Category: Athletics

What for thousands of festive Badgers fans was a gigantic “Final Four Tailgate and Pep Rally” doubled as an ultimate family reunion for dozens of former University of Wisconsin basketball players from multiple generations.

The composed, resilient, never-say-die Badgers outscored the supposedly unbeatable Wildcats, 15-4, over the last 4 1/2 minutes and won, 71-64, in the NCAA Tournament semifinals at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday night.

Scott Logdon is a tried-and-true, blue-bleeding University of Kentucky basketball fan. He doesn’t think there’s much chance UK could lose to the University of Wisconsin in their Final Four matchup Saturday night, but in that unlikely event, he would go ahead and cheer for Wisconsin in the NCAA men’s championship game Monday night.

Frank Kaminsky, star center for the University of Wisconsin basketball team, sat on a dais with four of his teammates before last year’s Elite Eight matchup with Arizona and fielded questions from the news media.

For coaches up and down the UW athletic department, Bo Ryan is a constant source of information. And his ring of influence extends well beyond longtime friends and colleagues such as football coach Paul Chryst and men’s hockey coach Mike Eaves.

INDIANAPOLIS — Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski was talking Thursday afternoon about his team’s November game in the Champions Classic against Michigan State, the Blue Devils’ opponent on Saturday night in the first game of the Final Four. Amid the usual cliches about how much Tom Izzo’s team has improved and how wonderful the annual made-for-TV extravaganza has been for the four schools involved, he suddenly paused when a realization hit him.

INDIANAPOLIS — Shortly after midnight, Traevon Jackson sat in a Wisconsin locker room that was neither euphoric nor delirious but rather filled with a calm. Less than an hour earlier, the Badgers had ended Kentucky’s 38-game winning streak and avenged a heartbreaking loss to the Wildcats in a national semifinal last year.

INDIANAPOLIS — On Monday night, Wisconsin will face a team with at least eight former McDonald’s all-Americans for the second consecutive game.

Bruce Haroldson works for Connor Sports, whose workers fabricated the floor in its factory about 25 miles north of the state line in the Upper Peninsula. He’s not the only one taking pride in the product.

Kaminsky, who had scholarship offers from UW, DePaul, Northwestern, Bradley, Northern Illinois and Southern Illinois, on Friday morning won the Oscar Robertson Trophy as the college basketball player of the year. The award is voted on by the United States Basketball Writers Association. Kaminsky is expected to be named The Associated Press player of the year later Friday

When the Badgers 35-3 face Kentucky 38-0 for the second consecutive season in the Final Four — the teams meet on Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium — it’ll be a shot at redemption for Kaminsky.

A pilot program initiated this year by the NCAA that allots a travel stipend of $3,000 to the family of each player in the men’s and women’s Final Four, with another $1,000 for those who advance to the championship game.

The UW Athletic Department says 5,130 people attended the pep rally held at the Kohl Center. Fans lined up outside of the building as early as 3 p.m. to get a seat.

Hawaii will still travel to Madison for a game on Sept, 17, 2022, but the Badgers’ trip to Honolulu has been pushed back three years and is now scheduled for Aug. 31, 2024, according to the Warriors’ athletic website.

Ryan has changed a lot of people’s opinions since he was hired on March 29, 2001.

As much as he tries to keep the snapshot in storage — under lock and key so no one can find it — Wisconsin guard Josh Gasser occasionally recalls Kentucky’s final shot against the Badgers in the 2014 national semifinals.

The pain of defeat was obvious in Nigel Hayes eyes, his body language and his words.

Early today, the National Association of Basketball Coaches facilitated a conference call between the four coaches playing this week in the 2015 NCAA Men’s Final Four in Indianapolis to discuss concerns expressed regarding the Indiana Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

They are traveling en masse from the Dairy State — it’s not that far of a drive — so you’d better have on hand plenty of cheese curds and butter burgers.

It will be a record-setting weekend in Indianapolis. Not only is this year’s Final Four jam-packed with on-the-court storylines, but ticket prices are also reaching historical highs on the secondary market. Add that to the relatively close proximity of each school and the biggest cumulative alumni class in at least the last five years, and you’ve got a recipe for one of the most anticipated NCAA Tournaments in recent memory.

Hundreds of people packed the Kohl Center in Madison to send the team off in style.

One of the Wisconsin campus bookstore’s best-selling Final Four-themed shirts no longer is available for purchase.

Demand and prices for Final Four tickets is soaring thanks to powerhouse teams making it to Indianapolis and the fact that three of the schools are within driving distance, according to SeatGeek.

Growing up in a small Indiana town in the 1940s and 50s, there were two extracurricular activities every boy aspired to participate in: basketball and band. During his time in high school, Mike Leckrone was in the varsity starting five and served as first trumpet in the band, often pulling double duties during games.

Morgan Greenlee, Senior Communications Manager at Visit Indy, said the city is expecting the Final Four to bring in about 70-thousand fans this weekend. She said many of them will likely be UW fans.

Some bad news for Michigan State and Wisconsin fans: Their respective Final Four foes, Duke and Kentucky, are getting hot at just the right time. In merchandise sales, that is.

All four universities participating in this weekend’s Final Four tournament have issued statements in response to Indiana’s new “Religious Freedom” law:

The University of Kentucky weighed in on Indiana’s controversial “religious freedom” law Tuesday, following the three other schools heading to Indianapolis this weekend for the NCAA Tournament’s Final Four games.

Wisconsin men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan did not win the national championship in his first trip to the Final Four. Neither did John Wooden, Al McGuire, Bobby Knight, Adolph Rupp or Phog Allen.

There are plenty of distractions to deal with during the week leading up to the Final Four, and University of Wisconsin men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan’s radar is on high alert to make sure the hoopla isn’t having an adverse effect on his team’s preparations.

Wisconsin teammates Sam Dekker and Frank Kaminsky weren’t waving green and white pom-poms but they noticed fellow Big Ten Conference member Michigan State secured a Final Four berth Sunday.

Wisconsin enters the Final Four boasting the most efficient offense in the country.

In which Moe reminisces about Badger b-ball glories.

Tickets to the men’s Final Four are never cheap, but this year theyre even more expensive because of demand by fans eager to cheer their teams in person, ticket brokers are reporting.

This year’s Final Four features one of the most accomplished coaching foursomes the NCAA Tournament has ever seen. When Kentucky’s John Calipari, Wisconsin’s Bo Ryan, Michigan State’s Tom Izzo and Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski converge Saturday in Indianapolis, they will bring with them some impressive numbers.

The script Bo Ryan’s players penned collectively so many months ago has reached the final chapter, just as they expected.

The senior center was named a unanimous first-team selection on the Associated Press All-America team. The AP Player of the Year will be announced later this week, as will the winners of the Wooden Award, Naismith Trophy and Oscar Robertson Trophy, and it’s possible it could be a clean sweep for Kaminsky on the award circuit.

Alando Tucker has a partner. Until Monday, Tucker was the only Wisconsin men’s basketball player named a first-team All-American by The Associated Press.

In light of Hayes’ vocabulary exercise at the NCAA tournament, a follow-up story about Madison Area Technical College stenography program.

NCAA president Mark Emmert said Monday the organization is “surprised and disappointed” about a new Indiana law that could allow businesses to discriminate against gays and lesbians, and that the NCAA is keeping a close eye on possible changes — if not a total repeal — before it is scheduled to go into effect in July.