Category: Athletics

Jeff Rohrman, the University of Wisconsin menâ??s soccer head coach for the past seven seasons, has stepped down from his position, it was announced Tuesday.

â??I feel now is the time for me to move on to a new chapter in my professional life,â? Rohrman said. â??It has been a pleasure to work with the student-athletes here at Wisconsin and I wish them all the best as they continue their careers.â?

University of Wisconsin wide receiver Kyle Jefferson was set to be released from the hospital on Sunday.

He sustained a concussion in the Badgers’ 35-32 victory over the University of Minnesota on Saturday.

Jefferson was taken off the field in an ambulance after a big hit left him motionless for several minutes in the second quarter.

The Washburn University Bookstore is allowing students to trade out the old for the new.

Following the settlement of the copyright lawsuit between Washburn and the University of Wisconsin, Kay Farley, bookstore director, began brainstorming ways to introduce the newly branded WU merchandise to students.

“The new logo came out so suddenly that we had to find a way to get it out to the students,” said Farley.

Nick Toon is emerging as a consistent threat who should only get better with time.

You’ll be able to buy a $5 beer at the University of Minnesota’s new football stadium — if you’ve already spent $1,800-plus on a seat.

President Robert Bruininks is recommending that the university apply for a state liquor license to sell alcohol in four areas of luxury seating at the new TCF Bank Stadium.

As Bo Ryan put it, the Wisconsin Badgers found a way Tuesday night.

For the first 30 minutes of their exhibition game against UW-Whitewater, the Badgers were in danger of becoming the latest Division I basketball team to fall to a Division III opponent. When it counted most, though, they buckled down on defense, crashed the boards and starting clicking on offense.

The result was a 64-47 victory over the Warhawks in a game that was as difficult as Ryan predicted.

For the first time this season, one of the members of the University of Wisconsin football team’s offensive unit was named Big Ten Conference player of the week. Sophomore wide receiver David Gilreath was honored as the league’s co-offensive player of the week along with Ohio State running back Beanie Wells.

Marcus Landry wonders where the time went.

“Just a little while ago I was a freshman, just yesterday,” he said. “It’s so crazy and now I’m here, my senior year.”

The University of Wisconsin forward is speaking only a few feet away from Joe Krabbenhoft. Just minutes earlier, Landry was ragging on his buddy’s finicky nature, chiding him for not eating some of his mother’s homemade enchiladas as Krabbenhoft tried to get brownie points for not being as picky as he used to be.

“I’m doing everything,” he said proudly. “I’m even putting ketchup on hamburgers.”

It was a good natured exchange between two players who have not only played together the past three years but also gotten to know each other very well.

You could say that Kathi Bennett and the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team was a match made in heaven.

Bennett, after a three-season hiatus from coaching, was yearning to return to the profession in which her family name is synonymous with tough defense. And the Badgers, coming off a disappointing season, were a team desperately in need of a new defensive approach.

Five questions that face the University of Wisconsin Badgers women’s basketball team this season:

1. Is coach Lisa Stone’s job in jeopardy?

Certainly, last year’s disappointing 16-14 record fell short of the standards now set at the UW Athletic Department. That discontent was reflected by athletic director Barry Alvarez’s decision to deny a contract extension for Stone, who has three years remaining on her deal.

Should the Badgers live down to their preseason expectations — they were picked to finish 10th in the Big Ten by both the coaches and the media — pressure likely will mount on the program. On the other hand, expectations have been diminished to the point where a finish in the middle of the Big Ten pack by a team with only one senior could be interpreted as a sign that the program is back on track.

Average people can do amazing things. That’s what Dick Bennett still believes. It was the foundation of his basketball coaching career, which spanned more than three decades.

From 1995 to 2000, when he served as head coach of the University of Wisconsin’s men’s basketball team, Bennett took what many believed were less-tha-stellar athletes and made them into competitive teams.

“A lot of excellence was recognized here tonight, but I bet it took a lot of heartache for those businesses to get there,” said Bennett, who was the keynote speaker at Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s annual meeting last week in Appleton.

