play a preseason game at the Kohl Center, the team will announce Monday at a news conference in Madison.
Training camp will open on Sept. 29 and continue for four days on the UW campus, according to a source, with the Bucks holding sessions at the Badgers’ practice facility, the Nicholas-Johnson Pavilion and Plaza.
Almost four months removed from announcing he was retiring from football because of concerns about brain injury — at age 24 and after just one season in the National Football League — former Wisconsin linebacker Chris Borland hears one question over and over: How can you walk away from all that money?
Parts of the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus were evacuated Saturday night after reports of a possible gunman at the Helen C. White library. But after a 3 1/2-hour search, no one with a weapon was located and activities resumed as normal.
Noted: Among the children he rescued was Renata Laxová, professor emerita of pediatric genetics, who discovered the Neu-Laxová Syndrome, a congenital abnormality.
(Video) News 3 This Morning learned more about Universe in the Park which is put on by the UW Madison Department of Astronomy. Guests: astronomy grad students Arthur Eigenbrot and Jenna Ryon.
Noted: Q&A with Mandy Hyde, clinical research coordinator for the Asthma, Allergy, and Pulmonary Research Group, about the group’s work and the upcoming “Out Run Asthma” 5K scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 15.
University of Wisconsin Vice Chancellor of University Relations Vince Sweeney announced Tuesday he will be retiring in August. Sweeney was named to the vice chancellor position in June 2009 by then-Chancellor Biddy Martin after a national search, according to a release from the university.
Tuesday at Nicholas Johnson Pavilion, Bo Ryan addressed the media for the first time since Monday’s announcement that he’d coach just one more season at UW. The UW men’s basketball coach spoke candidly about his decision to retire. Ryan pointed to the increased demands of modern day college basketball coaches.
Six All-Americans and a pioneering administrator make up the decorated seven-member Wisconsin Athletics Hall of Fame class of 2015. The class includes an NCAA champion, NHL, NBA and NFL players, as well as two Olympians.
Making up the 2015 class is volleyball player Lizzy Fitzgerald, men’s soccer player Mike Gentile, men’s basketball’s Devin Harris, football star Jim Leonhard, men’s hockey skater Brian Rafalski, women’s hockey trailblazer Kerry Weiland, as well as longtime administrator Paula Bonner.
The Summerfest grounds were covered in Badger red on Friday. Members of the UW marching band paid a visit to the Milwaukee music festival. The pep rally is just one way people could celebrate their Badger pride.
As part of his statement announcing his retirement, Bo Ryan said his hope is that his longtime assistant Greg Gard inherits his role as head coach once Ryan steps down following the 2015-16 season. Gard has been on Ryan’s coaching staff for the past 22 seasons, dating back to Ryan’s days as head coach at UW-Platteville, but Gard has never been a head coach at the college level.
WKOW-TV caught up with former UW basketball player Brian Butch Monday, and he endorsed Gard as Ryan’s potential successor.
The Wisconsin Men’s Basketball twitter feed has posted a statement from Badger head coach Bo Ryan indicating he will retire following the 2015-16 season.
He states he considered retiring in the days after the Badgers lost the national title game to Duke, but after further consideration decided to coach one more season. He also indicated he hoped his longtime assistant Greg Gard would get the head coaching job after he left.
Badger fans are reacting to long-time UW basketball coach Bo Ryan’s decision to retire after he coaches the team in the 2015-16 season.
Ryan’s more than decade long tenure includes NCAA tournament berths every year, capped with back-to-back Final Fours.
Badger fans are surprised and saddened about Bo Ryan’s announcement that the 2015-16 season will be his last as the head coach of the UW Men’s Basketball Team.
But fans say they’re also grateful that Ryan’s 14 season at UW have been so successful.
(Video) Leah Linscheid goes to Platteville to learn more about Greg Gard, who Bo Ryan hopes will replace him when he retires as UW basketball head coach next year.
Bo Ryan has been the fire-breathing face of Wisconsin basketball for 14 seasons, pushing the Badgers to never-before-seen heights. After 14 NCAA Tournament appearances, seven Sweet 16s, four Big Ten titles, two Final Fours and a berth in last year’s national championship game, the hard-charging 67-year-old Ryan has only one more season left in him.
