MADISON, Wis. — For the first time in school history, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Badgers are the top team in men’s college basketball this week, according to the Associated Press poll.
Wisconsin (26-2), which is No. 1, received 35 first-place votes and a total of 1,747 points from a nationwide media panel to edge Ohio State (24-3) for the top spot. The Buckeyes, who own an 11-game winning streak, earned 31 first-place votes and 1,728 total points.
MADISON, Wis. — Badger fans and sports analysts said that they have high hopes for the future of University of Wisconsin-Madison athletics after Monday’s college basketball ranking.
“I can’t believe it,” said one fan. “I mean, it’s an accomplishment of immense proportions.”
“I don’t know if I’m shocked or what, but just to see the Badgers be No. 1 in the nation for just a glimpse, even if it’s only for a week,” said one caller to the WIBA Radio’s Badger sports talk radio show, WISC- TV reported.
Get ready for another 1 vs. 2 showdown in the Big Ten â?? this time on the hardwood.
MADISON, Wis. — The voters in the Associated Press men’s college basketball poll have named the University of Wisconsin-Madison Badgers the top team in college basketball for this week.
After the university cracked down on high schools across the country for using a logo similar to UW-Madisons Motion W this fall, another schools W is now under fire.
Should coaches be paid more than the chancellors and deans who run a public university?Should a head football coach be paid $1.3 million for one year, even if his team did have a 12-1 record and the money he’ll make comes from funds generated by athletic programs?
Over the last few years the large ‘W’ logo to symbolize Washington sports has taken a back seat to the new Demon logo. A few W’s still exist at Case Field. None can be found in the Washington High School gym. A few jackets can be found if the sports enthusiast looks hard enough.
Last summer, Vernon Burton gave lectures on history and the use of computing in humanities research at meetings in Britain and France. When he finished each talk, the first question wasnâ??t about his research, but about Chief Illiniwek, the mascot at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and why the university would keep a symbol that is offensive to American Indians.
Paul Chryst faces a clear but difficult decision.
Does he want to remain the University of Wisconsin’s offensive coordinator for the foreseeable future and make the college game his permanent home?
Or is a second stint in the National Football League, this time as quarterbacks coach of the Dallas Cowboys, more appealing and satisfying?
According to multiple sources, Chryst was scheduled to meet with UW coach Bret Bielema sometime Friday in Las Vegas, where the coaches are attending a clinic.
When Sara Bauer was going through the process of choosing a college, she always thought she would prefer one in the eastern United States, something fairly close to her home in St. Catharines, Ontario.
Then, she visited Madison and saw the University of Wisconsins hockey team in action.
….How serious is Chryst about returning to the NFL? That will be one of the questions that he has to answer for himself and (Badger head coach Bret) Bielema.
But it speaks to the fluid nature of the profession, especially at this time of the year. Adding to the traffic has been the seven head coaching changes in the NFL.
Should coaches be paid more than the chancellors and deans who run a public university?
Should a head football coach be paid $1.3 million for one year, even if his team did have a 12-1 record and the money he’ll make comes from funds generated by athletic programs?
Ask around on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus (and a little outside it) and you’ll get widely differing views on the new contract for Badger football coach Bret Bielema.
These are the best of times in the life of Jake Dowell because he believes that, for now, the worst has run its course.That reality is connected to his role as senior center and assistant captain for the University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team, but only on the periphery.It has more to do with the fact that an immense emotional void has been filled and, as a result, Dowell is a better person, not to mention a better play
University of Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst will interview for an assistant coaching job with the Dallas Cowboys, according to a report today on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram Web site.
Chryst, who has engineered record-setting offenses the past two seasons for the Badgers, has one year remaining on his contract with Wisconsin. He was the highest-paid assistant on coach Bret Bielema’s staff last season at $200,000, and is believed to be in line for a substantial raise.
The concept of a new on- campus practice facility for the University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team will take a step forward next month, but the earliest that such a project could appear on the capital budget is 2009.
UW senior associate athletic director Doug Beard said school and team representatives are scheduled to meet next month with consultants from Ayers Saint Gross – the firm involved with helping UW with its master campus plan – to begin discussing site options.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=565654
Although University of Wisconsin offensive coordinator Paul Chryst is set to receive a pay raise, he is being courted by the Dallas Cowboys and will interview for a position on their staff.
The University of Wisconsin finished strong and left town with yet another road victory.
