Wisconsin Badgers Basketball / Football - On Wisconsin!

UW Badgers Basketball Power Ranking Variety

2011-12-16T19:36:00.000-08:00

We don't normally put all that much stock in "power rankings" when it comes to Badger basketball, however we do check them out quick out of curiosity to see what people think of the team. Currently for instance the Badgers are ranked number 15 in this weeks ESPN Power Rankings, that seems pretty fair given the play on the court at the moment. What is interesting about this week is that as per usual with the UW Badgers basketball team in the Power Rankings there is an interesting variety on where the individual voters placed the team, however the oddity is that out of 17 voters 16 put the Badgers around 11 through 18 on their balots and 1 Doug Gottlieb decided to leave the Badgers out of his top 25. To Mr. Gottlieb we say that is fine as fans we are concerned about our offense as well but at this point in the season it is pretty clear that the defense is legitimate which begs the question how does the top defense in the country in college basketball not make your top 25 when they have proven it is legit against top 25 offenses. Sure the Badgers picked bad nights to completely suck on offense, but that defense would win those games 7 out of 10 times in our mind.

UW Badger Basketball vs UW Milwaukee - Live Blog, TV Info

2011-12-13T16:49:00.000-08:00

The UW Badger basketball team takes on the UW Milwaukee Panthers tonight and we are going to try for a live game blog for a good junk of the game. For those of you Badger fans looking for the UW Badgers vs UW Milwaukee on TV hopefully it is on in your area otherwise you are in luck for this one as it is on the internet legally at http://www.horizonleague.org/live/4577, now just because we gave you the link doesn't mean to not follow the live blog at all.

What we are looking for in this game is first can Jordan Taylor snap out of his shooting troubles, next can Ben Brust show he is reliable game in and game out, the same goes for Berggren can he be consistant, and finally how will the Badgers do against a team that defends behind the arc. We look for this game to go pretty well in the Badgers favor due to the defense but you never know.

