Badgers get a new offensive line coach

After each of the first two games of this season, redshirt junior center Travis Frederick said the offensive line was struggling to find its way more than he expected it to, despite working in new regular starters at three positions.
In the aftermath of Bret Bielema’s decision to fire first-year offensive line coach Mike Markuson Sunday, it appears the marching orders have been cleared up a bit: Do things the way that they were done when Bob Bostad was in charge.
Bostad oversaw the Badgers’ frontline for four seasons and was a UW assistant for six years before departing in January. He originally took a job on former offensive coordinator Paul Chryst’s staff before being hired as the offensive line coach for the National Football League’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Bielema said Monday he promoted little-known graduate assistant Bart Miller to “bridge a little bit of what we had last year to where we are now.”
Tuesday, the Badgers began their preparation for Saturday’s home contest against Utah State (2-0) with their second offensive line coach in nine months. That is sure to reset the transition period, even if the transition is now to try to re-apply, rather than learn anew.
“You just have to have a plan, work the plan and plan for the unexpected,” first-year offensive coordinator Matt Canada said Tuesday. “We’re going to drive forward and make the best of a difficult situation, as you would in life when a lot of things come your way.”
Usually, reporters are able to interview up to four offensive players and assistant coaches Tuesday evening, but this week the list was restricted to five players and four assistants. Redshirt senior left tackle Rick Wagner was the lone offensive lineman available and Miller was the only assistant not made available.
Miller is in his second year in the program after serving as a quality control coach a season ago. He played for Bostad at New Mexico in 2005 and graduated in 2007. Miller worked for the National Hockey League’s Chicago Blackhawks for two years before returning to college football as a graduate assistant at New Mexico State in 2010. In his weekly press conference on Monday, Bielema said he would not have made the change if Miller were not so familiar with the program. Wagner reiterated those sentiments Tuesday.
Let's hope it makes a difference.

Badger opener was a close call

A win is a win. Wisconsin head coach Bret Bielema and numerous Badger players echoed this cliché following Wisconsin’s (1-0 overall, 0-0 Big Ten) 26-21 victory over FCS opponent Northern Iowa (0-1 overall, 0-0 Missouri Valley Conference) Saturday afternoon in the first game of the 2012 season.
However, the Camp Randall crowd wasn’t necessarily pleased with that type of mentality. The usually raucous crowd essentially stood in disbelief when UNI pulled within five points midway through the fourth quarter. Fans appeared lifeless when the Wisconsin offense responded to UNI’s surge with a three-and-out, giving the Panthers the ball back with 5:17 left to play, still only behind by five.
The anxiety was felt in the crowd most when UNI went for a fourth-and-one on Wisconsin’s 41-yard line with just under three minutes remaining. The Panthers had converted on their two previous fourth down attempts, but redshirt junior defensive lineman Ethan Hemer deflected Northern Iowa redshirt freshman quarterback Sawyer Kollmorgen’s pass across the middle, ridding the crowd of its unexpected restlessness.
“There’s a lot of credit that should go to UNI,” Bielema said. “I thought they were probably the best FCS team we’ve ever faced. I could see that before we even played them.”
Senior running back Montee Ball capped things off for Wisconsin following Hemer’s play, as he rushed for 24 yards during the last drive to run the clock out.
“I don’t care if that was UNI or Nebraska, or anyone else that’s left on our schedule,” Bielema said. “[Ball] was going to secure that win and you could tell that.”
Redshirt sophomore offensive lineman Rob Havenstein felt the Wisconsin offense brought a bit more life and intensity during that drive.
“We definitely picked it up a bit,” he said of the drive. “[But] the intensity has got to be there every play, every snap, every down.”
The Badgers’ defense looked like an almost entirely different squad in the second half, as Kollmorgen completed clutch passes at will. After holding the Panthers to just three first downs and 47 yards in the first half, Wisconsin gave up 10 first downs in the second. All 13 Panthers’ first downs came off passes.
Let's hope this week isn't so close.

Montee Ball looking for the Heisman

University of Wisconsin senior running back Montee Ball is one of five players clustered near the top of a wide-open Heisman Trophy race entering the college football season, according to the largest poll of Heisman voters.
StiffArmTrophy.com had 51 Heisman voters list their top 15 Heisman candidates entering the season.
Ball, the only returning Heisman finalist, is one of four players who were named on 50 of the 51 ballots. The others are South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore, Oklahoma quarterback Landry Jones and Michigan quarterback Denard Robinson.
USC quarterback Matt Barkley, considered by many people as the top Heisman candidate, came next after being named on 49 ballots.
One indication of the struggle Ball faces to make it back to New York as a finalist this year: seven of the top 10 vote-getters are quarterbacks. Oregon running back De'Anthony Thomas ranks seventh, with 36 votes, to join Ball and Lattimore in the top 10.
In 2011, Robert Griffin III started the season ranked No. 11 on this watch list and in 2010, Cam Newton didn't appear in the preseason poll. Those two quarterbacks are the last two Heisman winners.
Let's hope Ball can win it. 