The Badgers shot 55.6% in the second half of a 75-62 victory over Minnesota Wednesday night in front of 13,820 at Williams Arena to improve to 25-2 and, at 11-1 in the Big Ten, remained tied with Ohio State atop the conference standings. Wisconsin also tied the school record for victories in a season, equaling the total of the 2003-’04 and 2004-’05 teams.
MINNEAPOLIS – Bo Ryan wasn’t the most popular or sexiest choice six years ago.
With the Badgers only a year removed from reaching the 2000 Final Four, there was hope among Wisconsin fans that the school could land a big name when replacing Dick Bennett. Milwaukee native and then-Utah coach Rick Majerus was a popular choice. So was California coach Ben Braun, a University of Wisconsin graduate.
Sure, Ryan was known in the state – he won four Division III national championships at Wisconsin-Platteville – but his record in two seasons at Division I Wisconsin-Milwaukee was 30-27.
University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema has made enough decisions in his coaching career to make it clear it’s not just about the money with him.
It took Alando Tucker only one shot to score the 2,000th point of his University of Wisconsin men’s basketball career Saturday at the Kohl Center.
Fortunately for the Badgers, their senior forward didn’t stop there.
Aside from the irony of watching college football’s most notorious hold-up artist, Barry Alvarez, playing the part of the guy with his hands in the air for a change, there was nothing unusual about the five-year, $7.5 million contract the University of Wisconsin gave to coach Bret Bielema last week.
Following the most successful season in UW-Madison football history, the UW System Board of Regents approved an amended contract for head coach Bret Bielema Friday.
Aside from the irony of watching college football’s most notorious hold-up artist, Barry Alvarez, playing the part of the guy with his hands in the air for a change, there was nothing unusual about the five-year, $7.5 million contract the University of Wisconsin gave to coach Bret Bielema last week. In terms of compensation, the deal was fair for both sides.
Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema was rewarded Friday for his highly successful first season with a new five-year, $7.5 million contract. The University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents approved an amended contract on Friday that will increase Bielema’s salary from $750,000 to $1.3 million this year.
To score 2,000 points in the Big Ten is scarcely a backhanded compliment, but it does imply the kind of longevity not always associated with greatness. The really special ones – the Magic Johnsons, the Isiah Thomases, the Glenn Robinsons – didn’t hang around long enough to qualify for the semi-exclusive club.
Alando Tucker became the 24th member Saturday when his Wisconsin Badgers continued their Panzer-like swath across the college basketball landscape with a 74-62 victory against Iowa. Tucker is a senior, a rarity for a player who projects as a first-round NBA pick, yet it was a series of injuries that helps account for his full undergraduate experience.
Less than 14 months ago, Bret Bielema was an unknown commodity armed with a modest contract for a rookie head football coach and faced with the daunting task of maintaining the level of success Barry Alvarez established at the University of Wisconsin.
Today, barely more than one month after guiding UW to one of its more successful seasons in the history of the program in his rookie season, Bielema has a new five-year, $7.5-million contract that should lift his national profile and enhance his credibility with recruits.
Now that Alando Tucker is the second player in Wisconsin history to score 2,000 points, he figures he has plenty of chances to top Michael Finley’s school record of 2,147. Tucker had 21 points and seven rebounds Saturday, leading the fourth-ranked Badgers past Iowa 74-62. Tucker reached the 2,000-point mark with his first basket of the game. The senior said when he looks at his chances to become Wisconsin’s leading scorer, he includes a potential run to the Final Four. “This team is special to me,” Tucker said. “I think we all realize that. Just for me to be able to achieve that this year among this group of players, my teammates, it’s very special to me.”
More than one opposing player has identified Alando Tucker’s recognition skills – or vision – as one of his defining strengths. Vision, that is, in the context that the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball player has shown the ability to read the floor. That has allowed Tucker to create some scoring opportunities for his teammates while attacking vulnerable areas in a defense. “He finds seams well in the zone,” Penn State’s Jamelle Cornley observed after Tucker scored 24 points in Wednesday night’s victory over the Nittany Lions. “He’s an exceptional player.”
And person.
(Other Badger athletes are also included in this article.)
The University of Wisconsin-Stout will require athletes to undergo random drug testing, a response to December police searches that netted steroids and other drugs from the homes of two football players.
School officials said Thursday that the football team’s 100 players will be tested this spring for commonly abused drugs such as cocaine and marijuana, and a quarter will be randomly tested for steroids. Players in other sports at Wisconsin-Stout will undergo random drug testing starting in the fall.
