Troy Vincent, an All-American cornerback at the University of Wisconsin and five-time Pro Bowl selection for four National Football League teams, gained the overwhelming support Thursday from veteran players on the two Super Bowl teams in his bid to become executive director of the NFL Players Association.
It’s bad enough for Joe Krabbenhoft that he has had to endure his team’s first five-game losing streak in over a decade. Now he’s fending off accusations that he’s a dirty player.
The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team’s senior forward has been accused of trying to intentionally harm Purdue’s Lewis Jackson when he set a screen that flattened the freshman guard during the Boilermakers’ 64-63 win over the Badgers Tuesday night at the Kohl Center.
Anyone looking to party hard after the 28th annual Crazylegs Classic run April 25 may have to find an outdoor venue other than the Stadium Bar.
The city of Madison is taking steps to crack down on alleged violations at the huge beer garden across from Camp Randall Stadium, which can legally hold up to 2,500 patrons.
Among the changes: limiting the operation of the Stadium Bar beer garden to just UW home football games.
All along, I’ve thought the most important player for the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team this season was Keaton Nankivil.
The reasoning went like this: Replacing 6-foot-11 post men Brian Butch and Greg Stiemsma was going to be more difficult than anyone imagined and Nankivil, a wide-shouldered 6-8 sophomore, was the best “big” the Badgers had to drop into the middle of their four veteran perimeter players.
U.S.A. Hockey announced Tuesday that Wisconsin womenâ??s hockey head coach Mark Johnson will lead the U.S. womenâ??s national team at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010. Johnson, who has coached the Badgers to two national championships since starting at Wisconsin in 2002, said he is thrilled to have the opportunity.
The University of Wisconsin womenâ??s hockey coach Mark Johnson has been named head coach of the 2010 U.S. Olympic Womenâ??s Ice Hockey Team.
The way the Purdue men’s basketball team has found a way to win games it looked destined to lose this season is a credit to its resiliency and grit. That’s what can define a champion.
So what does it say about the University of Wisconsin after the Badgers’ 64-63 loss to No. 16 Purdue Tuesday night in a Big Ten Conference game at the Kohl Center marked their fifth straight loss and the third time during that streak that they failed to hold a second-half lead?
“We still have life here,” said optimistic junior guard Trevon Hughes as the Badgers continued the program’s longest losing streak since the 1997-98 season.
This was the same tired, old tune Wisconsin has played for the past two weeks.
The Badgers led 16th-ranked Purdue by four points with a little more than 2 minutes left but allowed two back-breaking three-pointers down the stretch that helped the Boilermakers fight back and score a 64-63 victory in front of a packed house at the Kohl Center. The loss was Wisconsin’s fifth in a row.
Mark Johnson was appointed coach of the U.S. Women’s Olympic hockey team for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, and that’s good news on so many levels that it’s impossible to list them all.
He wasn’t appointed because he played on the gold medal-winning 1980 U.S. men’s team at Lake Placid, N.Y., where he scored twice in the “Miracle on Ice” team’s upset of the heavily favored Russians — and assisted on the winner and scored the insurance goal in the gold-medal game against Finland.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Mark Johnson will lead the women’s national hockey team at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
Johnson was selected Tuesday to continue his role as head coach of the women’s program that he’s led since replacing Ben Smith.
It might be the worst kept secret in Hockey history. But all signs, and a report by the Wisconsin State Journal, indicate Madison native and “Miracle in Ice” 1980 gold medal winning star, Mark Johnson, will be named coach of the 2010 US Women’s Hockey Team at a press conference scheduled for Tuesday.
USA Hockey has scheduled the press conference Tuesday morning and then a reception on the campus of the University of Wisconsin that evening which would seem to indicate Johnson, who was known to be one of three finalists for the position, is the choice.
University of Wisconsin women’s hockey coach Mark Johnson is expected to be named to coach the U.S. women’s Olympic hockey coach at a press conference on Tuesday.