O'Brien hopes to make impact

They play the same position, came from the same conference and took advantage of the same rule.

Ultimately, they both landed in the same program, for similar reasons.

The comparisons between Russell Wilson and Danny O’Brien should end there, but they won’t, of course.

Since O’Brien made the decision to transfer from Maryland and follow the path Wilson forged a year ago to the University of Wisconsin — each getting a chance to play right away, having earned a degree — much of the focus has been on the similarities between their situations.

Now that O’Brien has arrived on campus, spent two months getting to know his teammates and has gone through the first week of preseason camp, it might be appropriate to point out the differences.

One of Wilson’s strongest supporters, from Day One, was UW athletic director Barry Alvarez, who quickly recognized the special talent that arrived from North Carolina State.

So, after O’Brien signed with UW in the spring, Alvarez was asked to make a comparison between the two.

Let's hope the Badgers go to BCS game this year.

Montee Ball gets beat up

University of Wisconsin running back Montee Ball suffered a concussion and facial injuries after five men jumped him early Wednesday in an area near campus that has been plagued by violence. Police are investigating whether the Heisman Trophy contender was targeted because of who he is.
Ball suffered blows to the head and is being treated by the UW sports medicine staff, according to the UW Athletic Department. He was treated and released from a local hospital after the attack, which occurred about 2:15 a.m. in the 500 block of University Avenue.
"We will continue to evaluate him as we approach the start of fall camp this weekend," UW coach Bret Bielema said in a statement. "I do expect Montee to make a full recovery."
The Badgers report for preseason camp on Sunday and begin practice on Monday. UW's season opener is Sept. 1 against Northern Iowa at Camp Randall Stadium.
Efforts to contact Ball or his family Wednesday were unsuccessful. But on his Twitter account, Ball wrote: "I appreciate the support and thank you for the concerns. I will be OK! See you guys in September!"
The senior is considered to be one of the top preseason Heisman Trophy contenders in the nation. UW coaches raved about the work he put in during the summer, and Ball tweeted on Tuesday, "You have no idea how ready I am for this fall."
Let's hope this does not happen again.

Top Badger football game this year

Football: Wisconsin visits Penn State
The Wisconsin football team closes out its 2012 season with a trip to central Pennsylvania November 24 to take on Penn State, which will be led by new head coach Bill O’Brien.
With Ohio State ineligible for postseason play in 2012, the Nittany Lions look to be the Badgers’ biggest competition in the Big Ten’s Leaders division. If Wisconsin is able to hold off Penn State on the road, they will likely be making their second-straight appearance in Indianapolis and the Big Ten Championship game.
Wisconsin’s defense will hope to repeat their performance against Penn State from last season, when the Badgers held PSU to just 233 total yards and seven points in a 45-7 throttling at Camp Randall.
This game will also be the first time since 1966 that UW has made the trip to Happy Valley and not faced off against Joe Paterno. The much-maligned program will try to distance itself from its recent controversy and turn over a new page for Penn State football in a statement game.  Let's hope that Bucky can have a repeat performance.

Bielema likes the new playoff system

Wisconsin coach Bret Bielema sounded excited to be a part of college football history with the advent of a four-team playoff that will replace the BCS model beginning with the 2014 season.

Doing the simple math, though, he expressed the one obvious concern that is shared by all of his fraternity brothers in the coaching profession. There is a concern, you ask?

"Yeah, if I'm No. 5,'' he said, grinning. "Everybody used to talk about the No. 3 and No. 4 teams that didn't get to play for the championship. Now they're going to be talking about No. 5 and No. 6.

"I think it's probably legit to say that every year you're going to have teams that can play the excuse game on why they should be there.

"But to have four teams that will have a shot to win it all now is really cool.''

The Rose Bowl will not only be part of the six-bowl rotation for the two semifinal games, but it will be locked into a 4 p.m. (CST) kickoff on Jan. 1 through 2026 (Jan. 2 if New Year's Day is a Sunday).

The Tournament of Roses also announced Thursday that the Rose Bowl would continue to honor a Big Ten/Pac-12 matchup in those years that it's not playing host to a national semifinal.

That type of stability and/or continuity is priceless, Bielema pointed out.

"Of course, we're all a little biased,'' he conceded. "I've been there as a player and a coach. I know the Rose Bowl is a sacred, hallowed ground for college football, especially for the Big Ten.''