….There’s no question that Bielema needs to practice what he preaches. That is, what happens is not nearly as important as how someone reacts to what happens. Even if he had a reasonable argument stemming from whatever disagreement that he was having with linesman Mike Dolce, he needed to move on to the next play after Dolce assessed the Badgers a five-yard penalty for obstruction. Bielema could not afford to vent or rant or take a “technical” with his team leading by 11.

That being said, the Big Ten needs to take a look at Dolce’s handling of the situation. In particular, the obstruction penalty.

EAST LANSING, Mich. — We haven’t heard a whole lot lately about how it’s not what happens over the course of the game, it’s how a team reacts to it.

That’s a go-to phrase in the Bret Bielema vernacular, a predictable opening statement in postgame news conferences for the University of Wisconsin football coach when times were good no matter how much eye-rolling it caused.

Yet Bielema has kept that one in his back pocket since the Badgers opened Big Ten Conference play in late September, even though it’s been more appropriate than ever throughout a six-game stretch in which UW has lost five games.

Here is the first thing Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema publicly said Saturday after the Badgers were beaten, 25-24, by Michigan State:

“I told our guys that for whatever reason we’re being tested in the most extreme form.”

Here is the first thing he should have said:

“I apologize to our players and our fans, but mostly to our players, for letting them down. It was totally irresponsible of me to draw a 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. A team takes its personality from the head coach. I lost my composure and from then on the momentum swung to the point that we lost an 11-point lead and the game. A head coach is responsible for everything and I take responsibility for this loss.”

The last team to beat the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team in a pre-season game was the Russian National Team, way back in 1992.

Could Augustana College of Sioux Falls, S.D., pull off an upset and end the Badgers’ 31-game exhibition victory streak at the Kohl Center on Saturday night?

Nyet.

One by one, many of the goals established in August by the University of Wisconsin players have come off the board, figuratively speaking.

The stunning 25-24 loss to Michigan State on Saturday assured that UW will finish below the .500 mark in Big Ten play for the first time since the 2002 season.

Ken Hoffman, the executive director of the Motor City Bowl, never expected to be talking in late October about the possibility of the Wisconsin Badgers football team playing in his bowl.

The Badgers had Bowl Championship Series aspirations as recently as five weeks ago.

“I think everybody is a little surprised that Wisconsin lost four straight games in the Big Ten to start the season,” Hoffman said. “People realize they’re a talented team, they have a lot of tradition and they’ve already started to turn things around.

After the third year of taking our Smith family college football trip over Columbus Day weekend, it occurred to me that these trips are like children. You love them all, but you don’t love one more than another, you just love them in different ways.

Notre Dame two years ago was about time-honored tradition and LSU last year was about the religion known as football in the Deep South.

This year’s venue was the University of Wisconsin, and there was a lot to love about the city of Madison, Camp Randall Stadium and the whole University of Wisconsin football scene.

Quarterback Dustin Sherer isn’t heartless, but he is realistic and pragmatic.

So although he sympathizes with senior tight end Travis Beckum, whose season ended last week because of a broken fibula, Sherer understands the University of Wisconsin offense can’t be allowed to founder because of the loss of one player, no matter how talented or vital.

UW-Madison officials refused to release a videotape of officers confronting a 54 year old woman at Camp Randall Stadium and then using a taser on her.

Sergeant Jason Whitney told 27 News the videotape is not being released because the situation remains under investigation and Margaret Hiebing of Madison, who was arrested as the taser was used on her, has yet to appear in court. Heibing and her husband, Roman are scheduled to appear on unspecified criminal charges Nov. 3.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin’s injured star tight end Travis Beckum should be able to run by January and prepare for NFL tryouts.

That’s according to Wisconsin Coach Bret Bielema.

If you believe the pollsters, the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team will be a factor in the Big Ten race this season but finish behind Purdue and Michigan State in the conference standings.

The Badgers finished third behind the Boilermakers and Spartans in the Big Ten’s preseason poll released Sunday. The poll ranked only three teams.

The Badgers snapped a four-game losing streak with a 27-17 Big Ten Conference victory over favored Illinois on Saturday.

The news that senior tight end Travis Beckum has played his final game for the University of Wisconsin hit teammate and friend DeAndre Levy hard.

“I kind of shook my head and just couldn’t really believe it,” said the senior linebacker, who learned Beckum’s fate Sunday morning from strong safety Jay Valai. “I couldn’t fathom or imagine being in his shoes.