The University of Wisconsin-Stout announced Thursday that it will be requiring its athletes to submit to random drug testing. This decision comes in response to the drug-related arrests of two football players, Luke Steffen and Nicholas OrRico, last December. Steffen, a senior linebacker for UW-Stout, was found with three bottles of liquid steroids in his home, and OrRico, a junior linebacker, was found with one.
If shopping and doing a home improvement project is your idea of a busy weekend, you’ve got nothing on those who will staff the Kohl Center through Sunday.
Starting with Thursday night’s University of Wisconsin women’s basketball game, the facility is scheduled for seven events over four days. Embedded in that is a dizzying cycle of opposing teams arriving and departing, not to mention a demanding schedule of converting the building from basketball to hockey and back, and back, and back.
It’s part of the life of a multi-purpose facility like the Kohl Center….
University of Wisconsin head football coach Bret Bielema, who guided the Badgers to a 12-1 record and a Capital One Bowl victory in his first season, was awarded with a five-year contract extension.
ESPN first reported the news Thursday evening on its ticker during SportsCenter broadcasts.
Milwaukee’s most prominent former college basketball coach has broadcast two University of Wisconsin games already this season and has attended Bo Ryan’s practices. He knows the UW team and is impressed as much as anyone by their play.
ESPN’s Rick Majerus will call UW’s game against Iowa Saturday at the Kohl Center.
The University of Wisconsin-Stout will require athletes to take random drug tests, a response to December police searches that netted steroids and other drugs from the homes of two football players.
As Bret Bielema sat in the University of Wisconsin football offices Wednesday, he chatted on the phone with recruits and watched TV coverage of national football signing day.
The reality might be distressing, but it’s not unprecedented where the University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team is concerned. A year after winning the sixth NCAA title in program history, the Badgers are a long shot to make the 16-team national tournament field.
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Bo Ryan is the son of a Chester pipefitter named Butch. So it’s no surprise that a fire, one as red as his team’s road uniforms, burns in the belly of the University of Wisconsin’s basketball coach.
“My dad’s a tough guy,” Ryan said earlier this week as his fourth-ranked Badgers prepared for last night’s game at Penn State. “He never finished high school. They kicked him out of St. James [High] because when a priest asked him if he knew the Apostles’ Creed, he said, ‘Can you hum a few bars?’ ”
Butch Ryan, now 83, passed that blue-collar, riverfront atty-tood down to his son.
University of Wisconsin basketball player Kirk Penney took a promising freshman under his wing four years ago and showed him the ropes.
Alando Tucker never forgot those lessons.
On the field, Badgers defensive lineman Justin Ostrowski is interested solely in stacking up opposing players, but Tuesday night he devoted his time to stacking words as a literary-physical fitness exercise for Woodridge students.
Ostrowski, who attended Woodridge Primary School 15 years ago, returned to the school this week with a contingent of UW-Madison football players to promote reading to local students. The program involved signing autographs, posing for pictures and a word or two about the importance of words.
It dropped two spots in the Top 25 polls Monday, but the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team remains as popular as ever.
The Badgers, who slipped from second to fourth in the Associated Press and coaches’ polls after Indiana ended their 17-game winning streak last Wednesday night, are the subject for two upcoming television shows.
When our Badger basketball team was playing Ohio State recently, the TV said the police would be after the ticket scalpers.
One of the best wide receivers in University of Wisconsin football history was Al Toon.
Four years from now, his son is hoping he can say the same.
On Wednesday, 18-year-old Nick Toon is expected to officially join the Badgers family when he signs his national letter of intent to play at UW.
Bret Bielema claims he’s an unlikely prom king, but the constant attention he got Saturday night at Frostiball from partygoers who stopped to congratulate him on his excellent first season as the Badger head football coach proved otherwise.
Jeff Sauer is back behind the bench, leading a hockey team that’s as dear to him as any he has ever been a part of.
In fact, if commitment and connection are any measure, this team may be more closely associated with Sauer than any of the teams he led at the University of Wisconsin and Colorado College.
A DECADE ago, when Jay Blasi was a senior at Middleton High School and a member of the school golf team, The Capital Times made him the subject of a “prep profile.”
Blasi was asked to answer a series of questions, the last of which was to name his “career goal.”
Blasi replied, “To design a golf course that would play host to the U.S. Open.” Today, at 28, he may already have done it.