The new system will render polls virtually meaningless in their current form, thereby eliminating what has always been a healthy source of debate and controversy for fans, players and coaches alike.

The preseason polls, in particular, were problematic; especially from Bielema's viewpoint. The Badgers were off the radar in 2006, his first season; yet fought all the way back to a No. 5 final ranking.

"I was a new head coach with a new team and people had questions,'' he recalled. "But we finished 12-1 and I felt like we were a BCS (bowl) level team (that had to settle for something less).

"I've always been in favor of ranking teams later in the year because you have a chance then to truly find out who has good teams -- and it's not based on just good projections.''

College football is expected to adopt the NCAA's basketball model for a selection committee, which would include a collection of current athletic directors and league commissioners.

That would eliminate the importance of two BCS staples: the USA Today Coaches Poll and the Harris Poll. There have been reports, too, that the tweaked system will rank teams by tiers; another notable departure from the past.
Let's hope Bucky can make it in to the playoffs. 

Badgers get a 4 star defensive lineman

All it takes is one look at two-sport standout Darius Latham to figure out what is his best sport.
Latham, 6-foot-5, 285 pounds, is a four-star defensive tackle from Indianapolis North Central High School, who gave an oral commitment to the University of Wisconsin on Tuesday.
But he's also a good enough basketball player that he travels around the country on the AAU circuit, playing for the Eric Gordon All-Stars.
In fact, Latham believes his time on the basketball court benefits his football skills. Not only does it keep him in shape, he is considered to have excellent feet for somebody his size.
"It does really help a lot," Latham told the Indianapolis Star in the spring. "I don't know how well I'd be playing (football) if I didn't play basketball."
 "I'm officially a Wisconsin Badger," he posted on his account on Tuesday night.
Scout.com ranks Latham as the No. 22 defensive tackle in the 2013 class. rival.com has him ranked as the No. 14 defensive tackle.
Among the schools recruiting Latham were Notre Dame, Arkansas, Michigan and Ohio State.
Tight ends coach Eddie Faulkner was the primary UW recruiter for Latham, who is the 11th known commitment of the upcoming recruiting class.
Let's hope he can produce. 

Matt Miller looking to make an impact

Offensive lineman Matt Miller, who gave an oral commitment to the University of Wisconsin on Wednesday, is often described as having a nasty disposition on the football field.
"Absolutely," Miller said in a phone interview, without apology. "I'm best known for that."
It's not hard to figure out where he got that approach. His brother, Jack Miller, who is two years older, is a freshman center at Michigan. Needless to say, the back yard battles at their house in Toledo, Ohio, got rather spirited.
"I think that's a big part of it," Matt Miller said. "I think a lot of it's family stuff. That's the way my family is and just the way I've been.
"It's just a big understanding, when you're playing football, which is a very violent and physical sport, you've got to bring the tenacity to the field."
Miller, 6-foot-5, 260 pounds, is from St. John's Jesuit and is viewed by some recruiting analysts as one of the best interior line prospects in the Midwest. He projects to be a guard at UW. Among his other offers were Michigan State, Miami (Fla.) and Georgia Tech.
St. John's football coach Doug Pearson confirmed Miller's nasty streak, but added it falls just short of his brother's.
"Not quite as nasty as his older brother, but he's pretty darn close," Pearson said. "But he's two years younger, too. He's still got time to develop that.
"The thing I like about the Miller boys, both of them, is the fact they're great kids here in school, everybody likes them and all of that. But when they lace up their football cleats, they kind of transform personalities on the field. It's just the way you want it as a coach."
Matt Miller was recruited by Michigan, although it filled up quickly on offensive line prospects and hasn't offered. The Wolverines have 22 commitments, including five offensive linemen.
"It was one of those things where, if it happened, it happened," Matt Miller said of playing with his brother. "If Michigan would have offered me and if I would have felt Michigan was my best choice, then maybe I would have gone there.
"But it wouldn't have been because of my brother or anything like that. Obviously, I was recruited by Michigan and everything. It was definitely brought up, but it didn't happen, so it'll definitely be interesting going against him."
Miller attended a funeral on Wednesday morning for a friend who died in a boating accident, so it was a painful day for him. He had a hard time picking out the thing he liked most about UW.
"I think Madison is such a cool town, great campus," he said. "Obviously, a prestigious school. The football program and the coaching staff, it all speaks for itself, the tradition and the recent winning. It's just fantastic there. It's really tough to say what was the most impressive."
In the end, it might have been UW's tradition of producing great linemen that spoke the loudest to him.
"I think everyone knows, when you think Wisconsin, you think O-line," Miller said. "When you think O-line, you think Wisconsin. That was a big part of my decision."
While the back yard tussels with his brother are over, Matt envisions lively discussions around the dinner table about which football program is better, while fighting to get relatives aligned on each side.
"It's going to be weird," Matt Miller said of playing in the Big Ten Conference with his brother. "My sophomore year, his senior year, we played on the same (high school) team. Obviously, we grew up in the same house together.
"I'm really used to being on his team, although in the backyard football games as little kids, we were always put on separate teams. There's been a lot of fights, so it kind of takes me back to the old days. We'll see how the dinner table goes when we see each other over Christmas. Which sides of the family are picking which school.  Let's hope Matt Miller takes the badgers to a whole nother level.   GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is a playoff system coming to college football?

