The coaching philosophy of new UW-Milwaukee women?s basketball coach Kyle Rechlicz can be summed up in one word. Fit. Well, maybe not the entire philosophy, but it?s not a bad place to start.
Like, for instance, when the moment of truth arrived and she made the decision to leave her position as an assistant coach at her alma mater, the University of Wisconsin, and take the head coaching job at UWM.
That wispy cloud of euphoria that Mohammed Ahmed has been perched on for the better part of two weeks?Not only is it gone, his feet are back on the ground, churning toward new endeavors. A junior distance runner for the University of Wisconsin men?s track and field team, Ahmed is fresh off one of the most meaningful races of his career.
MILWAUKEE ? Kyle Rechlicz is leaving the University of Wisconsin women?s basketball program to become head coach at UW-Milwaukee. Rechlicz, who returned to her alma mater last year to join Bobbie Kelsey?s staff as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, was named Tuesday to succeed Sandy Botham as the Panthers coach.
First impressions, second thoughts and the third degree: When Lori Berquam made that original video about the notorious Mifflin Street block party, using her status as dean of students to say “Don?t go” to University of Wisconsin pupils, she caught a lot of flak that could have been avoided with one tweak to the script. She should have had some background vocals from UW coaches, who no doubt shared her protective instincts, but not her moxie. That kind of collaboration may have prevented an unfortunate jolt of embarrassment for Montee Ball, the most celebrated student-athlete in Badgers Nation.
On June 5, 1963, the first Madison Sports Hall of Fame class was inducted. Vince Lombardi was the featured speaker and the class featured a basketball coach, track coach, athletic director, bowler and ice boater. On June 6, 2012, the 50th class to the Madison Sports Hall of Fame will be inducted. This class features a baseball coach, curler, Olympic swimmer and track All American.
Blackhawks brass have to hope this isn?t the extent of Patrick Kane?s offseason training regimen.
Gary Stone learned how to windsurf in 1983 with Hoofers at UW-Madison. Undaunted by the lack of ocean, Stone fell in love with the sport. It?s turned out to be a lifelong passion ? and a vocation for almost three decades. Stone has been in the windsurfer business since 1984.
University of Wisconsin Badgers running back Montee Ball was given a citation Saturday at the Mifflin Street Block Party, among hundreds of minor arrests that police made in an attempt to keep order at the notorious event.
Montee Ball, the University of Wisconsin running back, was among hundreds of people cited Saturday during the Mifflin Street Block Party. Ball, a Heisman Trophy finalist, was ticketed Saturday afternoon for trespassing after he declined to leave a porch when asked, Madison Police spokesman Joel DeSpain said. DeSpain said Ball, a UW-Madison senior, was ?very respectful? and cooperative during the incident in which he was cited and released.
Bret Bielema has been the head coach of the University of Wisconsin Badgers football team since 2006, and for most of those years, he was the most eligible bachelor in Madison.
Two former NFL first-round draft picks were busted in an FBI sting designed to catch crooks committing the hottest financial crime in South Florida ? tax refund fraud, federal authorities announced Tuesday.
Lisa Stone appears to be getting back in the coaching game. Stone, the former University of Wisconsin women?s basketball coach, is expected to be announced this week as the new women?s coach at Saint Louis University, according to sources involved in college women?s basketball. Stone, however, said it is not yet a done deal.
Wisconsin junior Mohammed Ahmed can start thinking about attending the 2012 Olympic Games in London — as a competitor rather than spectator.In his first competition of the season, Ahmed all but assured himself of a place in the Games with a personal-best time of 27 minutes 34.64 seconds in the 10,000-meter run late Sunday at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif.
When Bradie Ewing?s name flashed across the bottom of the television screen on Saturday, the Wisconsin fullback estimates about 60 text messages poured in. One certainly stood out. It was center Peter Konz. All the text said was ?Bradie!? The Atlanta Falcons drafted Ewing in the fifth round (157th overall), reuniting the Badgers center and fullback.
The battle to open the season as Wisconsin?s No. 1 quarterback won?t begin in earnest until the summer, when transfer Danny O?Brien arrives from Maryland.
