Category: Athletics

Maggie Clarke and Paul Krajewski of New Berlin and Gail and Ron Lange of Wauwatosa had tickets to go to the Masters.

Chances are good that Zach Bohannon will have no outward impact on the Wisconsin-Kentucky outcome Saturday night.

The most pertinent question asked in October about Frank Kaminsky was whether the junior would provide Wisconsin with a consistent inside presence to fill the void created by the departure of three seniors.

Freshman Nigel Hayes placed a heavy weight on his shoulders after Wisconsin?s season ended Saturday with a 74-73 loss to Kentucky in the Final Four.

Throughout the season, the Wisconsin Badgers were far from a one-man team, but when the NCAA Tournament came around, all 7 feet of Frank Kaminsky stood taller than the rest.

Wisconsin will return home without a national championship, without a storybook ending for head coach Bo Ryan.

One by one, the Wisconsin players insisted they could live with their last shot against Kentucky.

Ben Brust had just completed his 124th game in a Wisconsin uniform.His last game at UW.

Wisconsin and beer go together like Kentucky and whiskey, and like loyal compatriots, the Badger alumni who gathered Wednesday night at the Hilton Anatole held mostly Wisconsin-made Miller Lite in hand.

Past the mining museum on Main Street, the Piggly Wiggly supermarket five blocks down and the Pioneer Ford dealership where Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan once bought a white Mercury Tracer with blue interior, a court bears his name.

As Jonathan Brust packed his Toyota Sienna minivan for the 13-hour journey from Wheaton, Ill., to the Final Four, he took a few extra precautions.

Transgressions that are sure to make Ryan steam include committing a turnover, taking a bad shot, not following one of his rules on defense and letting your opponent grab an offensive rebound.

When Pat Richter was hired as athletic director in 1989, Wisconsin was as close to being a basketball school as Florida was to a hockey school.

Early-morning off-season training sessions can morph into an incongruous mix of heaven and hell.

Mindful that it’s been awhile since Wisconsin won the national championship ? the same year Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese ? and 14 years since UW last played in the Final Four, quite a few Badger alums and fans are shelling out big bucks to see the game.

Fourteen years ago, it was them cutting down the nets. It was them going to the Final Four. In 2000, an offensively challenged Wisconsin team, short on talent but long on heart and coached by master tactician Dick Bennett, went into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 8 seed and improbably danced its way to the Final Four.

Since making it to the tournament?s final weekend, the team has squeezed studying and classes in between being bombarded with media attention and attending daily practices.

The visit was a surprise, arranged by Eric, the oldest son who works in data services at the UW School of Medicine. He will never forget the look on his mother?s face when Ryan walked through the door and immediately came over to her wheelchair to give her a hug.

The University of Wisconsin is going back to the Final Four (it last reached the Final Four in 2000, losing to Michigan State). But now the Badgers are the first men?s basketball team in our state since the 2003 Marquette Golden Eagles to make the NCAA?s version of its men?s basketball championship.

On Saturday the University of Wisconsin basketball team will play in their first Final Four game since 2000. They will face the University of Kentucky Wildcats, but for Badger Head Coach Bo Ryan and the men?s basketball program the road began more than a decade ago.

Fans of University of Wisconsin Badgers basketball have taken to Twitter to cry foul after Sports Illustrated unveiled a regional cover with the team pictured on the cover.

University of Wisconsin fans are making plans for Saturday?s big game against Kentucky, but not every fan can make the trek to Texas for the Final Four matchup.

UNIVERSITY VILLAGE ? Howard Moore just finished a 6-25 season, yet the men?s basketball head coach at University of Illinois at Chicago is all smiles.

The two schools, which play Saturday for a berth in the national championship game, have plenty in common. Both are flagship public universities and land-grant institutions with a research focus, although Wisconsin has a much larger student body and higher rankings in research dollars and other academic measures.

Kentucky has the most talent. Florida has a 30-game win streak. Connecticut suddenly has momentum. Wisconsin, the fourth member of the Final Four, has Frank the Tank.

Wherever they were, Bo?s Army was loud and proud when the Badgers clinched a spot in the Final Four with a 64-63 overtime victory over Arizona in the NCAA tournament West regional final at the Honda Center.

He?s one of five people involved in both Badger final four appearances, so today we sat down with Otto Puls to see, what he does and why the team thinks he?s so special.

A University of Wisconsin football recruit pleaded not guilty Monday to a third-degree sexual assault charge stemming from the alleged rape of a woman in her campus dorm room in December.

Bennett knows the buzz of the moment well. He lived the adulation and felt the euphoria while coaching UW to its last Final Four appearance in 2000.

College students can buy tickets for this weekend?s NCAA March Madness Final Four in Arlington, Texas, for just $40 apiece, a tiny fraction of the average seat price.

As the Wisconsin men?s basketball team heads to the Final Four, consumer experts want fans to be cautious when buying tickets or even spirit gear.

When the page turned and the latest tale about University of Wisconsin men?s hockey team came to a mournful end, the focus shifted to the future.

A Westby native is getting a feel for what it?s like to be in the Final Four.

There are certain givens for a team as it wends its way through the NCAA men?s basketball tournament.

No matter what happens to the University of Wisconsin men?s hockey team over the next three weeks, it will go down as one of the most important teams in program history.