It was college football’s version of Band of Brothers.
The sport’s top decision-makers, 15 strong, stood together on a podium in the Camelot Room of the InterContinental Chicago Hotel late Wednesday afternoon.
“The fact we’re all here together,” SEC commissioner Mike Slive said, “is an important statement.”
Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick made the announcement: “We are on the threshold of creating a new postseason structure for college football.”
A group previously known for jousting over the complex issues surrounding a seeded four-team playoff achieved a consensus and will present its ideas Tuesday in Washington to the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee.
The playoff would start in 2014.
Details of the plan were not made public. Slive said commissioners want to inform school presidents and athletic directors, as opposed to having them “read it in the paper.”
One source, though, said the commissioners will recommend the creation of a selection committee to choose teams. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany probably will not get his way on the “hybrid” model of three conference champions and a wild card, but a selection committee would be charged with favoring teams that win a conference title and challenge themselves in the nonconference schedule.
Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott has stood with Delany on the issue. He agreed that forming a selection committee could be an important step toward enhancing “the value of regular-season play.”
There’s consensus on using rotating bowls (Rose, Sugar, Fiesta and Orange — for now) to host semifinal games, with the championship game to be bid out like the Super Bowl. And Delany and Scott are satisfied the Rose Bowl’s value will be upheld; it is slated to host a semifinal game and a Big Ten-Pac 12 showdown in alternate years.
Several issues still need to be worked out, including dates of the games, the criteria a selection committee would use and revenue sharing.
Scott cautioned it’s “unlikely that every ‘i’ gets dotted and every ‘t’ gets crossed” next week in Washington.
“But I’m hopeful that on some main concepts we get the green light,” he said.
Delany said details don’t need to be hashed out until negotiations with TV partners begin in September or October.
Bottom line, this group of 11 conference commissioners, two assistants, Swarbrick and BCS executive director Bill Hancock found unity on the matters that really count.
“The biggest change,” Hancock said, “is when the commissioners realized that they could preserve the importance of the regular season and have a playoff, that let them go down the road to considering how to do a playoff.”
Camelot, according to Wikipedia, is viewed by scholars as “being entirely fictional, its geography perfect for romance writers.”
What took place Wednesday not only marks one of the final steps in a historic change for college football.
It was real
It would be great to see a playoff system. 

Badgers win a rowing title

The Wisconsin women's lightweight rowing team raced to its second straight national title at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships, winning the varsity four event Saturday in Camden, N.J.
The Badgers cruised to a 4.830-second victory over Stanford. UW finished in 7 minutes 14.633 seconds, nearly 1:40 faster than its time in the heats Saturday.
UW's team consisted of coxswain Jenna Pavelec, Erin Wyliedden, Sophie Gavell and Lucy Wood, Sofie Ma.
"They were lights out, really did a fantastic job," said Badgers coach Erik Miller.
In the men's competition, top-ranked Washington edged the Badgers for the title in the second varsity eight. The Huskies, who won all five of their races, trailed the Badgers by a seat going into the final 700 meters of the race.
It is good to see Bucky win something that they are not
known for.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Top 5 Badger Sports Moments of 2011-2012

1. Badgers beat Spartans in inaugural Big Ten Title Game—December 3, 2011

In the first season featuring 12 Big Ten teams and two divisions, one team stood out in each. In the Leaders, Wisconsin built talk of a national title run before losing in stunning fashion to Michigan State, the best team on the Legends side. Then, after an equally devastating trip to Ohio State, the Badgers needed help to wind up in the inaugural conference title game in Indianapolis. That help gave the Badgers a shot at redemption against the Spartans and, ultimately, delivered Wisconsin to its second straight Rose Bowl thanks to a karmic final blow.

Montee Ball rushed for 96 yards and two scores as the Badgers raced to a 21-7 first quarter lead. The Spartans dominated in the second quarter, as they’ve become accustomed to doing against Bret Bielema and Co. The teams traded scores through the night set in an electric stadium in the middle of an incredible host city. UW didn’t quite hail Mary, but when Jeff Duckworth flagged down Russell Wilson’s desperation heave on 4th and 6 in the closing moments, the Badgers put the finishing touches on a Big Ten season of resilience and offensive firepower.