UW Badgers Basketball Live game blog:
Badger score 60 Milwaukee 54
Milwaukee scores the first 2, we missed it.
Ryan Evans converts down low to tie it at 2, good idea early.
Milwaukee with a couple chances misses from 3.
Ryan Evans again down low putting 2 more in, nice hustle tipping in his miss.
Milwaukee with a quick miss from 3.
Taylor drives and puts it in Badgers up 8 to 4.
Evans gets out muscled down low and gives up 2 points for Milwaukee.
Timeout
Badger score 8 Milwaukee 6
So far not a lot of great defense for the Badgers, the Badgers so far are going to work down low with fairly good success.
Evans works down low and hits a wide open Bergrren and he buries the open 3, 11-6.
Milwaukee takes another 3 off the front iron.
The Badgers swing to Brust and he is wide open for a deep 3 and drills it, long look but don't leave the kid open.
Milwaukee puts up another hard 3. Badgers foul down low. Milwaukee hits 1 of 2. 14-7.
Taylor stops and shoots and he is cold early again.
Milwaukee with another hard 3 miss and the Badgers can't get the board. Bergrren with a nice block. Bruiser gets beat down low and fouls his second. Milwaukee makes 1 of 2. 14-8.
Kaminsky with an early 3 and it is hard, Badgers miss another 3 and it goes the other way.
Nice job of Taylor drawing the charge, Taylor sits.
Evans backs it in for 2 more so he has 6,, nice work.
Rough jumper by Milwaukee.
Brust on the dribble, kicks it back. Brust handling a lot on this position. Brust had a great runner that looked like it was going down anyways but then Kaminsky goaltends. Shoot, nice move by Brust.
Timeout: That was a real nice looking position by Brust as he was clearly being counted on to generate offense. Where is Gasser? Kaminsky getting some good minutes there but it was a learning experience.
Badger score 16 Milwaukee 8
Milwaukee working hard on offense now, settle for a three that is way off.
Badgers working the offense on this trip and Taylor turns it over.
Milwaukee really working offense now and they don't get a shot off. Out of the timeout they clearly stressed movement but they aren't shooting now.
Taylor drives and forces up a bad runner.
Milwaukee misses down low and Taylor goes on the break and it gets ugly for the UW but Taylor gets it back and finishes.
Quick Milwaukee miss. Ryan Evans almost with a nice shot down low, really pretty just didn't get the roll.
Milwaukee rushes up a shot, misses and fouls Taylor out of frustration. 18-8.
Badgers work Kaminsky a wide open 3 and he misses, they get the rebound but can't put it back.
Milwaukee rushes the other way to a quick miss down low.
Timeout:
Badger score 18 Milwaukee 8 7:30
Well that little bit of basketbal got pretty ugly on both sides, interesting to see the Badgers really looking to get Brust and Kaminsky involved. Milwaukee in an 0-11 shooting slump.
Ryan Evans takes it to the hole and gets hacked hard. Evans smooth on the first and the second. Nice game so far by Evans.
Badgers with a team block down low, Evans might have been involved again.
Brust with the pretty pass on the drive down low to Kaminsky for the finish and that was great.
Milwaukee gets open down low for the easy two.
Nice pass to a cutting Brust, he is fouled but can't finish. Brust hits his 2 foul shots 23-10.
Milwaukee works for a good luck at a three and hits it, gets the crowd involved.
Badgers miss a couple down low, Wilson with a tough shot.
Milwuakee misses on the runner, bad Badger defense.
Nice ball movement to the cutting Gosser and he finishes. 26-13.
Off the dribble Milwaukee hits a three, that was bad defense.
Double dribble by Taylor and that is his second turnover, his play is unfortunately brutal right now. The Badgers would be well served to maybe try and get Finley or someone to give him a pep talk because he is really struggling now.
Timeout
Badger score 26 Milwaukee 13
Badgers abused down low and give up the foul. Milwuakee misses both.
Brust drives and pops but misses, you could tell he thought it was money but no.
Brust and Evans abused down low and give up the easy 2.
Bergrren with an early three shot that was way short and Milwaukee is getting back into this.
Milwaukee stops and hits the mid range jumper now down 6.
Badgers really need a timeout, Brust misses on three and he was going the other way because he thought he hit it and he didn't. Badgers lucky to get the ball back.
Bergrren hits a three after some nice movement.
Milwaukee shoots a quick 3 and turns it over.
Timeout:
Badgers score 44 Milwaukee 39
Badgers aren't finishing this half very well, nice to see the cofidence from Brust but he needs to learn to follow the shot if he thinks he nailed it or not.
Shot clock is off as the Badgers work clock. Badgers work it down low and Evans puts it in with 3 seconds left.
Halftime:
Badger score 41 Milwaukee 27Well Evans came out and has had a real nice half. Brust is playing hard on offense and he has had a couple just not fall the way he wanted, overall really pretty great except not following all shots. Kaminsky got a lot of minutes and needs them to improve. Taylor is just really struggling right now, don't know what else to say. Bergrren has done some nice things on offense at times but also has been abused at times on defense. The Badgers are shooting the ball well from the free throw line, not missing one as of yet.