When freshman Luke Opilka decided to attend the 2015 NHL Draft, he was looking forward to hearing his name called over the public address system at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida. He never could have expected the team that picked him would be his hometown St. Louis Blues.
Opilka, the first of two current Badgers to get selected in this year’s draft, went in the fifth round, 146th overall, to the Blues.
Sam Dekker’s mom, Carol Dekker, tweeted a picture of Sam Sunday with the caption, “From NBA to lawn boy!” The picture of the first-round draft pick mowing lawn went viral Sunday afternoon. The Houston Rockets drafted Dekker as the 18th pick of the 2015 draft Thursday night.
Watt skated on the ice in the first period wearing a hockey sweater with his familiar number 99. Watt took two penalty shots against NHL goaltender and former Badger Brian Elliott and slapped one in, much to the delight of more than 2,000 fans in attendance.
Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium, about 300 kids attended the Russell Wilson Passing Academy camp, run by the former UW quarterback.
Quoted: “This is a pretty monumental ruling,” said Ryan Owens, a University of Wisconsin law professor who studies the Supreme Court. “A lot of people expected it to be a 5-4 decision with Kennedy writing the opinion, but we were unsure of how far Kennedy would go in the opinion, and he went relatively far with it.”
Owens said not much will change in Wisconsin given the previous rulings by federal courts. He also noted the potential problem it poses for the Republican Party.
“There could potentially be a split among moderate Republicans and social conservatives over how to respond to this,” he said.
Two former Badger standouts now know where they’ll begin their NBA careers. Frank Kaminsky was picked 9th overall by the Charlotte Hornets. Sam Dekker went 18th to the Houston Rockets.
Though it was a weeknight, loyal fans still headed out to Regent Street to celebrate. “It’s good to see Wisconsin be up there for a change,” one Badger fan at Lucky’s bar said.
For the first time in school history, two Badgers were selected in the first round of the same NBA Draft, as Frank Kaminsky went ninth overall to the Charlotte Hornets and Sam Dekker was taken 18th by the Houston Rockets at the 2015 NBA Draft inside the Barclays Center on Thursday night.
5 years after his time at Wisconsin he’s back to host the 2nd Blake Geoffrion Classic. The game brings in some of the biggest names in hockey. But more importantly, it brings in funds to help young patients at UW Hospital.
“You know it’s a great cause here at the UW Health Burn Center. It’s kind of a niche thing, a lot of people aren’t aware that it happens and how many kids are affected every year. So I thought it was really cool and unique,” said Geoffrion.
While much of the buzz around the NBA draft has centered around a successful night for Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker, both first round draft picks, an old sports headline is resurfacing.
In Kaminsky’s blog “The Moose Basketball” he mentioned the Charlotte Bobcats (same franchise, same fan base as the Hornets) as a reason why the NBA seemed “boring.” Kaminsky was blogging to announce that he would return to Wisconsin for his senior year. The blog read in part, “I know the NBA has their crazy fans and all, but if you look at all of their games, there are games when teams like the Bobcats get hardly any fans, and it looks flat out boring.”
“Growing up in Chicago, Michael Jordan is everything there,” Frank Kaminsky said Thursday night shortly after the Jordan-owned Charlotte Hornets selected the former Wisconsin standout with the ninth pick in the NBA draft. “He still is. I had all of his posters on my wall. ‘Space Jam’ was my favorite movie.”
Now, the Lisle, Ill., native gets to head to Charlotte to play for the man who was his idol when he was growing up a mere half-hour drive from Chicago.
(Video) The items you put out on the curb each week come trash day are one man’s source of inspiration. Photojournalist Jeremy Nichols shares how the artists pieces are giving hope at [the new UW Health at American Center].
Imagine making an NBA salary without even having to waste money on jackets. For former Wisconsin star Sam Dekker, that’s reality now. “Yeah, I literally thought of that right away,” said Dekker. “I was like, I can throw away some of those big coats I’ve got.”