They were rewarded with a trip to Southern California.

—Parker Gabriel

2. Rob Wilson goes off at the Big Ten Tournament—March 9, 2012

Senior forward Rob Wilson was the perfect Badger to go for 30 points in a 79-71 win over Indiana in the Big Ten men’s basketball conference tournament.

The moment wouldn’t have made this list if senior guard Jordan Taylor had dropped a 30-spot. Heck, Russell Wilson could have suited up and scored 10, and that still wouldn’t have made for a better moment than Rob Wilson’s.

The thing was, nobody saw it coming. Wilson had been in head coach Bo Ryan’s doghouse for much of his junior year and—despite increased minutes down the stretch his senior year—was regarded as the seventh or eighth man in Ryan’s rotation. Wilson’s season-high up to that point had been an 11-point showing in a 67-66 loss at Iowa. If opponents prepared for Wilson, his scouting report was pretty simple: He can make open three-pointers, so don’t give him too much space on the perimeter.

But none of it mattered that afternoon in Indianapolis. Wilson blew his 11-point night out of the water with 11 field goals and finishing 7-of-10 from behind the arc against the Hoosiers. Despite Wilson splashing a couple early three-point shots, Indiana’s defense couldn’t contain him.

—Vince Huth

3. Men’s cross country team claims fifth national title—November 21, 2011

2011 was a banner season for the Badgers’ men’s cross country team as their Big Ten Championship only served as an appetizer for the squad’s ultimate goal—a national championship.

Wisconsin began a cold, damp day in Terre Haute, Ind., as the No. 1 ranked team in the country and left with the program’s fifth national title, and first since 2005.

The Badgers fielded an impressive roster, including four All Americans—seniors Ryan Collins and Elliot Krause, and juniors Reed Connor and Mohammad Ahmed—as well as junior Maverick Darling.

Wisconsin typically ran in a tight pack, but Ahmed, the Big Ten’s overall champion, broke away from his teammates early and finished the 10-kilometer race fifth overall with a time of 29:06—good for All-American honors for the third straight year.

Krause and Collins also broke the 30-minute mark, finishing 17th and 23rd overall respectively, with times of 29:41 and 29:52.

Wisconsin finished with just 97 overall points, putting them miles ahead of second place Oklahoma State (139) and third place Colorado (144).

—Matt Masterson

4. 12,402 fans ‘Fill the Bowl’ for women’s hockey—January 28, 2012

The Wisconsin women’s hockey team set the NCAA women’s hockey single-game attendance record for the third year in a row at the 2012 “Fill the Bowl” game when 12,402 fans saw the Badgers defeat Bemidji State 1-0.

It would take almost the full 60 minutes to determine the winner in the game as the Badgers could not find a way to put the puck past the Bemidji State goaltender.

Wisconsin found the break they needed just past the 12-minute mark of the third period when junior forward and team captain Hilary Knight received a pass from behind the Beaver net and buried it  for the game’s only goal.

The over 12,000 people that filled the Kohl Center that night speak to the quick rise that the Wisconsin women’s hockey program has experienced. The program played its inaugural season in 1999-’00 and since then it has claimed four national championships, four WCHA playoff championships, four WCHA regular season championships and four Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award winners.

Let's hope we can beat these moments next year.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Montee Ball named Badger athlete of the year

No. 1: Montee Ball, junior running back, football

It’s easy to forget that Montee Ball wasn’t the Badgers’ featured back at the beginning of the 2011 season. Heck, more fans probably saw him as a true No. 2 than a true No. 1. To be fair, the lightning-quick James White—reigning Big Ten freshman of the year—was a pretty good bet in August.

But nobody had seen what Ball did in the offseason. Nobody had seen the transformation, the weight lost and the muscle built and the mindset hardened. By the time the Rose Bowl ended late Jan. 2, though, 14 opponents—the whole nation, really—had gotten a pretty good look.

The Wentzville, Mo. native scored touchdowns like his offensive linemen eat dinner: two, three and four helpings at a time.

He scored multiple touchdowns in every game but the Rose Bowl. He finished with 33 on the ground and 39 in total. Since scoring the game-winning touchdown against Iowa Oct. 23, 2010 (19 games), Ball has amassed 2,700 rushing yards and 54 total touchdowns. Yes, that’s 142.1 yards and 2.8 trips to the end zone per contest.

He went from being a third-string option to a Heisman finalist. He went from being a talented guy in a talented backfield to the best in the nation. He went from unknown to  having a legitimate NFL future.