Second Half:
Milwaukee doesn't go up hard enough down low.
Taylor hits a three on the Badgers first trip maybe that gets him going.
Bruiser picks up another 3 down low. Evans almost gets the steal on the inbound.
Badgers give an easy two on a switch down low.
Bergrren backs it in and is fouled but can't convert the bucket. He hits 2. 36-22.
Milwaukee drives the lane and is fouled. Panthers miss both from the stripe.
Evans works down low and gets fouled on the turn around jumper. Evans knocks home 1 of 2.
Gasser gets abused by the taller player down low. Panthers make 1 of 2 37-23
Badgers work it down low to Bergrren and he converts.
Nice move down low by Harsma for Milwaukee for the score.
Brust does a nice fake to get an open 3 but is a little off.
Bergrren gets abused down low and gives up the bucket.
Taylor fouled out high on the dribble. Evans draws the foul and hits 2 foul shots and now has 13.
Harsma abuses Kavinsky and he will get to shoot 2.
Timeout
Milwaukee misses both free throws and they are brutal from the line.
Badger score 41 Milwaukee 27
Evans on the stop jumper and he is on fire, draws the foul as well and makes it the old fashion 3.
Milwaukee misses the three and another shot.
Taylor with a quick miss but Evans with a rebound in a career night for him.
Timeout:
Badger score 44 Milwaukee 27
Badgers with a quick miss down low.
Milwaukee can't hit in the paint and the Badgers clear the boards.
Badgers working the offense this trip, and Brust tries a runner and gets blocked.
Nice runner by Milwaukee, a little bit of a transition play.
Evans tries another jumper but can't connect.
Kaminsky picks up a foul battling down low away from the play.
Milwaukee misses the straight away three.
Bergrren turns it over as he steps on the line down low. Bo Ryan upset on the hip check that pushes him out a little.
Timeout:
Badgers give up a quick three pointer and that gets the crowd going.
Taylor tries to go the other way and score quick down low and is way off.
Milwaukee goes down the other way and hits another three to get within 9. At this point Bo might need to actually bench Taylor as he is hurting this team.
Timeout
Badger score 44 Milwaukee 39
Badgers make one of 2 foul shots and then Milwaukee hits a three in transition.
Badgers turn it over down low.
Milwaukee drives and Taylor gets beat and another bucket Milwaukee on a 13-1 run. Taylor needs to sit.
Taylor drives and misses quick, he is still out there.
Taylor gets abused again in the paint, Milwaukee makes the shot and Taylor fouls. Taylor needs to sit the heck down becuase this is brutal.
Badger score 45 Milwaukee 43.
Taylor on the dribble on the wrong side of a 16 to 1 run. Crowd into the game.
Taylor pusts up an absolute brick of a forced three.
Milwaukee tries a quick 3 but misses and Badgrs coming back.
Gasser finally scores down low. 47-43.
Timeout Milwaukee
Hopefully this timeout give Bo enough time to think about placing the senior Taylor at the end of the bench before he looses this game. Taylor has been abused on defense and on offense has been a disaster missing bad shots leading to buckets going the other way.
Milwaukee misses a nice look down low.
Taylor on the dribble and he turns it over, what does Bo not see.
Milwaukee misses an open 3 and the Badgers get the board.
Long three by the Badgers is off and then Bergrren commits a foul trying to get the board.
Timeout
Badger score 47 Milwaukee 43.
Not sure how Bo can't sit Taylor now, his play has been beyond bad senior leader or pre-season All American unfortunately for the good of the team he needs to sit.
Milwaukee scores and it is now 47-46 Badgers.
Badgers can't score and Milwaukee back the other way. Shot goes up and out of bounds off of Milwaukee.
Taylor still on the dribble, Bergrren goes up with the jumper and is fouled. 5 minutes left.
Bergrren hits 1 of 2.
Milwaukee drives the lane and ties it, the Badgers can't do anything on defense down low.
Brust throws it down low on a wild pass and lucky it hit a Panther out of bounds.
Badgers run down the clock and Bergrren hits a three out top at the buzzer. Big shot. 51-48.
Brust abused down low and gives up the easy 2. 51 - 50.
Taylor drives down low, spins and finally scores. 53-50.
Milwaukee travels.
Timeout
Badger score 53 Milwaukee 50
Milwaukee goes big out of the break, Milwaukee fouls away from the ball. Taylor was trying to cut and gut a bump. Taylor hits 2 of 2. 55-50.
Milwaukee shoots a long quick 3 and the Badgers get the board.
Evans works down low and throws to Brust who is well off on the stop jumper.
Bergrren redirects the ball and Gasses can't slide and save it.
Milwaukee has to shoot a deep three and it doesn't draw iron.
Under 2 minutes and the Badgers work clock. Taylor on the dribble and he drives and throws up a terrible shot.
Evans gets beat to the rim and Milwaukee scores and is down 3.
Timeout
Badger score 55 Milwaukee 52
Taylor still in the game and on the dribble, Badgers need points only up 3. Taylor with a deep 3 and he hits it.
Milwaukee shoots a long 3 and that is way off. Badger tie it up on the board but it stays with the Panthers.
Milwaukee down 6, Milwaukee with an open look and the Badgers foul on the board what a critical mistake.
Milwaukee hits both.
Milwaukee with the full court press but Gasser breaks it and runs a bunch of time of the clock.Gasser misses the front end and Milwaukee misses a quick 3.
6.6 seconds left and it looks like the Badgers will likely pull it out. Bergrren with the foul shot make.
Badgers win this one 60 to 54 in what was an ugly second half for the Badgers on the road as they were outplayed and dominated inside.

