Deandre Buchanan, once a highly rated Verona High School athlete and a teammate of basketball players Devin Harris and Mike Wilkinson at UW-Madison, was being held on $500,000 bail Tuesday after appearing in a North Dakota court on charges of murder.
One of the biggest risks inherent with climbing to the top of the flagpole is that everyone tends to focus on the make and model of your underwear.
So it goes for the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department, whose brief of choice, by the way, is whitey tighty.
In her first three years as women’s basketball coach at UW-Madison, Lisa Stone’s teams were on national television three times.
That number should go up substantially in future years, following the announcement Wednesday of the creation of the Big Ten Conference’s own national television network, which will greatly increase the exposure for sports and athletes outside the mainstream of football and men’s basketball.
A national cable and satellite channel and new 10-year agreements with ABC Sports and ESPN will dramatically increase the visibility of the Big Ten Conference on television and the Internet, conference and network officials said Wednesday.
It’s a big venture for the Big Ten and they’ve got big ideas.
Right now you get to see some Badger sports on ESPN and ABC – that won’t change. But soon, an entire 24 hour channel will be devoted to the Big Ten.
The Big Ten Conference announced on Wednesday that it plans to start its own cable-television network next year. The league also announced a new 10-year agreement with ABC and ESPN to continue televising many of its marquee football and men’s basketball games, including the annual Ohio State-Michigan football rivalry.
The Big Ten will announce Wednesday that it is about to enter into the television business, forming its own network that will launch in 2007.
Sources said the conference also will announce the ABC/ESPN family will remain the exclusive carrier of some of its signature events. The current deal, set to expire in June 2007, is said to be worth up to $50 million per year.
MADISON – Sometimes making University of Wisconsin tickets available to elected officials is perfectly legal. Other times it’s not.
The state Ethics Board is working on guidelines to help elected officials and others know the difference.
One semester after academic problems rocked the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball program, it posted the highest grade-point average of any men’s team on campus.
The Badgers’ 14 players combined for a GPA of slightly more than 3.2. Ten players had a GPA higher than 3.0. One had a perfect 4.0, UW coach Bo Ryan said.
Former Verona High School and University of Wisconsin player Deandre Buchanan is facing a murder charge in Fargo, N.D.
The Badger women’s soccer team did not leave empty-handed on its trip to Germany.
Thanks to County Board Chair Scott McDonell, they took a quilt made by Sue Rieser and Catherine Hixon of the Fern Hill Friends quilting club to present to Minister President Roland Koch, the equivalent of a governor of Hessen (Wisconsin’s sister state). And the brought framed photographs by Zane Williams for area mayors.
A former basketball player at Verona High School and with the University of Wisconsin Badgers is facing murder charges in Fargo, N.D.
Deandre Buchanan, 22, waived extradition Monday in Moorhead, Minn., and was returned to the Cass County jail in Fargo.
Buchanan, who played basketball at Minnesota State-Moorhead after transferring from the UW, was scheduled to make his initial court appearance today.
You could make a case that we’ve just completed the most eventful 12 months in the history of the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department.
For decades, the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department has compiled and distributed media guides for its various sports.
For decades, the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department has compiled and distributed media guides for its various sports.
They began humbly – booklets of single-spaced typed paper, stapled together without pictures, filled with basic data about coaches, players and program history – and evolved into slick, voluminous, colorful publications that were as promotional as informational.
The evolution will continue in 2006-07 when a new format is unveiled for Badgers-oriented publications. Justin Doherty, the assistant athletic director for communications, said the look and content will cater more toward recruits than the media.
Bret Bielema, UW-Madison football coach: “There are two things I’m so thankful that my father taught me – and he did it without me knowing that’s what he was doing. Fridays nights I’d play football with the team and they’d be talking about what they were doing the next day … going to the mall or whatever. Every Saturday we’d get up and do chores at 6 a.m. until they were done, around 1 or 2 in the afternoon. (He grew up on a pig farm.) I thought it was a way of life. It taught me discipline.
Bo Ryan pointed to a number of factors that led to the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team earning the highest overall grade-point average of all the men’s teams at the school this spring.