But that will have to wait. He’s coming back for his senior year.  Lets hope next year he can win the heisman trophy.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Badgers sign a legacy

The Panos legacy lives on at the University of Wisconsin.
George Panos, the son of former captain Joe Panos, committed to the Badgers as the first member of the Class of 2014 on Saturday afternoon, announcing his intentions in a Twitter post.
The 6-foot-5, 290-pound offensive lineman from Hartland Arrowhead, who has been a varsity starter each of his first two seasons in high school, was offered a scholarship prior to the start of Saturday's spring intrasquad game and promptly accepted.
He posted his intentions on Twitter, a development reported by BadgerNation.com, a Scout.com site.
"I'm gonna be a Badger #livingthedream #OnWisconsin," George Panos tweeted.
Panos received an offer from Nebraska on Friday, but decided to follow in the footsteps of his father.
Joe Panos, a Brookfield East graduate, attended UW-Whitewater as a freshman but transferred to Wisconsin and became a starter at left tackle for the Badgers, and was influential in their run to the 1994 Rose Bowl title.
His statement, "Why not Wisconsin?" following a strong start to the 1993 campaign became a rallying cry for the Badgers, who snapped a 31-year drought as Big Ten champs and brought home UW's first-ever win in Pasadena.
Joe Panos, a third-round draft choice of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1994 who played six seasons in the NFL, is a player agent — he represents two former Badgers in this year's class, Kevin Zeitler (who went to Cincinnati in the first round) and Josh Oglesby — and also coaches the offensive line at Hartland Arrowhead.
Let's hope he turns out to be better than his dad.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Stricker gives UW $25000

PGA Tour pro Steve Stricker recently delivered his $25,000 Presidents Cup pledge to the University of Wisconsin to support the endowed scholarship he created in 2010 with his wife, Nicki, the school announced Friday.

The Presidents Cup does not feature purse or prize money, but instead allows particpants to designate charitable proceeds. UW was one of six organizations designated by Stricker to receive funds in return for participating in the 2011 event in Australia. 

Stricker, an Edgerton native and Madison resident, golfed at Illinois, but Nicki was a four-year letter winner for the Badgers from 1988-91.

The couple set up their scholarship in 2010. It annually provides support to a member of the UW men's or women's golf teams.

"I can't thank Steve and Nicki enough for thinking of the Badgers," said UW athletic director Barry Alvarez. "Their support through this gift and others is very much appreciated. Endowed scholarships like the Stricker Scholarship Fund are critical in assisting our efforts to provide opportunities to our student-athletes."

It is nice to see someone give money to UW-Madison.  

Badgers success means big money to Bo Ryan

University of Wisconsin men's basketball coach Bo Ryan has earned $100,000 in NCAA tournament incentives and could earn an additional $200,000 if the Badgers win a national title, according to a report in USA Today.

Ryan's contract called for him to get $50,000 if UW advanced to the NCAA tournament and an additional $50,000 if the Badgers reached the Sweet 16. He'll get $50,000 if the Badgers advance to the Final Four, an extra $100,000 if they reach the title game and an extra $50,000 if they win it all.

Ryan, who is UW's all-time winningest coach and has led the Badgers to five Sweet 16 appearances in 11 seasons, received a raise last fall that pushed his annual compensation package past the $2 million mark. The deal included $1.675 million from private gift funds at the UW Foundation earmarked by donors specifically for athletics and a base salary of $436,364 from UW athletics, giving Ryan an annual package worth $2,111,364. His contract runs through May 30, 2016, and the amount from the foundation increases $25,000 each year.I would love to see Bucky go all the way to the Final Four.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Badgers getting ready for the tournament

Greg Gard sounded more like a traffic cop than the associate head coach for the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team earlier this week when he explained what the Badgers need to do on offense to be efficient and avoid scoring droughts.

"You've got to know how to drive the speed limit," Gard said. "Drive 65 in a 65 — not 90, and not 40. So you've got to find where to set the cruise control at."

Too often this season, UW has found itself stopped at a red light for what seems like an eternity. The clock ticks away, yet the Badgers' point total remains the same.

Those slumps may ultimately be what keep the Badgers from making an extended run in the NCAA tournament. In other words, one drought and fourth-seeded UW (24-9), which opens against 13th-seeded Montana (25-6) on Thursday afternoon at The Pit, might be out.

"We've got to try to avoid those situations as best we can," sophomore guard Josh Gasser said. "Because if they happen, unfortunately we don't get another chance to play."

There's no universal definition of what constitutes a drought, but UW fans certainly know it when they see it.

Three times in Saturday's 65-52 loss to Michigan State in a Big Ten Conference tournament semifinal, the Badgers went at least five possessions without scoring. One stretch lasted nine possessions and 7 minutes, 49 seconds; another lasted seven possessions and 4:57.