“We’re here behind him and wish him all the best through it.”

CHICAGO — The University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team is on the “Change” bandwagon. It’s just not polling as well for them as it is for Barack Obama.

While Obama’s change message has helped him open up a big lead in the political polls, the Badgers’ change platform fizzled in the Big Ten preseason polls.

Wisconsin was picked to finish 10th in the 11-team Big Ten by both the coaches and the media in their annual polls. To outsiders, change means no Jolene Anderson and no Janese Banks. But to those in the program, change is a good thing.

Senior tight end Travis Beckumâ??s football career at the University of Wisconsin is over after he broke his lower left leg during Saturdayâ??s 27-17 win over Illinois.

Beckum had surgery at UW Hospital on Saturday night to repair his broken left fibula.

Brent Perzentka is one of more than two dozen Badger fans who have signed a statement of protest to the police handling of a dispute with a season ticket holder, which included an officer using a taser on the woman.

“It was pretty frightening,” Perzentka told 27 News of the Oct. 11 incident in the stadium’s section U during the Badgers game with Penn State.

Perzentka said Margaret Hiebing, 54, was sitting in an aisle, unable to get to her seat during the start of the game. Perzentka said a responding officer’s actions were too forceful. “It appeared the officer was the aggressor.”

Other football finalists include tight end Travis Beckum (Wisconsin).

Bret Bielema had a priest, the Rev. Mike Burke, give him a ride home after losing to Iowa. Too bad the third-year coach isn’t Catholic.

“He felt he needed to console me,” Bielema said. “I’m the only non-Catholic head coach that has a priest that’s worried about me.”

There’s a lot of worry in Madison these days. Wisconsin has lost four straight in the Big Ten for the first time in 12 years.

Enjoy that brisk, â??cleanâ? October air this Saturday at Camp Randall, Badger fans. UW officials are publicizing the homecoming game as the Big Tenâ??s first â??carbon neutralâ? football game ever. The event aims to raise awareness about the problematic dependence on carbon-emitting energy, as well as encouraging recycling and conservation.

The Stadium Bar’s beer garden is a very popular place for Badger fans to watch home games.

Normally broadcast on a large screen next to this sign.

But when 10:00pm hits- those fans have to leave.

Madison city rules state all beer gardens downtown must close down by 10 during night games.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported that sales of Bret Bielema’s trademark red windbreaker are down. And some anonymous clown has launched a firebretbielema.com Web site.

“Someone in my hometown finally got the Internet,” the Wisconsin coach joked Tuesday. “I heard a great comment by (Penn State coach) Joe Paterno a couple of weeks ago when he talked about the ‘Internet mob’â??nameless, faceless people who can go out and say anything they want.

A “kickoff” event on Wednesday will celebrate Madison’s hosting of the 2010 U.S. Transplant Games.

Madison will host the games July 30-Aug. 4, an event that city and business officials claim will attract national media attention and welcome visitors and dollars to the isthmus.

….More than 7,000 participants are expected to pour $2.6 million into Madison during the five-day run of the games, which will take place in various venues around the city, including the Alliant Energy Center, the Kohl Center, Monona Terrace, UW sports centers, and bowling and golf facilities.

When Bo Ryan was coaching high school ball in Philadelphia, he’d suggest that his less-than-graceful players take dance classes, and inevitably some parent would call, balking at the idea of giving Arthur Murray part of his or her paycheck.

â??If you have a rich uncle somewhere, have him spring,â? Ryan would tell them. â??Give it to him for a birthday gift or something.â?

If they haven’t reached rock bottom, they can surely see rock bottom from their house, a veritable house of cards since the start of the Big Ten season. And the prospects are that it will get much worse before it gets any better for the beleaguered Badgers, with Illinois stepping to the plate.

University of Wisconsin men’s basketball players may be required to take a summer school course each year that they are eligible to play, if a recommendation by an NCAA committee is approved at its meeting in January.

UW-Madison officials expressed concerns about the recommendation at an Athletic Board meeting on Friday.

The University of Wisconsin Homecoming game against Illinois a week from today will be the first carbon-neutral football game in the Big Ten, UW-Madison officials said.