There were three finalists for the job — Johnson, Ohio State’s Jackie Barto and Harvard’s Katey Stone. USA Hockey will make the announcement in Madison on Tuesday, WISC-TV reported.
In an exclusive interview, Badger season ticket holder Margaret Hiebing told 27 News she remains emotionally scarred after police officers used tasers on her at Camp Randall during her ejection from a game.
“It just shocked me,” Hiebing told 27 News. “It was just terrifying.”
UW-Madison Police reports show Hiebing, 54, was attending the Oct. 11, 2008 Badger game against Penn State with her husband, and both had nothing to drink. Hiebing told 27 News her row in the stadium’s section U was so crowded she could not get into her aisle seat, and no one attempted to determine if someone without a proper ticket was in the row, so she sat in the aisle next to her seat location.
Mark Johnson appears in line to be named coach of the U.S. Olympic women’s hockey team. USA Hockey won’t make an official announcement until Tuesday afternoon.
However, in a press release Monday, the organization noted that a reception honoring the coach who will lead the Americans into the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver will be held Tuesday evening at Heritage Hall inside Camp Randall Stadium.
Decades before Sarah Palin was turning “Hockey Mom” into a household phrase, there was Madison’s Carol Marshall, a longtime supporter of city and UW-Madison hockey.
The Wisconsin men’s basketball team earned a dubious distinction Saturday while providing its coach with a glimmer of hope for a better future.
The Badgers’ equaled the longest losing streak of Bo Ryan’s eight years as coach with their 64-57 loss to No. 25 Illinois in front of a sellout crowd of 16,618 at Assembly Hall.
It’s the most shocking development of the Big Ten Conference season so far.
Forget the rise of Penn State and Northwestern, the collapse of Indiana or the dominance of Michigan State. What’s raising eyebrows across the country is that the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team, the pillar of Big Ten excellence this decade, has lost four straight games and is mired in the second division of the conference standings.
In search for an explanation, some of the so-called experts have focused on whether the Badgers’ talent is strong enough to compete in a conference with a bevy of vastly improved, more athletic teams.
Mariah Dunham lost a cherished family member a couple weeks ago when her aunt, Debbie Simonds, died after a yearlong battle with brain cancer. At the same time, she was reminded that she has a big extended family with the Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team.
It has been an emotional period for Dunham, a junior forward from Watertown, as she has tried to juggle family and basketball. In the end, she has learned that they are one and the same.
As the city of Chicago prepares its bid to host the Olympics in 2016, officials announced plans last week to bring certain events to Wisconsin and make Madison the â??cycling hubâ? of the games.
APPLETON — Add another honor to Mark Johnson’s resume.
The Wisconsin Badgers women’s hockey coach and Olympic legend was given the Red Smith Award at the organization’s annual banquet Tuesday at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel. The award has been given since 1965 to a Wisconsin sports figure who has shown excellence.
It has become one of the most iconic symbols in college athletics, but few people know its origins, which are fairly humble.
The Motion W came into being, at least in part, because the top executive of an electronics company in Madison didn’t like the helmets worn by the University of Wisconsin football team.
University of Wisconsin officials are working on a budget for the 2009-’10 academic year that will keep overall operating expenses and ticket prices for all sports at their current levels.
That was the message delivered Tuesday to UW’s Finance, Facilities and Operations Committee by John Jentz, associate athletic director in charge of finance.
The Wisconsin Badgers Athletic Department appears to have succeeded in reducing costs for its 2009-10 operating budget, signaling a second straight year without a ticket price hike.
Members of the UW Athletic Board’s finance, facilities and operations committee heard Tuesday that 10 of the 23 sports were able to reduce operating expenses from the current budget, while 19 of the 25 support units reduced operating expenses by at least 5 percent.
APPLETON â?? Your name is Mark Johnson.