UW had at least one stretch of five or more possessions without a point in 16 of the 20 games it played this season against Big Ten opponents. The longest, in the first half at Penn State on Jan. 31, covered nine possessions and 9:04. Remarkably, UW found a way to win that game.

If fans think stretches like those are tough to watch, imagine being one of the Badgers trying to find a way to make the light turn green.

"You can feel it," UW senior Jordan Taylor, "so it's just a matter of trying to keep the other team on their heels and make them make decisions."

No drought is the same, either. Some have been caused by the Badgers, a team filled with streaky shooters, going cold from 3-point range.

In Saturday's game against Michigan State, Gard noted sloppy play and poor shot selection had a lot to do with the 7:49 drought that came after UW had used a 13-0 run to pull within 46-40 with 12:17 remaining in the game.

During the nine possessions that followed that spurt, UW had three turnovers and missed four times from 3-point range. Three of those misses were by junior forward Ryan Evans, who entered the game shooting 19.2 percent from beyond the arc.

UW's offense is at its best when players are moving without the ball and making hard cuts through the lane. On the flip side, the Badgers are at their worst when the offense goes stagnant and there's a lot of standing around as they pass the ball around the perimeter.

Dissect the Badgers' worst droughts this season and one finds much more of the latter than the former.

"You still have to be aggressive, and I think this group has done a good job of growing in that area, of being smart, being efficient but still staying aggressive," Gard said. "We've become better at that, I think more consistent with that.

"If you become too cautious, then you start to play hesitant, then you become passive, then you stand around and become stagnant. If you become too aggressive, then you end up charging, turn the ball over."

Both Taylor and Gasser said the Badgers need to do a better job of finding ways to get easy baskets to break the ice. UW doesn't push the ball up the floor very often, but that's one way to break out of a scoring rut.

Most of all, UW needs to be mentally tough during slumps and not let the previous possessions affect the current one.

"We can score the ball," UW senior swingman Rob Wilson said. "But when those droughts come, when it's 1, 2 minutes, we've got to pick it up and not let our last shot affect our next shot."

Gard admitted the Badgers don't have a large margin for error to begin with because of their style of play. This time of year, that margin gets even smaller.

"There's not a lot of mulligans that you can pull out of your pocket," he said. "You have to cash in any time you can. So you can't waste opportunities."

I sure hope the Badgers can make it to the sweet sixteen.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Badgers gearing up for March

Head coach Bo Ryan has been in the business of college basketball for a long time. That’s why when a reporter tried to ask if he had any regrets about losing out on a share of the Big Ten regular season title, Ryan didn’t even let him finish the question.

“I’ve been around a little too long for that, I don’t do that woulda, coulda, shoulda stuff,” Ryan said. “I like my guys and I like what they did this year.”

Outsiders to the program might remind Ryan had it not been for two losses to a sub-par Iowa team then No. 15 Wisconsin would have won the conference title outright, which would have been his sixth title as head coach of Wisconsin. However, the headman of the Badgers sees this season’s conference campaign from a different perspective.

“You know how lucky we were to steal those games from Illinois, Purdue, and overtime at Minnesota?” Ryan said. “If we hadn’t won those games we would have finished in seventh or eighth place.”

There is also something to be said for the difficulty of the conference as three teams tied for a share of the conference title, one of which being No. 13 Michigan who won a Big Ten title in men’s basketball for the first time in school history since 1988. Between Michigan, No. 7 Ohio State and No. 8 Michigan State, Bo Ryan’s bunch only went a collective 1-4 against the champions of the conference. With close losses to Michigan State and Ohio State at home, it is more than fair to say that the Badgers finished where they deserved to in the final standings.

“Obviously there wasn’t just a dominant team this year that just dominated everyone else,” Ryan said. “The league is pretty tough and I think that was proven this year.”

If there are any regrets about the season Ryan certainly doesn’t want to hear it from anyone. Especially now that the Badgers are entering into the Big Ten Tournament, which marks the beginning of the wildest and most unpredictable month in sports affectionately known as “March Madness.” At this point in the year it is not always the most talented teams, but usually the team that is playing the best basketball that ends up taking home the hardware.

“How about you had gallons and gallons of Gatorade and every time someone said ‘hot’ you had to take a drink,” Ryan added. “Could you imagine how bloated you would be?”

Though “hot” tends to become an overused word when it comes to postseason play in college basketball, ultimately it is the only quality that matters in March. Even if Ryan doesn’t like to use the word, it may be exactly what describes his scrappy group as they head into March. The Badgers have won three straight and 12 of their last 15 games, one of which came on the road against then-No. 9 Ohio State which was the first time in decades that a Wisconsin men’s basketball team had beaten a top ten team away from Madison.

