You could hear the pounding from practically anywhere from inside Alliant Energy Center’s Exhibition Hall.
Badger football players, using their brute strength to build a home.
“We’re out working for Habitat For Humanity- got quite a bit of guys about 60 guys from the badger men’s football team,” says Badger Football player Andy Kemp.
Countering a poll paid for by the cable industry, an NFL Network-affiliated group has paid for a survey that produced very different results on topics that include a legislative proposal that would create a neutral arbitration process to settle disputes between cable providers and channels such as NFL Network.
The survey of 500 likely Wisconsin voters shows that 65.8 percent of the respondents support and 21.8 percent oppose state legislation creating a neutral arbitration system that could be used to resolve the current programming dispute between cable companies and independent channels like the NFL Network.
Quoted: UW-Madison telecommunications professor Barry Orton
….Now the 10th-ranked Badgers can point to an achievement that occurred at the Kohl Center that betters anything they’ve done on the road. And, fittingly, you can’t pin it on one individual.
When the Badgers broke a school record by remarkably committing just one turnover during their 57-42 Big Ten Conference victory over Michigan State Thursday night, the credit had to be spread around the team.
“How many times do you see a game with a team with one turnover against a team that plays pretty good defense and will get in your shorts?” asked proud UW coach Bo Ryan after the Badgers played almost flawlessly with the ball, the exception being one bad decision by Joe Krabbenhoft in the first half.
“I don’t know what else you can say,” Ryan added. “Statistics always speak in a loud tone but I’ve never coached in a game where that’s happened, never defensively to another team, or another team defensively to us doing the same things. I don’t know if it’s ever happened. But our guys do value the ball.”
The University of Wisconsinâ??s Kohl Center is one of the most impressive, state-of-the-art college sports facilities in the country. Four UW teams consistently call it home, as it stands proudly on Madisonâ??s West Dayton Street.
Nothing against Cal Poly or its many fine alums — John Madden, “Weird Al” Yankovic and Ozzie Smith to name three — but it’s time to make it a matter of policy the University of Wisconsin not schedule opponents unless they’re an NCAA Division I-A program. …
Tom Izzo has the best seat in the house for Michigan State basketball games.
But the veteran coach feels the pain of Spartans fans who can’t watch them on the Big Ten Network, which has televised eight of their 14 conference games.
“I make more calls than I ever have this year to people who write me, really upset about it,” Izzo told reporters.
The full UW Athletic Board met Friday at Camp Randall to address current issues facing the athletic board and university community.
The University of Wisconsin Athletic Board officially approved the 2008-09 athletic department budget Friday, including no ticket price increases for UW athletic events in the upcoming academic year.
UW women’s basketball: Anderson gets third POW honor
Jolene Anderson netted her third Big Ten Conference Player of the Week honor of the season Monday after leading the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team to three victories in a six-day span.
The knee injury suffered by cornerback Jack Ikegwuonu was so devastating and caused so much swelling that a month later he still hasn’t even been able to undergo reconstructive surgery.
INDIANAPOLIS â?? There was no missing it. As sure as there was a brace on Jack Ikegwuonuâ??s injured right knee, there was disappointment in his face and sadness in his voice Sunday.
While most of the other 333 NFL prospects were running and jumping and bench-pressing, showing league personnel evaluators and coaches what theyâ??ve got during the annual scouting combine this week, the former University of Wisconsin cornerback spent all day Sunday having his knee examined by doctors from all 32 teams.
MADISON, Wis. — USA Hockey announced Thursday the 27 players who are candidates for the 2008 U.S. Women’s National Team — and four current UW-Madison women’s hockey players have a chance to compete.
Badger goalie Jessie Vetter is among a few Badgers on the list. Vetter competed in last year’s world championships.
When Jolene Anderson realized she was on the verge of breaking the all-time career University of Wisconsin basketball scoring record Wednesday night, she held true to her belief of putting team abov
Senior guard Jolene Anderson set the University of Wisconsin school scoring record.
Lisa Stone’s UW team continued its recent run of solid and sometimes outstanding play with a stunningly easy 81-51 victory over a solid Indiana team.
Student season ticket packages will not face a price increase next year, according to the UW Athletics 2008-â??09 budget unanimously approved Tuesday by the Athletic Board Finance Committee.
Wisconsin’s trip to the 2008 Outback Bowl resulted in a positive net margin of $145,108, according to UW officials.
For all the joy that comes from being in the Big Ten title hunt, there is some pain for the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team.