Your University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team (20-1-3) is ranked No. 2 in the nation in the USCHO.com poll, you coached Team USA to the gold medal in the World Under-18 Championships in Fussen, Germany, and you are a candidate to coach Team USA at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
So what do you do when your phone rings?
Madison will be host to several Olympic cycling events if Chicago is chosen to host the 2016 summer games, officials announced Friday.
As Chicago goes for the gold, Madison is looking forward to some of the trickle-down.
If Chicago wins the bid to host the 2016 Olympics, Madison gets a piece of the prize. It will be the site of several cycling events, making it the games’ official cycling hub.
The Chicago Olympic committee and officials from the State of Wisconsin will announce a change Friday in the Chicago Olympic Venue plan.
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle will be joined by Doug Arnot, the Vice-President of Sport, Venues, and Games Operations for Chicago 2016, along with representatives of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, to talk about collaborations involving the city of Madison and the surrounding area.
An exhausted Trevor Pryce stood by his locker following a grueling win over Tennessee that advanced the Ravens to the AFC Championship Game.
The first thought to come to the defensive lineman’s mind?
“Thank God for little Jimmy Leonhard,” he said of the safety who forced a fumble that was recovered on the team’s 1-yard line in the fourth quarter after recovering an earlier fumble inside the team’s 20-yard line.
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle’s plan to discuss Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics could mean some cycling events are coming to the state.
Doyle and officials from Chicago’s 2016 bid will talk about plans involving the city of Madison and the surrounding area on Friday. It’s expected they’ll name an area near Mount Horeb and Blue Mound State Park for the potential road race and individual time trial.
The state is also being strongly considered for mountain bike races and could play a role in housing athletes.
Kathi Bennett would like to say that it’s just another road trip. But honesty won’t let her.
When Bennett returns to Bloomington, Ind., with the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team, she anticipates that it will be an emotional experience. Bennett, in her first season as an assistant coach for the Badgers, spent five years as head coach at Indiana University.
A new Donald Lipski sculpture has left the manufacturer and is headed for a sports stadium.
This qualifies as news in Madison, where some of us are still puzzling — to put it kindly — over the Lipski sculpture that was unveiled in front of Camp Randall Stadium in November 2005.
In just a year, Coyotes forward Kyle Turris went from living in a 15- by 10-foot dorm room with a roommate at the University of Wisconsin to having the responsibility of maintaining his own household.
Most young players face a similar immediate culture shock as they begin their NHL careers.
Artie Schultz doesn’t seek the spotlight — it just seems to find him. After all, when you’re all alone atop a big machine in front of 15,000 people, they tend to notice.
Schultz drives the Zamboni at the Kohl Center, meaning he’s the guy who resurfaces the ice for the Badgers men’s and women’s hockey teams before and during their games and practices. Tearing over the ice at 9 mph, Schultz has to be the most recognizable facilities maintenance guy in town.
The 2006-07 Wisconsin Badgers women’s hockey team stands as one of the models of single-season success among its peers, with the NCAA record for fewest losses — one — and a national championship to show for it.
Keep that in mind as you consider this: This year’s Badgers team may be more dangerous offensively and doesn’t appear much different on the defensive end.
P.J. Hill’s decision to skip his senior season at the University of Wisconsin and enter the 2009 National Football League draft should reveal whether UW has recruited well enough at tailback to withstand the premature departure of the No. 3 runner in program history.
It’s a question we ask ourselves at least once every day of our adult lives.
It’s posed, one way or another, after a restaurant meal or concert, after the driveway is plowed, after a sporting event or vacation, after you visit your financial planner.
Was it worth it?
The ball is in John Clay’s hands now.
Saying “the time is right for me to take the next step in my career,” University of Wisconsin junior running back P.J. Hill announced Thursday that he will make himself eligible for the NFL draft and won’t return for his senior season.
Badgers junior tight end Garrett Graham, who like Hill filed paperwork with the NFL to find out his projected draft status, announced he is returning.