UW Badgers Basketball vs UNLV - Ben Brust on Fire Video

2011-12-10T15:40:00.000-08:00

The UW Badgers basketball team was able to pick up the win vs UNLV 62 to 51 despite pre-season All American Jordan Taylor going 0-10 from the floor and finishing with just 4 points. You ask how can a team win like that, well that is why you need help from other scorers throughout the season and it is becoming clear the best scorer on the team is in fact sophomore Ben Brust. Ben Brust led all scorers with 25 points vs UNLV and was 8 for 9 from the floor and 7 for 7 from three point range. You will recall that Brust had a touch a week as you can have last week from beyond the arc so it is exciting as can be to see him have the shooters mentality that it won't phase him very long. You need to check out the below video of Ben Brust and his threes, the most impressive part is that he is getting himself open. Brust is not just some three pointer shooter that needs the right pass to make it happen, he can do it all on his own.

here is the video -

The next big thing to get excited about is the Badger's defense continued to do their thing holding UNLV to 51 points. UNLV just missed the top 25 this week and was 9 and 1 coming into the game based on a really strong offense that was 13th in the nation in scoring. Chase Stanback the senior guard is a stud for UNLV still had 16 points on 5 of 9 shooting but overall the Badgers showed some moxy in this one.

Montee Ball Denied Doak Walker? What, How?

2011-12-08T21:18:00.000-08:00

Montee Ball was denied the Doak Walker award we sort of saw it coming with the clear hype machine, but this is one of the most blatant screwups in recent voting for "major" trophies. As you know Alabama's Trent Richardson won the award given to the "nations best" running back". I really thought this award was more of a pure award that was actually based more in reality but clearly that was wrong.

We haven't touched on this yet but want to throw this out there on how impressive Ball's touchdown numbers are in reality. What the nation somehow hasn't grasped is that Ball is scoring a historic level of touchdowns on a team with a number of other big time playmakers that could be getting the opportunity and responsibility in the red zone. The Badgers have a legit Heisman trophy QB contender and he isn't looked at to throw it into the end zone to two very capable receivers and a high quality tight end. You combine this with the fact that Big Ten defenses know who is getting the rock in the red zone and they haven't done one thing to stop it and it is extremely remarkable. Plus you add on the fact, how many time can you think of that the plan failed? Complete joke of an award, you can't have a historic season in a major conference and not pick up the hardware. Richardson's season wasn't even that remarkable for a top running back if you look at other years and how he didn't deliver in big games. Plus the final point is Montee Ball is a more complete back when you look at things besides rushing. Montee there are those who apparently have heard of cable and the internet and those who may or may not be living in the Southeast or in the East and are living under rocks, don't know what else to say. Wish there was one more game for you in Madison to start the Heisman chant for you.

Montee Ball Heisman 2012

2011-12-04T23:05:00.000-08:00

Montee Ball should win the Heisman in 2012, because when you say Montee Ball you said it all. Of course the last part is our catchy slogan that Montee Ball needed from day one going into this tough Heisman trophy pageant, and that is what it is a pageant because if this was a real deal award they would already be polishing that good looking thing up for Montee. We have the utmost respect for the other players in contention for the 2012 Heisman but lets be realistic now, playing in a conference with great defenses built to stop the running game Mr. Montee Ball put on a rushing show this nation hasn't seen in probably a decade or more. What the other Heisman candidates have done is great but it isn't legendary. Montee Ball just had 4 touchdowns in an epic Championship game against an extraordinarily talented defense, he has 32 rushing touchdowns and 6 receiving touchdowns, he leads the nation in rushing while playing in a balanced offense, and a passer rating of 504.4.

We are going to give you the quick argument as to why Montee Ball should win the Heisman by comparing to the other competitors.

First lets take care of the running back competition vs pretty much only Trent Richardson of Alabama. Trent is a quality player but his Heisman worthiness shouldn't even be a topic with Ball in the mix, for comparison Montee has 14 touchdowns against ranked teams and Richardson has 3; end of story. Montee also has a 6.4 yards per carry versus Richardson's 6.0 and Montee has more yards, and a better arm what more do you need to hear.