Every other game or so, Trevon Hughes will land wrong and flash a grimace so fierce that you wonder if he aggravated the ankle injury that sidelined him back in December. Brian Butch has a bruised left elbow, one season after dislocating the right one. Senior Michael Flowers and junior forward Marcus Landry have had to leave practice early to get treatment for “general soreness.”
After the recent Hockey Weekend Across America, what better time to reminisce about one of the imperishable personalities and most influential people the game has ever seen or enjoyed?
Because no one cared for the game itself and championed hockey in the United States more than “Badger” Bob Johnson.
The University of Wisconsin Athletic Board’s finance committee unanimously approved a spending authority for athletics of $83.7 million on Tuesday, which includes no ticket increases, for the 2008-09 budget. The budget, with a positive net margin of $43,805, goes to the full board for approval on Friday.
University of Wisconsin kicker and Aberdeen native Taylor Mehlhaff arrives at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis today to try to impress pro scouts before the April draft. We caught up with him Tuesday.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) â?? Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said Monday that he is still reviewing cases of players accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs and steroids as outlined in the Mitchell Report released two months ago.
Selig said he had hoped to complete the review by spring training, but now does not know when he will finish or what punishment he’ll pursue.
“I’m still in that process,” Selig said at a news conference on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A 1956 graduate, Selig was invited back by the history department to speak with students about his career.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said Monday that he is still reviewing cases of players accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs and steroids as outlined in the Mitchell Report released two months ago.
Selig said he had hoped to complete the review by spring training, but now does not know when he will finish or what punishment he’ll pursue.
“I’m still in that process,” Selig said at a news conference on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A 1956 graduate, Selig was invited back by the history department to speak with students about his career.
It didn’t take very long for all the players from the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team to stop fretting over losing to Purdue last Saturday night.
It took just one trip to the hospital — or the new American Family Children’s Hospital at the University of Wisconsin to be specific — for the Badgers to get an attitude adjustment.
The Badgers spent a few hours there Sunday with the hopes of cheering up some sick children by playing, talking and just visiting with them. At the same time, UW coach Bo Ryan was at the Veterans Hospital visiting with patients there.
Maggie O’Connor did something she’s not sure she’s ever done before Wednesday night. The University of Wisconsin sophomore watched a Badger men’s basketball game, at the Kohl Center — sitting down.
It looked like a typical night of basketball at the Kohl Center. Fans were filing in a half-hour before tipoff of the game Wednesday night between the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team and Indiana.
Maybe years from now, Brian Butch will take creative license with the last-second, winning three-pointer he hit to lift the University of Wisconsin to a 68-66 victory over 13th-ranked Indiana Wednesday night at Assembly Hall, telling anyone within earshot that he intended all along to use the glass.
But in the immediate aftermath of the Badgers’ seventh road victory, all he could say is that regardless of how the shot look, it felt good going off his hands.
There have been so many times in the last couple months when basketball has seemed so secondary to Mariah Dunham.
She hasn’t always been her energetic self â?? worrying has taken over at times. Her mind starts to wander, leading her back to the same place.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A chartered jet is flying the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team to and from tonight’s Big Ten Conference game with Indiana at Assembly Hall.
Don’t shrug your shoulders and say, so what? It’s not as regular an occurrence as you might believe for the 15th-ranked Badgers.
Tonight’s game is just the third time in six conference road games — and the first time in the past four road games — that the Badgers haven’t needed to travel by bus.
The stalemate between the Big Ten Network and major cable television companies has come to this: The University of Wisconsin is opening the Kohl Center in Madison on Wednesday for men’s basketball fans to watch the 15th-ranked Badgers play at No. 13 Indiana on the arena’s video screens.
There will be a band and $1 sodas, hotdogs and popcorn. Admission is free.
For fans of the Hoosiers, the situation is no different than when the network launched last August, with numerous fans being unable to watch the game on cable television. At least one IU trustee is losing patience.
At UW-Madison, Bethany Brewster was an All-American six times in cross country and indoor and outdoor track, and won 11 Big Ten Conference championships. She graduated in 2003.
Jim Klebesadel didn’t have to say anything. His smile told the whole story.
He was smiling when he arrived at the Kohl Center as a guest of the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team during its practice Monday and he was still smiling when he left Bo Ryan’s office later that afternoon accompanied by his three daughters.
Klebesadel, the 81-year-old grandfather of former Wisconsin standout Mike Wilkinson and an unabashed fan of the Badgers, told Ryan that it was one of the best days of his life.