“If one thing here is emphasized more than another, it wouldn’t be right,” said the Wisconsin coach. ” It was a combination of everything.”
What mattered to Ryan is that the Badgers, who had a cumulative GPA of 3.2, made a remarkable turnaround after three players stumbled during the fall semester and were ruled academically ineligible to play in the spring semester.
A year ago, University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez told men’s hockey coach Mike Eaves that if the program continued to improve, his salary would take another jump, too.
Alvarez was good to his word – Eaves and women’s hockey coach Mark Johnson are about to be compensated for leading their teams to twin national titles this spring in their fourth seasons at the helm.
Curious was the word. During his 16 seasons on the University of Wisconsin sidelines, Barry Alvarez was understandably curious about the way college football television analysts went about their business. Alvarez was curious, at times, to the extent that he wondered how much homework or preparation went into the production, and how much thought went into the analysis.
….Two weeks ago, Alvarez traveled to New York City and auditioned for Fox and he’s now waiting to hear back from the network on a contract.
Dear Editor: The UW athletic department’s season ticket promotion shakedown brings the ethos of the national culture of corruption to the living rooms of Madison.
It used to be understood, even by the smallest mom-and-pop proprietors, that above all else in your own hometown you need to cultivate the good will of the local people (your customers) in order for your business or enterprise to prosper. Now, one of the biggest and most prominent institutions in the area reveals that it feels entitled to manipulate and distort self-serving impressions it distributes in the name of promotion.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The University of Wisconsin men’s track team is certainly enjoying the view from the top after the first two days of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Championships here.
After the completion of three events, the Badgers are tied with the three-time defending outdoor champion Arkansas Razorbacks for first place in the men’s team standings. However, the UW has just three athletes competing in the final two days.
MILWAUKEE – University of Wisconsin regents are upset that a contractor and the state failed to meet their goal for minority business participation in the Camp Randall Stadium renovation.
The state’s goal was for the contractor, Cullen-Smith LLC, to subcontract 10 percent of the subcontracting to firms owned by people of color.
But it only reached 5.1 percent on the original project, according to information supplied by the state Department of Administration. The project had four cost overruns.
The University of Wisconsin athletic department did the right thing by giving back the $500 to the fellow from Milwaukee who thought he was going to get a chance to buy season football tickets with his donation to the department’s Badger Fund.
As sports columnist Todd Finkelmeyer reported in The Capital Times Monday, Bill Meunier, who works as an assistant for a Milwaukee nonprofit, scrimped and saved to put together the Badger Fund donation because he heard ads on the radio that to him, at least, implied that if he forked over $500 he’d be eligible to purchase a season ticket.
Every sports entity has its hallowed marks on the wall and the University of Wisconsin is no different. I took the liberty of putting together a list of the greatest standards based on a mix of their longevity, notoriety and whether they can be broken in my lifetime.
I understand perfectly why Bill Meunier got on his soapbox and raised his voice against the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department this week.I understand perfectly why Meunier got so much mileage out of his tale of woe, which made the front page in Madison, was the hot topic on radio talk shows in his hometown of Milwaukee and generated a buzz in cyberspace.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Suzy Favor Hamilton insists she carries no bitterness, but wonders how many races she lost because her leading rival was aided by performance-enhancing drugs.
Favor Hamilton, who turns 38 next month, spoke to reporters Wednesday at the opening of the NCAA track and field meet, where the former Wisconsin running star was honored as one of two outstanding student-athletes on the 25th anniversary of the women’s championships.
Dear Editor: I’m a huge Badger sports fan, stuck in North Carolina, and a UW alumnus. I bought student season tickets every football season for six years (as an undergrad and graduate student).
Does the athletic department realize how pathetic it is, with the huge amounts of revenue they’ve enjoyed in recent years, that they feel they have to resort to “bait and switch” tactics to collect “fees” for a chance to purchase season tickets?! I’m not satisfied with senior associate athletic director Vince Sweeney’s defense of this practice, as referenced in Monday’s article.