Wisconsin?s athletic board approved on Friday one-year contract extensions for five coaches and renewed the one-year contract of a sixth coach.
Annual race and Madison tradition the Crazylegs Classic drew nearly 20,000 athletes and fundraisers Saturday, despite the gloomy weather.
The Panos legacy lives on at the University of Wisconsin. George Panos, the son of former captain Joe Panos, committed to the Badgers as the first member of the Class of 2014 on Saturday afternoon, announcing his intentions in a Twitter post.
Wide receiver Nick Toon eschewed the No. 87 his father wore at the University of Wisconsin, except for a touching tribute to his dad during his final home game against Penn State last season. Nick wanted to establish his own identity with the Badgers and he did that, catching 171 passes for 2,447 yards in his career. But after getting drafted in the fourth round by the New Orleans Saints on Saturday, Nick Toon has decided to wear his father?s number to start his NFL career.
University of Wisconsin junior Mohammed Ahmed obliterated the school record in the 10,000 meters on Sunday night, cutting nearly 30 seconds off the mark while racing in an elite field at the Payton-Jordan Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif.
Longtime University of Wisconsin men?s basketball assistant Greg Gard?s name has come up as a potential candidate for the head coaching vacancy at Illinois State. The Illinois State job opened up Thursday when Tim Jankovich left to become the associate head coach at SMU. Jankovich is expected to be the head-coach-in-waiting at SMU under Larry Brown, who?s 71.
Seattle stunned the NFL draftniks with its third-round selection of former University of Wisconsin quarterback Russell Wilson on Friday ? not just because he went earlier than expected, but because the Seahawks already have three quarterbacks.
ASHWAUBENON ? If Brad Toll and Ken Wachter get their way, the WIAA will have an easy decision to make in a few years. Toll, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Green Bay & the Lakeshore Convention & Visitors Bureau, and Wachter, who has the same title but with PMI Entertainment Group, are two of the leading players in the saga that over the past five months has pitted the state?s oldest community against its most political, caused debate and resulted in harsh criticism of the WIAA, UW-Madison Athletic Department and Madison city leaders.
Now that the WIAA has made the decision to keep the boys basketball tournament in Madison, it?s time for UW-Madison, city officials and local businesses to get off the bench. According to reports, the boys basketball tournament brings in over $6 million to the Madison area. So you?ve got to ask, what is going to be done to keep the money in Madison versus losing it to Green Bay or even Milwaukee?
NEENAH ? Margaret Konz summed up the feelings of every college parent in the universe Friday night when she learned the good news.
HOLLYWOOD, Fla.? College football is on the verge of finally having a playoff, its own version of the final four. For the first time, all the power brokers who run the highest level of the sport are comfortable with the idea of deciding a championship the way it?s done from pee-wees to pros. And the way fans have been hoping they would for years.
If you?re one of the thousands hanging out at the State Capitol on Saturday morning, waiting to take part in the Crazylegs Run, you might find yourself in the company of Pat Richter, the former University of Wisconsin athletic director who is serving as grand marshal. While stretching your quads and hammies for the 31st annual rite of spring in Madison, you may be inclined to chat up the man most responsible for the robust financial health and national acclaim for UW Athletics.
It was a smaller than expected gathering to watch the NFL draft on Thursday night with former University of Wisconsin guard Kevin Zeitler.
The University of Wisconsin men?s hockey team has officially committed to play in another outdoor game. UW Athletic Department officials have signed a contract with InterSport, an event promotion company based in Illinois that?s putting together a regional college hockey doubleheader on Feb. 17, 2013, at Soldier Field in Chicago.
Wisconsin?s hoop dreams came halfway home Tuesday. The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association agreed to keep the state boys high school basketball tournament at the Kohl Center in Madison where it belongs. It was a smart and exciting decision after months of doubt and testy exchanges between officials at the WIAA and UW-Madison, which traditionally hosts the state championships.
The WIAA?s decision on the state basketball tournaments was met with mixed emotions on Tuesday, but it shouldn?t be.
At its April meeting Tuesday, the Board of Control unanimously supported the recommendation of executive director Dave Anderson to play the girls tournament at the Resch Center in the Green Bay suburb of Ashwaubenon in 2013 and 2014 while keeping its boys tournament at the Kohl Center in Madison through 2020.