Even before the University of Wisconsin revealed its 2008 class of football recruits Wednesday, coach Bret Bielema shared the most important item of the day, though one that shouldn’t surprise fans.
Wide receivers coach Henry Mason, who missed the 2007 season while rehabilitating from a spinal-cord injury he suffered last summer during a fall in his home, will not be able to coach next season.
DelVaughn Alexander, who was hired as the interim receivers coach for the 2007 season, will remain on staff at least through the ’08 season.
Charlie Partridge, an assistant at Pittsburgh the past five seasons, has joined the University of Wisconsin football staff and will coach the defensive linemen and specialists.
Charlie Partridge is the newest member of the University of Wisconsin football team’s coaching staff. Partridge, who has spent the last five seasons as an assistant at Pittsburgh, will coach the Badgers’ defensive line and specialists.
Randall McCray, who coached the defensive line the past two seasons, will now coach the outside linebackers in addition to taking over recruiting coordinator duties from Dave Doeren.
The Kohl Center may broadcast the Big Ten Networkâ??s coverage of the menâ??s basketball away game Feb. 13 against the Indiana Hoosiers on the facilityâ??s big screens.
University of Wisconsin has received permission from the Big Ten Network to broadcast next Wednesdayâ??s basketball game between the Badgers and the Indiana Hoosiers on the big screen at the Kohl Center.
Just as interesting as the states represented in the University of Wisconsin football team’s 2008 recruiting class are the states not represented.
Did you ever think you would see a day when the Badgers would land a total of six players from SEC country (Florida, Tennessee and Arkansas) and another three from Texas — and zero players from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, four states in the Northeast that have been very good to UW over the years?
The 2008 class that was unveiled Wednesday wasn’t a fluke year, either. The Badgers also didn’t sign any players from the Northeast last year and signed just one — John Moffitt of Connecticut — in the 2006 class, Bret Bielema’s first after taking over for Barry Alvarez.
What once was a rich recruiting area for UW under Alvarez has turned into an afterthought under Bielema.
Whenever you talk to University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez about the Big Ten Network these days, he cops a certain attitude.
His body language begins to speak fluent dismissive.
His answers become more clipped than usual.
His tone revs between annoyance and frustration.
This was supposed to be the year fans finally were going to be able judge the impact University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema has had on recruiting
Depending on which football recruiting service you follow, the headline-makers in the University of Wisconsin’s 2008 freshman class are:
A defensive end who has the size and athletic ability to one day become a dominant performer and a quarterback who is already being compared to Florida’s Tim Tebow, the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner.
UW’s 2008 class is set to be announced today.
The University of Wisconsin is suing Division 2 Washburn University for its use of the Badgers trademarked Motion “W”. Wisconsin’s suit seeks an injunction barring Washburn from using the mark.
How expensive is the Big Ten Network?
Thanks to BTN’s quirky pricing structure, it’s a complex question that isn’t as clear as has been stated in media reports referenced in The Capital Times last week.
BTN has received $1.10 per subscriber (and placement on basic cable) in at least some deals with providers in the Big Ten Conference states, but asks 10 cents per subscriber (and is flexible regarding placement on a higher level of service) in the rest of the country, as has been reported several times by The Capital Times.
BTN officials have repeatedly said price is a negotiable item in its so far unsuccessful efforts to reach deals with major cable companies such as Charter Communications and Time Warner. Elizabeth Conlisk, BTN vice president of communications, says its proposals to Charter and Time Warner have been well under $1.
The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team jumped five spots to No. 8 in the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today coaches polls.
The Washburn University Ichabods and the University of Wisconsin Badgers have one thing in common.
Actually, two things. Both schools use the so-called “Motion W” for their athletic mark. And they are on opposite sides of a lawsuit in federal court in which UW is accusing the Division II school of trademark infringement.
When University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema unveils his 2008 recruiting class on Wednesday, no mention will likely be made of Sharon Betlach.
That’s the way she prefers it.
The 65-year-old Betlach works as the recruiting secretary for the football program and will be in the office before 7 a.m. that day, which is the time signed letters of intent from recruits can begin arriving over the fax machine.
Based upon her efforts in the past two games, league officials gave Anderson her second Big Ten Player of the Week honor of the season on Monday.
Some of you might cringe now, but 10 years ago there was optimistic talk inside the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department that its women’s basketball program was on its way to solvency.
The highest arc of those discussions had women’s basketball joining football, men’s basketball and men’s hockey as a consistent breadwinner for UW athletics.
UW Badger Kevin Gullikson, 20, has been cited four times for underage drinking, including three times in Wisconsin. He was twice found by an officer passed out in a public place.