“We are excited for both players,” UW coach Bret Bielema said in a news release. “I know that Garrett is looking forward to completing his time at UW and improving for his senior season and we are thrilled to have him returnin
Junior tailback P.J. Hill, the No. 3 rusher in the history of the University of Wisconsin football program, is leaning strongly toward skipping his senior season and entering the 2009 National Football League draft.
University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez is the third-highest paid AD among those who work at public schools, according to a report Tuesday at Bloomberg.com.
Alvarez, who makes a guaranteed salary of $750,000, trails only University of Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley — who makes a guaranteed salary of $965,000 — and University of Kansas AD Lew Perkins — who is guaranteed $900,000.
Dear Editor: Much has been said already about the increasingly quiet nature of the basketball fans at the Kohl Center. Rob Schultz described the crowd at the Penn State game as morose and the quietest in the history of the Kohl Center. This did not happen overnight.
It is a sad day in Badgerland when the student athletes have to act as cheerleaders to exhort the fans to get involved.
Joe Krabbenhoft was only 2 or 3 years old, but he knew the routine.
His father would be hanging out with some of his buddies, guys who coached basketball at the high school or college level, and he’d say, “Ask Joe what’s the most important word in basketball.”
When they did, the boy didn’t hesitate to answer.
“Finish!”
Florida’s Jeremy Foley is the highest-paid athletic director among public schools in college footballâ??s top division, according to contracts obtained through open-records requests. His $965,000 in guaranteed salary can grow to more than $1 million after benefits and bonuses. The University of Kansasâ??s Lew Perkins is second at $900,000, followed by the University of Wisconsinâ??s Barry Alvarez at $750,000.
One thing Barry Alvarez never had was a quarterback controversy.
He lifted the University of Wisconsin into position as one of the top college football programs in the country with a simple formula.
Get some huge guys to play the offensive line. Teach them how to block really well. Find a quarterback who won’t fumble the snap. Teach him how to hand it off. Sit back and watch a legion of runners tear up the Big Ten. Nobody really cared who played quarterback.
Football and men’s basketball players are averaging hundreds of points less on their college entrance exams than their classmates, according to a newspaper’s study of 54 public universities.
Many schools routinely used a special admissions process to admit athletes who did not meet the normal entrance requirements. More than half of scholarship athletes at the University of Georgia, Clemson University, UCLA, Rutgers University, Texas A&M University and LSU were special admits.
A former University of Wisconsin football player accused of making threats against athletic director Barry Alvarez has been ordered to undergo treatment after being found incompetent to stand trial at a hearing Friday morning.
Leonard Taylor Jr., 32, is facing charges of stalking and telephone harassment.
Mark Johnson’s past, present and, quite possibly, his future will collide Friday at the Kohl Center. Funny thing is, he won’t be around to see it.
Johnson’s present is the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team, which is unbeaten and unanimously ranked No. 1 in the nation after 20 games (18-0-2
Eyewitnesses insist they saw a woman sitting innocently in a stadium aisle, unable to reach her seat in an overcrowded row as an Oct. 11 football game began at the University of Wisconsin. Police reports paint a picture of a woman kicking and screaming as she was about to be handcuffed, ejected and cited for violating Camp Randall Stadium policy regarding aisle blockage. That’s when things really got out of control â?? or were, in fact, controlled â?? depending on whose interpretation of events one chooses to embrace.
Before the highlight-tape drives, his moves a batter of reaction and action, Devin Harris met over the summer for a dinner with Nets Coach Lawrence Frank. They were conjoined through design and distress.
Frankâ??s team seemed to be heading downward. Harris, a promising young point guard who had been traded to the Nets by the Dallas Mavericks in February, was still searching for his role in his new home.
One week after starting slowly and playing poorly in losing its Big Ten women’s basketball opener, the University of Wisconsin faced another early double-digit deficit.