Dear Editor: I’m in the same boat as Bill Meunier, the subject of your article about the UW’s Badger Fund. I made a $500 donation for the first time this year, knowing that I’d have to contribute for several years before I’d probably get tickets.
Unless we’re talking 1971 or 1974, the NBA Finals typically do not rise to the Green Bay-backup-tackle level of interest around here.
Except now.
This time, it’s Dwyane Wade, among the all-time Marquette greats, against Devin Harris, among the elite high school players in area history. One of the NBA’s most dynamic talents against one of the league’s genuine fast-trackers.
DURHAM, N.C., June 5 ââ?¬â? After two months in limbo, the Duke University men’s lacrosse team was given a second chance Monday.
The Duke president, Richard H. Brodhead, who in April canceled the team’s season after a woman accused three players of rape, said the men’s lacrosse team would be reinstated, with strict stipulations.
Former Badger Booker Stanley is in jail after violating a court order not to drink.
Stanley was in Dane County court Wednesday for a bail-bond hearing.
RACINE – Former University of Wisconsin football star Brent Moss could face felony theft charges for allegedly cashing a check that belonged to his former employer.
When University of Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez said in a recent television interview that he hopes UW can revive its baseball program someday, Joe Armentrout was like many baseball fans in the Madison area.
For more than a year, University of Wisconsin Athletic Department officials have readily outlined a lineup of future capital projects.Routinely listed at the top were three undertakings: a new natatorium for men’s and women’s swimming, a practice facility for men’s hockey and a banked indoor track for men’s and women’s track.
Sometimes the most telling analysis can come from someone on the outside looking in, and so it goes with the reluctant legend and his dynasty in our midst.
Thomas Brunold couldn’t have come up with a better formula for the Mad City Marathon himself.
“It’s one of my top two events,” said Brunold, a 37-year-old assistant chemistry professor at the University of Wisconsin. “It’s perfect.”
When Steve Schmitt bought the Mallards, it was the same year the NCAA placed UW-Madison’s Athletic Department on probation for five years and reduced scholarships for football and men’s basketball after a shoe-discount scandal at his store.
Nearly a dozen colleges are investigating alleged hazing incidents in their sports programs after a Web site published photographs of college athletes posing in sexually suggestive positionsÃ? ââ?¬â? and showing one woman who appeared to be passed out drunk while a teammate wrote on her face.
MADISON, Wis. — More trouble for former Badgers running back Booker Stanley.Stanley is in jail after allegedly consuming alcohol ââ?¬â?? a violation of his bail.
After U.S. Bank declined to sponsor a University of Wisconsin System sports conference, university officials pushed a U.S. Bank vice president to reconsider the matter, noting the hefty UW work the bank enjoys.
UW officials also explored pulling the conference’s business from U.S. Bank before a state contract administrator rebuffed them, state records show.
Former University of Wisconsin tailback Booker Stanley is back in jail.
Stanley, who faces three felony charges and several misdemeanor charges stemming from two incidents in the past 13 months, violated one of the conditions of his bail when he recently consumed alcohol.
Accolades and old football war stories about the Barry Alvarez years were the order of the night Wednesday as about 200 people gathered at the Milwaukee Athletic Club to honor Alvarez for his years of coaching and service to UW. Alvarez, UW’s athletic director, retired as football coach Jan. 2 after his Badgers defeated Auburn, 24-10.
Mark Guthrie, the king of NCAA Division III track and field, is moving to a new, bigger and higher profile kingdom.
In a move that seemed to catch many by surprise, UW-La Crosse�s Guthrie is leaving his position as head Eagles track and field coach after 19 years and 21 national championships to become an assistant on University of Wisconsin coach Ed Nuttycombe�s staff.
EARLIER THIS year, in conjunction with its 100th anniversary, the NCAA released a list of the 100 Most Influential NCAA Student Athletes of all time.
The athletes were chosen by a special panel that included college presidents, athletic directors, faculty representatives, student athletes and conference representatives.
The list was intended to honor those student athletes who have significantly impacted or made enduring contributions to society.
When the University of Wisconsin Athletic Board approved a plan to revoke the season tickets of unruly patrons, among the five voting against it earlier this month were its student members.
