Category: Athletics

The Dane County Circuit Court dropped felony charges of substantial battery against University of Wisconsin cross-country runner Bobby Lockhart Thursday.

Shari’ Welton will not return to the University of Wisconsin women’s basketball team.

Welton, a 5-foot-11 guard from Calumet City, Ill., who just completed her sophomore season, said she requested a release from her scholarship on Wednesday and intends to transfer to another Division I program.

Mark Johnson knows better than anyone associated with the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey program the unbridled joy of winning a championship.

Johnson led UW to the NCAA Division I men’s title as a freshman in 1976-’77 and helped the U.S. to the gold medal at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y.

To the casual observer, they were just a couple of guys having coffee and a conversation at a University Avenue eatery early this week.For more than an hour, the two 40-somethings sat and talked about their jobs, families and the busy, exciting week ahead. They compared notes and shared ideas. When they got up and left, they parted not just as co-workers, but longtime friends.

Madison will remain a Mecca for triathletes through at least 2011.

City officials and representatives with Ironman North America today were scheduled to announce a five-year extension on the contract that has brought the grueling Ironman Wisconsin to Madison for four years. The original contract runs out after this year’s event on Sunday, Sept. 10.

When University of Wisconsin football fans walk into Camp Randall Stadium from Breese Terrace next season, they will be welcomed by something they have not experienced in recent years: space.

Nothing is guaranteed, not even a victory over 16th-seeded Bemidji State.

Yet the University of Wisconsin’s path to the sixth NCAA men’s hockey title in program history could not have been designed more conveniently than it was Sunday for Mike Eaves’ team.

As expected, the Badgers (26-10-3) were awarded the No. 1 overall seeding in the 16-team field. The clincher was the Badgers’ 4-0 victory over top-ranked Minnesota in the third-place game of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs Saturday in St. Paul, Minn.

Next season for the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team really started during the final minutes of its season-ending loss to Arizona on Friday.

The March Madness of college basketball is here, and — get ready — you should be rooting for the Duke Blue Devils.

OK, maybe that’s taking “madness” a little too far. Thanks to coach Mike Krzyzewski’s self-promoting American Express ads, the Cameron Crazies’ made-for-TV antics and endless Blue Devil worship by the college basketball media, Duke really seems to deserve America’s hate.

The irony of the NCAA tournament assignment for the University of Wisconsin women’s hockey team is perhaps fitting.

After staking their claim as one of the giants of the game by winning their first Western Collegiate Hockey Association championship on Sunday, the third-ranked Badgers (33-4-1) drew as their first-round NCAA opponent a Mercyhurst team regarded as a potential giant-killer.

Adam Burish and the other four seniors on the University of Wisconsin men’s hockey team shared a last moment together on the Kohl Center ice Saturday night. There was some sentimentality in the group as they raised their sticks to the fans and glanced around, tears in some eyes, while standing in the center circle.

It quickly faded. When you’ve got one of the elite college hockey competitions ahead, there’s no time for nostalgia.

Bo Ryan got his wish when those who put together the NCAA tournament decided to send the Wisconsin men’s basketball team to Philadelphia for Friday’s first-round game against Arizona.

It means that Ryan, a native of Chester, Pa., a Philadelphia suburb, is going to take his team home so many of his old friends and family can watch the Badgers play their most important game of the season.

The University of Wisconsin scored three times on the power play, Meghan Horras stopped 28 shots and the Badgers beat Minnesota, 4-1, on Sunday in the WCHA Women’s Championship game in Minneapolis.
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The victory gives third-ranked UW (33-4-1) an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament quarterfinals.

Of the eight potential first- and second-round NCAA tournament destinations, one glowed with ultimate appeal to University of Wisconsin men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan.

For those who believe in omens, what happened Sunday could be a sign that the University of Wisconsin’s fortunes are about to change for the better.

The Badgers, who played three of their final four regular-season games on the road and faced Indiana at the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis, received a bid to play Arizona in the first round of the NCAA tournament 11:30 a.m. Friday at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia. Wisconsin is seeded ninth, and Arizona eighth.

The preliminary hearing for former University of Wisconsin running back Booker Stanley was postponed Thursday afternoon, the second time in less than three weeks the hearing has been delayed.

