Frank Kaminsky and Jahlil Okafor are as different as stories can be in college basketball. The two, however, have a lot in common — both are in the Final Four and both were the top selections on The Associated Press’ 2014-15 All-America team.
Fans are invited to help the Badgers celebrate their trip to the Final Four this week. The UW Athletic Department is planning a fan celebration at the Kohl Center on Wednesday to send off the team to Indianapolis.
The Badgers are in the Final Four for the second year in a row, where they will take on a familiar face in Kentucky. That win has a few fans excited for that upcoming battle in Indianapolis on Saturday– in fact, so excited that fans were lining up at the University Bookstore for fresh Final Four merchandise.
Badgers fans sitting on bus stops and climbing trees in celebration were common sights last year on State street. This year–as the Badgers prepare to take on Arizona again, local law enforcement is preparing for yet another big crowd.
Hundreds of University of Wisconsin men’s basketball fans packed into State Street taverns and turned March Madness up several notches Saturday night, ecstatic by their team returning to the NCAA men’s tournament’s Final Four next week.
A rematch with Kentucky in a national semifinal — the Badgers 35-3 and Wildcats 38-0 will meet Saturday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis — wouldn’t have been possible without a brilliant performance from Dekker during UW’s 85-78 victory over Arizona in the West regional final.
If you’re not a University of Wisconsin men’s basketball donor or season-ticket holder, UW doesn’t have a ticket for you for Saturday night’s NCAA Final Four semifinal rematch with Kentucky in Indianapolis.
The main college partying thoroughfare in downtown Madison was mobbed after the Badgers 85-78 victory Saturday over Arizona, which sent Wisconsin to the NCAA Final Four of March Madness.
(Gasser’s) defense on Arizona’s 3-point threat Gabe York he hit just two and forward Stanley Johnson and his grab of a baseball pass inbounds toss that glanced off York will be among a whole host of things others will remember from the Port Washington native’s work in another West regional final set in the hostile environment of Pac-12 Conference country.
For the second straight year, the Badgers are underdogs against Kentucky in the Final Four.
Arizona coach Sean Miller hasn’t faced unbeaten Kentucky this season.
So who will be good enough — and tough enough — to take down Bo Ryan’s basketball team?
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson sold out for the steal and got it, giving Arizona one last possession with 2.3 seconds left down one in overtime against Wisconsin in the Elite Eight last year. When the Wildcats couldnt get a shot off, his reaction was more visceral than that of anyone else wearing an Arizona uniform.
Chances are you’ve probably seen Badgers head coach Bo Ryan starring in an ad that’s been running heavily in the Midwest lately, but you may not know that three famed University of Wisconsin alums are behind it. Jessica Arp talks with Jim Abrahams and David Zucker about the ad featuring Bo.
Badger fans who gathered at Union South to watch Thursday night’s game against North Carolina rose to their feet and cheered as the final seconds ticked off the clock and Wisconsin punched its ticket to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament.
Junior forward Sam Dekker finished with a career-high 23 points and a season-high 10 rebounds, but he got plenty of help in the Badgers’ 79-72 victory over North Carolina in an NCAA tournament West regional semifinal on Thursday night at Staples Center.
The motto Bo Ryan’s players chose before the first game of the season was brief but telling:”Make ’em believe.”
The UW athletic department hosted a pep rally Wednesday night down the street from the Staples Center where the Badgers will play [North Carolina] in the NCAA Sweet 16 on Thursday.
Bronson Koenig and Marcus Paige faced the same dilemma as high school seniors: stay home to play basketball and instantly become a hero to the fans who followed you for years or leave and risk alienating your state supporters.
If we’re putting together a list of the most underpaid employees at the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department, mine would start in sports medicine where so many unsung do their thing.
Frank Kaminsky often goes by the moniker “Frank the Tank.” But on Tuesday, he got to meet the man who made the phrase famous in the first place. Kaminsky met actor Will Ferrell while he was in Los Angeles preparing for the NCAA West Regional final.
Former Wisconsin women’s basketball player Morgan Paige won’t be pulling for her alma mater on Thursday when Wisconsin faces North Carolina in the Sweet 16. That’s because Paige’s younger brother Marcus is the starting point guard for the Tar Heels.
Working in concert with athletic trainer Henry Perez-Guerra, (Eric) Helland leaves no stone unturned to get the Badgers ready for each practice and each game.
The consensus in the Wisconsin locker room after dispatching eighth-seeded Oregon and moving on to the Sweet 16 was that UW’s execution fell far short of the standards set by the staff and players.
When the University of Wisconsin basketball program recruited Bronson Koenig out of high school, the guard recalls hearing about one of the hallmarks that defined every Badgers practice: That the only sound that ever emanates from players is silence.
Badger fans had their chance to get some of the 1,250 tickets to Thursday’s game. But getting to Los Angeles isn’t cheap. But fans are hoping the Badgers will make it to the Final Four in Indianapolis.
The madness of March Madness will continue for Badgers fans as Wisconsin will take on North Carolina in LA this Thursday. Some hardcore fans may be planning to make their way West to watch, and it all starts with scoring tickets to the game.