Next lets take care of the real competition and that is the Quarterbacks. The real competition comes from Baylor's Robert Griffin. Griffin has had a great season even exceptional if you look at past years except for one key stat and that is he isn't leading to touchdowns which are the ultimate goal, this year the running back has had the more special season and frankly his passer efficiency rating is off the charts at 504.4 so if you need your Heisman winner to be a passer you are in luck. In all seriousness Griffin is great, however how much better is he than the Badger's own Wilson and the stats and the tape will tell you not much. Sure Griffin now leads the nation in passer rating over Wilson but it is 192.3 vs 191.6, he has thrown for 5 more touchdowns than Wilson but actually trails Case Keenum by 9. Griffin is great but Ball had the better season and what people forget is that as shown by his passing and 6 touchdown catches he is also more multi-dimensional than the competition.

The football nation needs to see the facts for what they are Montee Ball pretty much had the quietest historic season in history. Griffin's season was great and will live on, Ball's is the season that should be celebrated for years and years to come.

UW Badgers 2012 Rose Bowl

2011-12-04T22:18:00.000-08:00

The UW Badgers will take on the Oregon Ducks in the 2012 Rose Bowl January 2nd, 2012 and how sweet it is to return to the Grand Daddy of them all for the second straight year. Let us be clear the ultimate goal for the 2011 Badgers after the signing of the outstanding QB Russell Wilson was the National Championship, however that goal was flawed due to the caliber of this years defense making a trip to the 2012 Rose Bowl for the Badgers is a real accomplishment and don't forget it. In sports the toughest thing is repeating your success and the Badgers have done that, the Big Ten Championship win over a MSU playing with all the desire in the world was a real accomplishment that this program, its players, coaches and all associated should be extremely proud of for years to come.

Right now the UW Badgers are not favored in the 2012 Rose Bowl against Oregon and we will get to breaking down the game in the coming days, however we want to first state why this game is great. First unlike 2011 the Badgers get a traditional Pac 12 foe in Oregon unlike TCU last year, TCU deserved to be in that game and was a truly great team it is a shame that the 2011 squad has to listen to the junk about loosing to a "lower" program in TCU. Next call us sentimental but it is pretty cool Ron Dayne will be inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame as the Badgers make a return trip with the should be Heismen winner Montee Ball (yes we know he is going to be ripped off). There are all sorts of reasons to be grateful but we will leave with the obviuse and that is despite not being favored the two high octain offenses in Wisconsin and Oregon guarantee this game to be sexy in the eyes of the media and the nation (always a good thing recruiting wise), and if the Badgers beat Oregon the nation will see the Badgers for the top 3 or 4 team they were this season.

On Wisconsin,

Stay tuned for our extensive coverage of the Badgers in the 2012 Rose Bowl in the days to come.

UW Badger Basketball Roster 2011 / 2012 Season

2011-12-01T22:18:00.000-08:00

UW Badger Basketball Roster 2010 / 2011 Season

No.	Name	Year / Position	Ht	Wt
1	Ben Brust	Sophomore / Guard	6-1	190
2	Jordan Smith	Freshman / Guard	6-1	175
3	George Marshall	Freshman / Guard	5-11	180
5	Ryan Evans	Junior / Guard, Forward	6-6	210
10	Dan Fayey	Junior / Guard	6-3	195
11	Jordan Taylor	Senior / Guard	6-1	195
12	Traevon Jackson	Freshman / Guard	6-2	215
13	Duje Dukan	Sophomore / Forward	6-8	205
21	Josh Gasser	Sophomore / Guard	6-3	190
22	J.D. Wise	Junior / Guard	6-0	185
31	Mike Bruesewitz	Junior / Forward	6-6	222
32	Evan Anderson	Freshman / Center	6-10	260
33	Rob Wilson	Senior / Guard, Forward	6-4	200
40	Jared Berggren	Junior / Forward, Center	6-10	235
44	Frank Kaminsky	Feshman / Forward	6-11	230