“Tell me something better? It’s still a great sport and a great game. At this time of [March Madness] is all people want to talk about. At all levels,” Ryan added.

Either way a person looks at it the time for second-guessing is over, as hesitation and dwelling on the past will only earn a team a one-way ticket back home. The do or die nature of college basketball in March is something that captivates the nation, and this year Bo Ryan just might have the team to make a deep run. In many ways this year’s group is the true embodiment of the word team, as the Badgers have been able to bridge talent with suffocating defense and impressive mental toughness.

“With how hard they’ve worked on defense and how much they’ve accomplished given what they had, this group is good,” Ryan said. “Anyone who doesn’t know that doesn’t know basketball, trust me.”

It would be awesome if the Badgers could win the Big Ten tournament.   GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Badgers beat Gophers

Just when it seemed that Wisconsin men’s basketball had turned a corner with the upset win Sunday at Ohio State, UW got cold yet again at home, somehow surviving a 30 percent shooting effort from the field en route to a 52-45 win over struggling Minnesota.

The first half Tuesday night can best be described as ugly. After making three of their first four shots, the Badgers (11-6 Big Ten, 22-8 overall) were just 1-for-17 from the field over the final 16:26 of the half, their only field goal in that span coming on a three-point shot by senior guard Jordan Taylor with 12:34 remaining. Neither team cracked the 25 percent mark from the field, with the two teams combining for just nine made baskets as the Gophers (5-12, 17-13) took a 23-16 lead into the locker room.

“You just have to go back to thinking of ways to score,” Taylor said. “We were trying to get more movement in the offense. I was able to get a post touch and from there it’s all about being aggressive and trying to make the play.”

To their credit, the Badgers came out strong in the second half. Finally getting a jumper by Taylor to go just over a minute and a half in, UW scored nine of the first 11 points of the half. Wisconsin was finally about to knot the game at 25 after a controversial three-point play by junior forward Mike Bruesewitz that was initially ruled a charge only to be overturned following a lengthy conference amongst the officials.

“An official can make the call and if he is not sure, he can go ask the other official,” head coach Bo Ryan said after the game. “That’s what they did.”

“I thought I got there,” Bruesewitz said. “I thought he was in the circle, that’s why I went up.”

Sparked by their good fortune, the Badgers took control of the game from there. Taylor was back to his usual self after a tough first half, finishing with a game-high 22 points on 4-of-9 shooting and 11-of-12 from the field throw line. Taylor’s 17 second-half points (out of UW’s 36) got the Minnesotan to the twenty-point mark for just the third time this season, with two of them coming against the Gophers.

On the other end it was once again freshman guard Andre Hollins giving the Badgers fits on the defensive end. After coming off the bench to score 20 against UW in Minneapolis, the Memphis, Tenn. native again led the Gophers in scoring, this time with 18 points, 13 of those in the first half alone.

“He took more shots than anyone in the game so I thought he was pretty aggressive,” Minnesota head coach Tubby Smith said of Hollins. “Unfortunately he couldn’t make any of them [in the second half].”

Wisconsin was able to adjust at the half and ultimately that was enough to get them the win they needed to clinch a spot in the top four in the Big Ten standings and thus clinch a first-round bye in next weekend’s Big Ten Tournament.

“We didn’t do a good job of throwing the first blow or getting out to a good start,” Taylor said. “But we did a good job in the second half of turning things around.”

One thing that allowed the Badgers to quickly regain control of the game was their ability to finally get to the free throw line. With Minnesota committing seven fouls in the first 5:35 of the second half, Wisconsin had the benefit of being in the bonus for the majority of the backstretch. The Badgers took advantage, hitting 15-of-20 free throws in the second half en route to a comparatively explosive 36-point output.

“Getting to the free throw line was definitely huge in this game,” junior forward Ryan Evans said. “There were a lot of free throws and that’s where a lot of the points were scored.”

Due in large part to the multitude of free throws, there was never any flow to the game. Neither team seemed comfortable on the offensive end and neither team was able to pull away when they had the chance. Ultimately, Wisconsin was able to cut down on turnovers and make their free throws, the formula necessary to win in these low-scoring games Badger fans should be well accustomed to by now.

While hopes of a Big Ten title were washed away with the Badgers’ 67-66 defeat at Iowa last week, they continue to have plenty at stake with just one game remaining on their regular season schedule. With Illinois coming to town Sunday for senior day, the Badgers still have an outside shot to overtake either Michigan or Ohio State in the standings, in turn avoiding a quarterfinal matchup in the Big Ten Tournament with No. 20 Indiana down in Indianapolis.

More importantly, the Badgers have a chance to finally head into the postseason with momentum.

I hope the Badgers cab make it to the sweet sixteen.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!