Dear Editor: I am thrilled that the demise of the Bowl Championship Series could be imminent. While the conspicuous absence of an eight-team, neutral-site playoff solution dismays me, I literally laughed out loud when I saw the four-plus option in which two finalists could be chosen from a group of three semifinalists. What is it with major college football?s infatuation with absurdity? UW athletic director, Barry Alvarez, a longtime playoff obstructionist, cites preservation of Rose Bowl tradition as a reason to adopt the four-plus system.
The University of Wisconsin football team has had a relatively low number of injuries this spring. But the nagging injuries are starting to pile up, which could affect the players who available for the spring game on Saturday. Three positions that have been hit hard recently have been tailback, wide receiver and cornerback.
The WIAA voted Tuesday to split up the boys and girls state basketball tournaments and have the girls play at the Resch Center in Green Bay, at least through 2014.
A tradition nearly 100 years old will continue as the WIAA has agreed to keep the boys basketball tournament in Madison through 2020. The girls tournament will spend 2013 and 2014 in Green Bay.
Madison officials cheered the WIAA?s decision Tuesday to keep the state high school boys basketball tournament in the state capital through 2020 and expressed hope the girls tournament would return after leaving for Green Bay for two years.
The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association was in a sharing mood on Tuesday. The 11-person Board of Control unanimously approved the recommendations made by WIAA Executive Director Dave Anderson to move the girls state basketball tournament to the Resch Center in Ashwaubenon in 2013 and 2014, while keeping the boys state tournament at the Kohl Center in Madison through at least 2020.
The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association Board of Control?s decision Tuesday to keep the boys state basketball tournament in Madison, but hold the next two girls tournaments at the Resch Center, although a disappointment to tourism officials here, was inevitable.
Madison or Green Bay? The WIAA Board of Control is expected to deliver that much-anticipated answer Tuesday afternoon when it considers final proposals from the two cities and announces which of them will host for the WIAA state basketball tournaments in 2013 and beyond.
Freshman guard Lacia Gorman, who had been granted her release to transfer from the University of Wisconsin women?s basketball program, has decided to go to Northern Illinois. Gorman will be reunited with former UW assistant coach Kathi Bennett, who originally recruited her to UW.
University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez says he?s intrigued by pending discussions aimed at modifying the Bowl Championship Series formula. Commissioners from the six major BCS conferences and select athletic directors, including Alvarez, will meet in Hollywood, Fla., Tuesday through Thursday to weigh the merits of four options aimed at a playoff-type format.
For the Badgers and for Ryan, Uthoff?s departure means a waste of a year of scholarship and training that could have gone to a player with a stronger commitment to play for Wisconsin. And that?s no small thing. Uthoff was a waste of time and money. If the NCAA wants to get serious about avoiding these transfer dustups, it needs to look harder at mandatory four-year scholarship commitments from schools and players ? with only hardship transfers ? and stipends to cover extraneous costs for student athletes. Maybe the sports talking heads can lobby for that. Ryan, meanwhile, is moving on. He says he?s got a scholarship open and he?s doing some recruiting.
On the surface, a mud run is a test of will, endurance and strength as participants run, climb, crawl and maneuver through an obstacle course that can cover acres of challenging terrain. But events such as Tough Mudder, Warrior Dash and Spartan Race also are businesses that have led others to do their own variation of the popular races. One of the newest is LoziLu, based in part in Madison. The all-female event was created by two husband-and-wife teams who are graduates of UW-Madison and who invested $50,000.
It was during the 2006 Major League Baseball season, the summer after Ben Rouse?s freshman year at UW-Madison, that the Fort Atkinson native first wondered if it might be possible to attend all 162 games of a Milwaukee Brewers season. Rouse wants to attend every Brewers game this season, home and away, but it?s more than that. He thinks his story can help lift the profile of the Be the Match Foundation, which raises funds to provide marrow and umbilical cord blood transplants for patients with leukemia, lymphoma and other diseases.
As Bo Ryan was getting skewered this week on multiple ESPN platforms – beginning with “Mike and Mike in the Morning” – and all across the Twitter universe, the angst among Wisconsin men?s basketball fans grew exponentially.