Just a few minutes after his team had dispatched eighth-seeded Oregon to secure a berth in NCAA Tournament West Region semifinals, Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan was asked about the next opponent: North Carolina.
Zak Showalter knows the bench is viewed as Wisconsins Achilles heel.
The 13-year streak of simultaneous NCAA (men’s basketball) tournament and (football) bowl assignments for the Badgers is the longest current run of its kind among Division I programs.
With Omaha behind them, and Los Angeles ahead of them, the Badgers advance to the Sweet 16 after defeating the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers and the Oregon Ducks.
At first glance they seem like completely different streaks with separate rulebooks, mechanics and personnel.
Nigel Hayes, Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker went over to the NCAA stenographer after Friday night’s postgame presser, and were “genuinely fascinated by the process,” an ESPN article said.
Bo Ryan and Barry Alvarez are almost universally beloved, with their favorability being 76 percent and 71 percent respectively, according to the poll.
Susan Siman is in Omaha where she spoke to Mike Leckrone, the University of Wisconsin Marching Band director since 1969.
When the Badgers men’s basketball team isn’t playing they have to eat, get back and forth to the hotel, get to practice and be ready for anything, and that responsibility rests on the shoulders of 24-year-old Kat Vosters.
A Storify compilation of the tweets from Friday morning.
Whether they can navigate a loaded West Region to reach the Final Four and win a national championship remains unclear.
Kat Vosters grew up in Wisconsin, graduated from the University of Wisconsin, has been a Badgers fan since basically birth and even used to have a little Badgers cheerleading costume when she was a kid.
A bracket-style look at the relative academic progress and graduation rates of the 68 teams in the 2015 NCAA men’s basketball tournament provides a glimpse at how well schools are supporting their athletes in their pursuit of a college education off the basketball court.
The N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament started Thursday, but for most Americans the real action began days before, as they pored over brackets, competing to make the most accurate predictions — for money, or just office glory. These days, when statistical algorithms can figure out what breakfast cereal you want based on your browser history, stats-minded hoops fans have thrown lots of complex analysis at the problem of picking winners.
Wisconsin women’s hockey freshman Annie Pankowski was named the 2014-15 National Rookie of the Year, the Women’s Hockey Commissioners Association announced on Thursday night.
The University of Wisconsin men’s basketball program has built sustained success through an insistence on being fundamentally sound
Josh Cameron is from Racine, Wisconsin. While you may think he would go easy against his home state, think again. The senior says, “I’ve never been a Badger fan.”
The more you learn about football and brain injuries, the smarter Chris Borland looks.
Wisconsin senior guard Traevon Jackson will not play in UWs first game of the 2015 NCAA Tournament and has pushed back his expected return until the West Region semifinals, if top-seeded UW advances.
Josh Gasser recalls sitting at home, in the midst of a lengthy recovery from a gruesome knee injury, watching several friends in their final college basketball game as Wisconsin went one-and-done in the 2013 NCAA Tournament.
The best regular season ever for the Wisconsin mens basketball team came with the highest number of fans in the seats in recent years.
LISLE, Ill. — A faded school crest overlooks the A-frame Catholic school gymnasium where exposed metallic heating ducts and off-white bricks run the length of the basketball floor below.
Coastal Carolina is a small liberal arts college with just 8,800 students, but for the second time in two years they’re in the big dance. What are the odds of meeting someone in Madison who went to both schools? Susan Siman found one in Grainger Hall.
Susan Siman meets the head of a UW alumni group in Omaha as the team arrives to play in the NCAA tournament.
Borland’s announcement that he was leaving the game after one very successful season playing professional football could have a profound impact if we look at is an example of a young man making an educated, principled decision about his life and his future.
Coach Bo Ryan and his team are on their way to Omaha. They headed out around 2 p.m., taking a bus to Dane County Regional Airport, where they’d take a chartered flight to Nebraska.
The news of Chris Borland’s retirement from the NFL after playing just one year in the league has sparked a nationwide discussion about concussions in pro sports. Borland played linebacker four years at UW-Madison and was drafted by the San Francisco 49ers in the 3rd round of the NFL draft. Quoted: Greg Landry, professor of orthopedics and rehabilitation.
Traevon Jackson returned to practice for the Badgers. However, that does not necessarily mean the senior will suit up for the NCAA Tournament opener Friday against Coastal Carolina.
The squad arrived in Omaha shortly before 5 pm CST, ahead of their Friday night game against Coastal Carolina.
As Wisconsin’s coaches studied video of Coastal Carolina, a consensus was quickly reached: the Big South tournament champions look more formidable than a team seeded No. 16 in the West Region of the NCAA Tournament.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker picked the hometown favorite Badgers mens basketball to beat powerhouse Kentucky and go on to win the men’s college tournament.
As the holder of Wisconsin records for minutes played, games played and games started, Josh Gasser is equipped to identify basketball excellence.
In what could be the safest political move of his career, Gov. Scott Walker is picking the Wisconsin Badgers to win it all in the NCAA basketball tournament.