(Video) The United States Supreme Court saved President Obama’s controversial health care law Thursday. Ryan Owens, an assistant professor of political science at UW-Madison and an expert on the Supreme Court, weighs in on how the decision will affect Wisconsin residents.
Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker on Thursday combined to help Wisconsin and coach Bo Ryan make history. Kaminsky and Dekker became just the third and fourth UW players under Ryan to be selected in the first round of the NBA draft. As a result, they gave UW two first-round picks in the same season for the first time ever.
Rural Wisconsin citizens often feel they are getting “the short end of the stick” in resource allocation, according to a study by University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist Katherine Cramer. Her study, to be included in an upcoming book, may help to shed light on the current struggles in the State Capitol over issues like highway funding, a $500-million basketball arena in Milwaukee, reducing taxes on the wealthy, and changes in labor laws and social service programs.
What makes games like Scrabble and Candy Crush so appealing? Every Friday, the Field Day Lab at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery (WID) opens its doors to the public, and tries to answer these sorts of questions. Ultimately, they are looking figure out how games can help improve teaching and learning.
More than 166,000 Wisconsin residents can keep getting government help to pay for health insurance on the Affordable Care Act’s federal exchange, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Thursday upholding subsidies. But experts say the ruling likely won’t end controversy over the health care law.“It’s a critical turning point for the law,” said Donna Friedsam, health policy programs director for the UW Population Health Institute. “But people will continue to nitpick at the ACA at least until the next presidential election is history.”
Gov. Scott Walker may have dodged a bullet with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Obamacare in states that, like Wisconsin, use the federal health care insurance exchange. …
“It is a nearly ideal course of events for Walker,” said University of Wisconsin-Madison political science professor Barry Burden. “He can continue to complain about the law without suffering much in the way of effects.”
NEW YORK — Sam Dekker was making his way through a hallway in the bowels of the Barclays Center late Thursday night, en route to a media obligation, when he rounded a corner and came face to face with Frank Kaminsky.
Some of the stars of the past from Badger hockey will play in the Blake Geoffrion Classic at LaBahn Arena Friday night to benefit the UW Health Burn Center. Last year’s game drew over 2000 fans and ticket sales are brisk for this year’s event.
Noted: For Madison, though, the flamingo became an iconic symbol of the city in 1978, when UW-Madison students planted 1,008 of the birds on Bascom Hill to greet students on the first day of classes. The prank was the handiwork of the Pail & Shovel Party, which had won re-election to head the Wisconsin Students Association. The pranksters included Jim Mallon, who later went on to be one of the creators of the cult television hit “Mystery Science Theater 3000.”
When it comes to social media, UW-Madison can Twitter all about it.
Wisconsin’s flagship university is the top Twitter account in the United States for higher education, according to data from social media research firm Engagement Labs.
Other universities may have more followers than UW-Madison’s 99,000, but when content is factored in, it’s tops.
If there’s one Twitter account UW-Madison students should follow, it’s @UWMadison. UW-Madison has the top Twitter account in U.S. higher education, according to data released by social media research firm Engagement Labs of Toronto.
“My wife is the person who is most honest with me and my biggest critic when she needs to be,” Geoffrion said. “And last year even she was like, ‘Man, that was unbelievable.’ … I wasn’t expecting that.”
Geoffrion promises things will be even better when the event is held for the second time on Friday at 6:30 p.m. at LaBahn Arena.
For the sixth time in the past seven years, the Badgers set aside the day to give 300 of their female fans a closer look at the football program while raising money for the fight against breast cancer.
“The passion that people have for Wisconsin football, it’s a chance just to help facilitate something valuable,” Chryst said. “I think it’s good for (the women) and good for our players to interact. But everyone appreciates why we’re here.”
The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball coach has offered honest feedback on Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker, who will each attend Thursday night’s NBA draft at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Ryan always tries to make sure he doesn’t hang up without making one thing perfectly clear.
“With those two,” Ryan said, “I don’t think anybody that drafts them will ever have to worry about whether or not they’re going to work or continue to improve.”