There was a time when University of Wisconsin coaches would tell you their biggest fear was getting that middle-of-the-night telephone call, the one all but guaranteed to have bad news coming from the other end. Somebody got arrested. Somebody is in detox. Somebody is in the emergency room.
That universally dreaded 3 a.m. wakeup call now has some company.
Have you seen that stuff on the Internet, coach?
Somewhere out there, graduates of UNLV and Miami and Colorado must be having a good laugh. But even in their moments of delight over the troubles of the ââ?¬Å?good guys,ââ?¬Â they have to realize this really isn’t funny. In fact, it’s one of the great wake-up calls in college athletics. When things go bad at Duke and Northwestern at the same time, you can be sure they are going bad on almost every college campus in the nation.
Commentary By Christine Brennan
If you’re not watching Dallas’ Devin Harris and San Antonio’s Michael Finley square off in the NBA playoffs, you’re missing a good show – and a rare opportunity
Charles Nuttycombe closely monitored last weekend’s Big Ten outdoor track and field championships on the Internet. While doing so, the 76-year-old Nuttycombe anticipated nearly every strategic move before it was actually executed by his son.
“My mother said he was exhausted by the end of the meet,” said Ed Nuttycombe, the University of Wisconsin head coach. “The old apple didn’t fall far from the tree,” son fils proudly conceded. “He told me why I did what I did before I told him what I did. And he was right on – 100 percent.”
EVANSTON, Ill., May 15 ââ?¬â? Northwestern suspended its women’s soccer team Monday in response to photographs of a hazing incident that were posted on a Web site.
TIME WILL tell whether Damian Novak, a UW-Madison electrical engineering graduate, now living in the Twin Cities, has come up with an idea that will make him revered among golfers.
Novak’s idea, which I will explain in more detail momentarily, makes it easier and more affordable for golfers to try new equipment. Golf being what it is, that can be both a good and a bad thing.
First let me say that it always makes me proud when a UW-Madison graduate goes out into the world and invents a better mousetrap. It’s nice for the campus to be recognized for something other than being the top party school in the country.
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Another Big Ten Conference meet.
Another victory for the University of Wisconsin men’s track and field team.
The Badgers secured their third straight Big Ten Conference Outdoor Championship Sunday, and in the process completed their third consecutive Big Ten “Triple Crown” – winning league titles in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track during the same academic year.
Mike Eaves and Mark Johnson’s hockey playing and coaching careers have been intertwined for almost three decades, and this spring the two close friends got to share a very unique experience ââ?¬â? helping their alma mater, the University of Wisconsin, make college hockey history.
Barry Alvarez won’t be on the field this year as football coach, focusing instead on his role as athletic director at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Dear Editor: ….The UW policy preventing its athletic teams from playing an out-of-conference school with a nickname offensive to American Indians provides true leadership, moving our nation toward eliminating an embarrassing form of discrimination from our most important educational institutions.
Contrary to the party line, the vote-of-lukewarm-confidence given Lisa Stone by the UW Athletic Board on Friday is indeed a significant development in the women’s basketball program.
From this vantage point, it triggered flashbacks to the short-sighted approach taken a few years ago by administrators, whose public humiliation of Stone’s predecessor tore away the last vestiges of a once-promising program and played a sizable role in the mess Stone inherited three years ago.
This is far from an endorsement of Stone, who to date has failed to prove that the approach that made her one of the winningest coaches in Division III history is adaptable in the Big Ten….
I don’t know if University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema is naive, angling for public affection or just trying to create separation from a legendary predecessor
Former University of Wisconsin runner Matt Tegenkamp and current Badger Chris Solinsky each made history Saturday night, becoming the first people to run a sub-4-minute mile on state soil.
The University of Wisconsin Athletic Board overhauled Friday the much-maligned student-athlete discipline policy, which even board chairman Walter Dickey referred to as an “unmitigated disaster.”
The revised policy, which was unanimously approved and will go into effect immediately, attempts to do a better job at fact finding for each case.
University of Wisconsin senior associate athletic director Vince Sweeney expressed confidence Friday in women’s basketball coach Lisa Stone.