This time the Dane County District Attorney’s office requested a new hearing date, because the alleged victim in the case is out of the state until Sunday. Although a new date was not immediately set, the hearing should be held within the next two weeks.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association released a report last week revealing 99 Division-I teams from 65 colleges will lose scholarships because of poor academic performance.

As the most proven commodity on a mostly unproven University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team, Alando Tucker had lofty expectations placed on him this season.

Antonio Freeman and Jameson Davis, reserve defensive backs for the University of Wisconsin football team, have pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges stemming from a traffic stop last month.

The bar was set high for Alando Tucker this season yet the University of Wisconsin junior cleared it with ease.

The 6-foot-6 forward led the Big Ten in scoring at 20 points per game and was the primary reason the Badgers remained in contention for a conference title until the final week of the regular season. Twelve times he led the team in scoring during conference play and he averaged a team-high 6.2 rebounds per game.

Tuesday, he claimed his rightful spot among the league’s best players, earning consensus first-team recognition on the Big Ten all-conference team.

The University of Wisconsin landed a trio of players on the All-Big Ten Conference men’s basketball team announced this morning, with Alando Tucker chosen as the lone underclassman on the first team by both the coaches and media.

Tucker, a 6-foot-6 junior forward, also was considered a candidate for Big Ten player of the year, but Ohio State senior forward Terence Dials was a consensus choice for the award.

Kammron Taylor, the Badgers’ 6-2 junior point guard, was an honorable mention selection on the media and coaches’ teams.
Joe Krabbenhoft, a 6-7, 215-pound forward for UW, was named to the all-freshman team as selected by the coaches.

Another USC athletics official is moving out of the Roundhouse.

Shawn Eichorst, a senior associate athletics director, has accepted the same position at Wisconsin, Badgers athletics director Barry Alvarez announced Monday.

Due to the recent suspensions of three Wisconsin athletes, the UW-Madison Athletic Department is taking another look at the effectiveness of its student-athlete discipline policy.
Responding to calls for review from those within its ranks, especially from Walter Dickey, the chair of the Athletic Board, the Athletic Department began an inquiry into possible improvements to the appeals process.

The preliminary hearing for former University of Wisconsin running back Booker Stanley has been rescheduled for Thursday, according to court records.

Stanley, a former standout at Whitefish Bay High School, last appeared in Dane County Circuit Court on Feb. 21. His attorney already had informed the Dane Country District Attorney’s office that Stanley had decided to waive his right to a preliminary hearing.

However, Stanley changed his mind and requested a hearing, which is his legal right.

A total of 99 teams at 65 member schools didn’t make the grade under NCAA academic measures released on Wednesday.

No Wisconsin university in Division I lost a scholarship for poor academic performance.

MADISON, Wis. – All 23 of the UW-Madisonââ?¬â?¢s intercollegiate athletic teams successfully satisfied the requirements of the NCAA Division I 2004-05 Academic Progress Rate (APR) Report or were within the confidence interval established by that report, which was made available on Wednesday.

Wisconsin’s four major college athletic departments received passing grades under a new NCAA initiative that threatens to take scholarships away from teams that don’t perform up to academic standards.

The scene off the basketball court was unforgettable, if only for how absurd it was.

On the court, there was Dick Bennett, coaching the University of Wisconsin in the 2000 Final Four at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis. His unheralded team was hanging with Michigan State, perhaps the only team in the tournament it couldn’t beat. The halftime score was 19-17, Michigan State’s lead.

ASHWAUBENON � It appears likely the University of Wisconsin hockey team will be back in the Green Bay area later this month.

After playing Ohio State at Lambeau Field on Feb. 11 in front of 40,890, the Badgers likely will be playing in the NCAA Division I Midwest Regional on March 25 and 26 at the Resch Center, which has a hockey capacity of 8,709.

A couple items to ponder while practicing your figure skating routine on the Vilas Park lagoon …

Anyone else surprised the UW athletic department had to scramble a bit over the past month to make ends meet?

In the end, officials found a way to close a nearly $1.4 million gap between projected revenues and the $78.3 million spending authority request that was finally approved Friday for fiscal year 2006-07.

(Article appeared in 2/25/06 Capital Times)

Wisconsin freshman tailback P.J. Hill, originally charged with disorderly conduct while armed for his alleged role in an incident outside a UW dormitory last month, has seen that charge reduced to disorderly conduct, according to University of Wisconsin Police.