Defensive end Jamal Cooper has been dismissed from the University of Wisconsin football team, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on its Web site Thursday night.
Were he not able to keep everything in proper perspective, former University of Wisconsin quarterback Jim Sorgi might feel he’s the least welcome player at Super Bowl XLI. “I’m the guy nobody wants to see play,” he joked this week.
University of Wisconsin end defensive end Jamal Cooper, who last season struggled in the classroom and on the field as he attempted to bounce back from a serious knee injury, has been dismissed from the team by coach Bret Bielema, according to sources.
MIAMI ââ?¬â? No one has a better understanding or is more accepting of his role on the Indianapolis Colts than backup quarterback Jim Sorgi.
“I’m the guy nobody wants to see play,” he said.
That’s not entirely true.
The Chicago Bears, their fans and anyone who has placed a bet on the Bears to win Super Bowl XLI would love to see Sorgi get on the field Sunday at Dolphin Stadium. That would mean something was seriously wrong with all-everything quarterback Peyton Manning and would put the Colts’ fate in the hands of someone who hasn’t taken a snap all season.
Madison is the third healthiest city in America for men, according to a recent study by Men�s Health magazine.
George Twigg, the mayor�s spokesperson, said the article comes as no surprise because the city offers numerous ways to stay in shape. He pointed to Mayor Dave Cieslewicz�s website, which lists his top priorities: healthy environment, healthy neighborhoods, healthy economy and healthy citizenry.
With interest at an all-time high and its future looking bright, University of Wisconsin football has never been a hotter ticket.
John Jentz, UW associate athletic director for finance, figures fans would probably pay $50 per game, maybe more. He just doesn’t think they ought to pay that kind of money.
However, the athletic department is planning a $4 per-game hike in football season tickets for the 2007 season, a request outlined Tuesday during a presentation to the UW Athletic Board Finance Committee.
The University of Wisconsin Athletic Board Finance Committee proposed raising season football ticket prices for 2007 Tuesday.
I am looking for someone with an interest in UW football and an appreciation of Super Bowl history. Having a good computer and too much time on your hands wouldn’t hurt, either….
I called the UW athletic department Monday and asked someone in communications if they had a record of all the former Badgers who had played in the Super Bowl, and how their teams fared. They promised to get back to me on it, but I’m still waiting.
The University of Wisconsin Athletic Department is seeking a price hike for football season tickets for 2007, but it likely will stop short of any other increases.
However, because the UW men’s basketball team is scheduled to host the America’s Youth Classic next season – a three-day, four-team, round- robin tournament – fans will be asked to pay extra for that event.
Although University of Wisconsin officials appear poised to raise season-ticket prices for football for the second time in three seasons, the increase discussed Tuesday would still leave UW with only the seventh-highest price among Big Ten Conference schools.
There was a time not that long ago when the approach to marketing and promoting University of Wisconsin sports wobbled between the surreal and the simplistic.
WISCONSIN SPORTS fans have a couple of reasons to salute Rick Reilly this month.
First is the celebrated Sports Illustrated columnist’s early valentine to UW basketball coach Bo Ryan, whom Reilly calls “my new favorite coach” in the Jan. 29 issue of SI.
Reilly on Ryan: “I swear, you’ve never met anyone like him. He could talk the freckles off Opie. He once persuaded an engaged woman into calling off her wedding and marrying him instead. Thirty-two years later she’s still convinced. And he can flat coach. With his patented Swing offense and his obsession with detail, he could win 20 games a year with five large parking meters. He’s the most unheralded winning machine in the country and headmaster of the No. 2-ranked Badgers.”
Endeavors like Sunday’s “Raise the Roof” campaign at the Kohl Center aren’t without an inherent risk – namely, falling flat on your face in front of first-time witnesses who might never come back if they don’t like what they see.
Like five years ago, for example, when the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball program was successfully able to “Cram the Kohl,” then didn’t fulfill its end of the bargain once it came time to actually play the game….
There were several big winners here Sunday, including Gilda’s Club of Madison, which collected over $10,000 in donations, including a check from Stone for $4,285.50. Plus, it was another landmark day for women’s basketball.
If this public display of affection between the national sports media and the University of Wisconsin gets any more enthusiastic, they’re going to need to get a room.First a lingering hug from Sports Illustrated. Then a long, furtive gaze from Jim Rome. Then kissy-face with all that is ESPN. Put them on the same rec room sofa and you have a canoodle-a-thon that begs for a dimmer switch and a chaperon.