This time, UW regrouped quickly enough to take a four-point halftime lead and then made several crucial plays in the final 2-plus minutes to pull away for a 62-52 victory over Minnesota in front of an announced crowd of 6,045 Monday night at the Kohl Center.
As the number of college students using MySpace and Facebook social networking sites grows, so do concerns about what theyâ??re posting. Some companies see an opportunity in helping them avoid embarrassing themselves, and even hurting their future.
Quoted: Justin Doherty of the UW Madisonâ??s athletic department says they could potentially use such a service. He says right now, they just talk to all the UW teams about online postings. (Third item.)
The Man or The Mistake? The pressure on University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema to reverse the slide of the UW Athletic Department’s top bread-winning sport in 2009 will be immense.
Bielema, who turns 39 on Jan. 13, was hand-picked by UW Athletic Director Barry Alvarez to replace the iconic Alvarez as Badgers coach in 2006. Bielema’s debut was one for the ages: the best overall record in program history (12-1), a Top-10 ranking (seventh) and Coach of the Year honors in the Big Ten.
To say last year wasn’t the best men’s basketball season for the Big Ten Conference would be an understatement.
Only four of its teams earned NCAA tournament berths. None advanced further than the Sweet 16. Its RPI as a conference was the worst of the six BCS conferences.
ORLANDO, Fla. â?? The University of Wisconsin football team arrived at the Champs Sports Bowl looking for its first signature victory in a season that was supposed to be full of them.
Well, the Badgers have stopped searching for that statement win, but only because their season ended Saturday without a single victory worth texting home about.
University of Wisconsin sophomore left tackle Gabe Carimi wants to be part of the solution.
But it’s going to take a change in the mistake-filled culture that dragged down the Badgers this season, leading to a 7-6 finish and a humbling 42-13 loss to Florida Staten Saturday in the Champs Sports Bowl.
“Spring ball,” Carimi said firmly, when asked how to stop what is now a two-year downward slide under coach Bret Bielema. “I think we need to preach more â?? I feel to the bottom of my heart â?? we’ve never been known for having the best talent. But we’ve been known for doing things right. Too many times this year, we had too many mental errors. That isn’t how Wisconsin has played.
ORLANDO, Fla. — A disappointing season for the University of Wisconsin football team ended with a thud.
Here’s all you need to know about Florida State’s 42-13 victory over the Badgers Saturday in the Champs Sports Bowl: The Seminoles’ defense outscored UW’s offense two touchdowns to one.
Maybe we’ll never be 100 percent sure whether the entire puck crossed the goal line on the last shot Sunday night, but all that counted was that the referee staring at it said it didn’t.
Think Wisconsin is having buyer’s remorse about the multi-million, multi-year rollover contract it gave Bret Bielema?
All the embarrassments of a regular season gone wrong, the kind of mistakes that should’ve been fixed and therefore redeemed with a month to prepare, were compounded and repeated to an astonishing degree Saturday on the final proving ground for 2008, the Champs Sports Bowl.
Just when there was a realistic expectation for a brighter future, the outlook dimmed like sunshine over Citrus Bowl Stadium as the 42-13 beating by a Florida State team that was Florida State in name only wore into the night.
So this is how the University of Wisconsin’s third season under Bret Bielema ended Saturday in the Champs Sports Bowl.
With a whimper.
Football and menâ??s basketball players on the nationâ??s big-time college teams averaged hundreds of points lower on their SATs than their classmates, and some of the gaps are so large they call into question the lengths to which schools will go to win.
The biggest gap between football players and students as a whole occurred at the University of Florida, where players scored 346 points lower than the schoolâ??s overall student body. Thatâ??s larger than the difference in scores between typical students at the University of Georgia and Harvard University.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — It’s the “P” word that Willy Leparulo dreads. Pingpong.
“It’s like putting nails on a chalk board,” Leparulo said. “It’s defeating some of the stereotype with just the general sport. Hopefully, by calling it table tennis you get a little bit more respect.”