At first glance, you might be concerned the University of Wisconsin committed 19 secondary violations of NCAA rules in the past seven months.
The list of self-reported violations come from nine sports, including four by football and two each by men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s hockey, men’s track and women’s track.

MADISON, Wis. – Two Wisconsin football players – defensive back Jameson Davis and fullback P.J. Hill – have had their suspensions overturned and will be able to return to practice and competition, a university official announced Friday.

(Alando Tucker) knows his high academic and basketball IQs, his incredible abilities on the basketball court, his gregarious nature that makes him so popular with his teammates, classmates, coaches and reporters who talk to him all were developed through his close relationships with members of his family.

… it explains why Tucker will shut out any outside voices that might try to convince him into making himself eligible for next June’s NBA draft. He made it clear his only focus is on playing for Wisconsin this year and next year, too.

“People talk. But I’m enjoying myself here,” Tucker said. “Everything I’m going through I’m enjoying. I’m not looking for anything but finishing this season off strong and coming back next year. That’s all that’s on my mind.”

Officials with Republican Scott Walker’s campaign for Governor dropped plans to host political donors in a Kohl Center luxury suite during a Wisconsin men’s basketball game after 27 News asked who was sponsoring the fundraising event.

“We did not use the suite for the event,” campaign manager Bruce Pfaff told 27 News.

“It was an internal campaign decision,” Pfaff said.

Embattled UW-Madison senior and former running back for the UW football team Booker Stanley appeared in court Tuesday, but his preliminary hearing was postponed and will be rescheduled to leave within the next three weeks.

Former University of Wisconsin running back Booker Stanley will have to wait longer to hear the fate of his pending criminal charges as the Dane County court postponed his preliminary hearing until a later date.

The University of Wisconsin Athletic Board Finance Committee unanimously approved a $78.3 million dollar spending authority for the 2006-07 fiscal year at its Tuesday meeting. The proposed budget will now go to the full Athletic Board on Friday for final approval.

The Athletic Department covered a $1.4 million gap from a month ago, cutting more than $700,000 in proposed capital expenditures and projecting an additional $600,000 in revenues due to new courtside seating at the Kohl Center and expanded catering and concessions operations.

….The Finance Committee also unanimously approved a $2 increase in all men’s basketball tickets, which will go to the full Board for approval on Friday.

If Jack Nicholson or Spike Lee ever become Badgers fans, they could find a familiar seat waiting for them at the Kohl Center as early as next season.

Tucked into the Univeristy of Wisconsin Athletic Department’s projected operating budget for 2006-07 is the creation of courtside seating, which will undoubtedly become the hottest ticket in town.

The UW expects to rake in $300,000 from the sale of the new seats, which will be along the sideline opposite the teams’ benches.

University of Wisconsin men’s basketball fans will be able to get closer to the action next season – if they can afford it.
The UW Athletic Department is going ahead with plans for courtside seating at men’s basketball games, which is expected to raise an additional $300,000.

The Finance Committee of the University of Wisconsin Athletic Board on Tuesday approved a $70.4 million budget for 2006-’07 that includes a positive net margin of slightly more than $100,000, thanks largely to an increase in the cost of men’s basketball tickets and the inclusion of new “courtside” seating at the Kohl Center.

The full athletic board is scheduled to vote Friday on the $70,416,600 budget for UW athletics.

The preliminary hearing for former University of Wisconsin tailback Booker Stanley, originally set for Tuesday morning, is being rescheduled and likely will be held sometime in the next three weeks.

Stanley, 22, appeared Tuesday in Dane County Circuit Court. However, his attorney informed the court that Stanley, who originally decided to waive his right to a preliminary hearing, had changed his mind.

Randall McCray had been on the job for two weeks and had already begun making contacts and writing letters to high school football coaches in the Houston area in his new assignment as the recruiting coordinator at Rice University.

Bret Bielema needed less than a week to fill an unexpected opening and finalize his first coaching staff at Wisconsin.

Randall McCray, 36, was named UW’s defensive line coach Monday. He replaces Earl Lane, who left South Florida to join UW’s staff but last week took a job as LSU’s defensive line coach.