Some typical concerns, posted all over the Internet:”This is a public relations nightmare for us.””This is a black eye for the program.””You have to think Bo?s national image will be tainted going forward.”
Not long after Wisconsin officials changed the conditions of Jarrod Uthoff?s scholarship release, UW men?s basketball coach Bo Ryan held court in his office for 35 minutes to discuss the events of the last week.
Ryan was candid, colorful, went on the defensive when talking about his program, and was adamant he handled Uthoff?s transfer request appropriately after consulting with other coaches who have lost players over the years.
Jarrod Uthoff is free to speak with any program outside the Big Ten Conference after University of Wisconsin athletic department officials lifted some ?permission to contact? restrictions on him Thursday.
Just like that, the Jarrod Uthoff saga is over. That?s how it goes in today?s Twitter-driven world. Stories bubble to the surface, sides are taken, reputations are trashed and the media quickly moves on to some other topic. Problem is, it doesn?t go away that quickly for the subjects of the firestorm, who are left to deal with the fallout.
Dave Vander Meulen may have retired as the men?s basketball coach at UW-Whitewater in 2001, but he?s not done yet. As a basketball player, that is. Vander Meulen, 73, grew up in the sport and likes to say, “In 40 years, I never had to have a real job.”
Uthoff, a freshman forward who last week asked for and was granted a release from his scholarship with the Badger men?s basketball program, will first meet with associate athletic director Justin Doherty this morning to dispute restrictions placed on him by UW coach Bo Ryan.
University of Wisconsin wrestling coach Barry Davis knows the worst season in his 18-year tenure with the program could easily have been avoided had he prevented his three top wrestlers from taking Olympic redshirts.But Davis also knows doing that would have made him a hypocrite.
The Jarrod Uthoff saga continues to get more bizarre by the day. On Tuesday, University of Wisconsin men?s basketball coach Bo Ryan was heavily criticized by several members of the national media after a report surfaced that he had put the entire Atlantic Coast Conference on a list of teams that Uthoff is restricted from speaking with regarding a transfer.
Six current and former members of the Wisconsin wrestling team and coaching staff hope to earn a spot on the U.S. team for the 2012 Olympic Games in London at the Olympic Team Trials in Iowa City, Iowa.
Max Williams was talking to himself in the bathroom mirror when his brother?s roommate walked by, overheard and changed his life. Williams? life, not the roommate?s. This was maybe 15 years ago in Anchorage, Alaska.
Interim UW-Madison Chancellor David Ward said there has been progress on mediation with Adidas but admits it is slow going. ?While the mediation process, by nature, seems to move slower than most of us would prefer, there has been progress,? he wrote in an update to the campus Labor Licensing Policy Committee (LLPC).
The UW-Madison athletic department was granted permission to increase the scope and budget of its Student Athlete Performance Center project on Friday by the UW System?s Board of Regents. The Capital Planning and Budget Committee on Thursday signed off on a resolution allowing the university to add another $9.4 million to the budget for the final phase of the project, pushing the overall cost for all three phases of the undertaking to $86.2 million.
Jarrod Uthoff, who was expected to be a big part of the University of Wisconsin men?s basketball team?s future, has decided to leave the program. Badgers associate head coach Greg Gard confirmed through a team spokesman Thursday night that Uthoff, who redshirted this past season as a freshman, asked for and was granted a release from his scholarship on Wednesday.
Michala Johnson, a sophomore forward at Connecticut, has decided to transfer and join the University of Wisconsin women?s basketball program. The 6-foot-3 Johnson will join her sister, Malayna, a 6-4 forward who made an oral commitment to join coach Bobbie Kelsey?s program in 2013. Michala Johnson will sit out the upcoming season and then have two years of eligibility remaining.
March Madness, the incredibly successful college sports event that produces hundreds of millions of dollars for the NCAA and many of its member schools, is behind us for another year. This year?s tournament proved once again there are few sports as entertaining as college basketball. Despite all the accolades lavished on the annual tourney, the NCAA leadership has been seething because a New York Times op-ed columnist, Joe Nocera, has been relentlessly questioning how the supposed ?guardian? of ?student athletes? really operates.