UW Dean of Students office can’t comment specifically about Gullikson, but an associate dean told 27 News in a general sense, the university has options when it comes to punishment.
University of Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema added more than a tight ends coach to his staff Thursday.
Bielema’s latest hire is someone who also feels extremely comfortable in the role of ambassador for the program.
When Joe Rudolph walks into prospects’ living rooms during the recruiting process, he won’t have to search for the right words to say. Rudolph can just speak from the heart.
As a mobile and smart offensive guard, Joe Rudolph helped the University of Wisconsin finish in the top 10 nationally in rushing in 1993 and ’94. Now he’s been named to the UW coaching staff.
UW basketball player Kevin Gullikson, 20, appeared in Dane County Court today to face his 3rd underage drinking citation. He was ordered to complete individual counseling. He will not lose his driving privileges.
UW Police released its report today surrounding the incident earlier this year. The officer who cited Gullikson wrote in his report he found him passed out in a stairwell in the Grainger Hall parking ramp on Jan. 6, 2008 at 3:45am. The officer wrote he had to ask Gullikson ten times to see his ID before he responded.
UW Athletic Department officials said Wednesday ticket prices for football, menâ??s basketball and menâ??s hockey would likely remain the same in the 2008-â??09 seasons.
The University of Wisconsin Athletic Departmentâ??s budget proposal unveiled this week brings good news to Badger fans hoping to save some money when buying tickets during the 2008-09 school year.
Mark Johnson wasn’t sure what to think when he first learned that his youngest son, Patrick, would be wearing the same number for the University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team 29 years after he played.
And if you think that’s some sort of ego trip, you don’t know the Johnson family.
The hesitation was more about wanting his son to create his own identity with the Badgers.
(Patrick Johnson has been named the WCHA’s rookie of the week for Jan. 29 – Feb. 4.)
University of Wisconsin men’s basketball assistant Howard Moore couldn’t help but notice the banners hanging from the rafters in Mackey Arena when the Badgers played in West Lafayette, Ind. last Saturday.
They added new meaning to the term “Boiler-Up” since they not only recognized Purdue’s team accomplishments — such as NCAA and Big Ten titles and Final Four appearances — but acknowledged individual success.
….So it goes. Except at the Kohl Center. And Moore wonders why — why aren’t there banners honoring the UW’s more celebrated athletes in men’s and women’s basketball and hockey? This question has come up before. And a determined Moore plans on bringing it up again with the hope that it will lead to some meaningful dialogue.
To listen to sports talk radio or read Internet message boards and newspapers, you would think a deluge of customers has abandoned Charter Communications for satellite to get the Big Ten Network and NFL Network.
Yet the available figures show little, if any, impact on Charter, and the company emphatically says its hard-line stance was the right decision.
“There would be much more negative impact to our customer numbers if we forced the high cost of both Big Ten Network and NFL Network on every customer, as they want us to, than (there has been) from taking the stand we have taken,” said Charter regional spokesman John Miller.
Although officials from the University of Wisconsin and North Dakota State have been trying to schedule a non-conference football game for next season, it appears those efforts will prove fruitless.
The last time the University of Wisconsin athletic department did not include a ticket price increase in its annual budget, its football team couldn’t fill Camp Randall, its basketball and hockey teams were playing in homey but outdated venues, and its entire spending authority amounted to $16.5 million.
How times have changed.
At a meeting of the UW Athletic Board’s finance committee on Tuesday, associate athletic director for finance John Jentz presented a preliminary 2008-09 budget that tops out at $89.9 million — but includes no ticket price hikes for the first time since 1992, a review of documents by The Capital Times indicates.
Jentz said UW was able to keep ticket prices static thanks to an infusion of $4.1 million from the Big Ten Network — the athletic department’s share of the $6.2 million annual payout from the fledgling network, with the remainder going to campus for scholarships and library use.
The news that the University of Wisconsin athletic department has no plans to increase ticket prices for any sport for the 2008-’09 academic year pleased Ab Nicholas.
“I hope we can maintain that attitude,” said Nicholas, who played basketball at UW, received a bachelor’s degree in economics from the school in 1952 and remains a prominent supporter of the university. “Those are the people who support the programs.”
I know why the Green Bay Packers aren’t in the Super Bowl, why the Milwaukee Brewers signed center fielder Mike Cameron and why the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team got off to a fast start in the Big Ten.
What I don’t understand from the first month of 2008 is that little media-related hissy fit thrown by UW football coach Bret Bielema.