UW Badger Basketball Schedule 2011,2012| TV, Score, Time

2011-12-01T22:03:00.000-08:00

UW Badger Basketball Schedule 2011-2012

Date,TV, Time, Location, Recaps| Scores 2011-2012

Saturday, November 12 Time: 12:00 PM CT TV: Already Played UW Score: 85-31 Win	UW Badgers vs Kennesaw State
Tuesday, November 16 Time: 7:00 PM CT TV: Already Played UW Score: 68-41 Win	UW Badgers vs Colgate
Saturday, November 19 Time: 7:00 PM CT TV: Already Played UW Score: 69-33 Win	UW Badgers at Wofford
Tuesday, November 22 Time 7:00 PM CT TV: Already Played UW Score: 77-31 Win	UW Badgers vs UMKC
Friday, November 25 Time: 7:30 PM CT TV: Already Played UW Score: 66-43 Win	UW Badgers vs Bradley
Saturday, November 26 Time: 7:00 PM CT TV: Already Played UW Score: 73-56 Win	UW Badgers vs Bringham Young
Wednesday, November 30 Time: 8:30 PM CT TV: Already played UW Score: 57-60 Loss	UW Badgers at North Carolina
Saturday, December 3 Time: 3:30 PM CT TV: Already Played UW Score: 54-61 Loss	UW Badgers vs Marquette
Wednesday, December 7 Time: 7:00 PM CT TV: Already Played UW Score: 70-42 Win	UW Badgers vs UW Green Bay
Tuesday, December 13 Time: 7:00 PM CT TV: http://www.horizonleague.org/live/4577	UW Badgers vs Milwaukee
Thursday, December 15 Time: 7:00 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers vs Savannah State
Friday, December 23 Time: 4:30 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers vs Mississippi State
Tuesday, December 27 Time: 8:00 PM CT TV: ESPN 2, ESPN 3	UW Badgers at Nebraska
Wednesday, December 31 Time: 12:00 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers vs Iowa
Tuesday, January 3 Time: 6:00 PM CT TV: ESPN, ESPN 3	UW Badgers vs Michigan State
Sunday, January 8 Time: TBD PM CT TV: CBS	UW Badgers at Michigan
Thursday, January 12 Time: 6:00 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers at Purdue
Sunday, January 15 Time: 5:00 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers vs Nebraska
Wednesday, January 18 Time: 8:00 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers vs Northwestern
Sunday, January 22 Time: 1:00 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers at Illinois
Thursday, January 26 Time: 8:00 PM CT TV: ESPN 2, ESPN 3	UW Badgers vs Indiana
Wednesday, January 31 Time: 7:00 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers at Penn State
Saturday, February 12 Time: 1:00 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers vs Ohio State
Wednesday, February 16 Time: 6:00 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers at Minnesota
Sunday, February 20 Time: 6:00 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers at Michigan State
Tuesday, January 31 Time: 7:00 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers vs Penn State
Saturday, February 4 Time: 1:00 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers at Ohio State
Thursday, February 9 Time: 6:00 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers at Minnesota
Thursday, February 16 Time: 6:00 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers at Michigan State
Thursday, February 16 Time: 6:00 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers at Michigan State
Thursday, February 16 Time: TBD TV: CBS	UW Badgers vs Penn State
Thursday, February 16 Time: 8:00 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers at Iowa
Thursday, February 16 Time: 7:00 PM CT TV: Big Ten Network	UW Badgers vs Minnesota
Thursday, February 16 Time: TBD PM CT TV: CBS	UW Badgers vs Illinois

Badger Basketball 2010, 2011 schedule

UW Badgers Basketball Colgate: Blog Reaction

2011-11-16T19:10:00.000-08:00

The UW Badgers basketball took on Colgate in their second game of the season at the Kohl Center in Madison and the outcome is what the fans have come to expect another Badger home win. Lets be honest as a Badger fan at this point it is sort of like going to the movies you know the good guy is going to win 99% of the time at home you just want to see how they do it. Unfortunately despite the lopsided win at 68 to 41 it was pretty clear this Badgers squad has a lot to work on in the weeks leading up to their showdown with number 1 UNC.

First the good, Ben Brust despite riding a lot of pine his freshman year looks like a kid with that Badger attitude we have come to expect. Brust scored a career high 17 points in 28 minutes on 6 of 11 shooting and even added a couple of steels. Brust can knock it down from outside as we all know but he looks adept at taking it to the hole and showed that off nicely today. Gasser had an off day today but you combine him with Brust you know two guys who look like they are going to fight for you and want the ball at the end of games, of course the Badgers already have Taylor for that but you need more and the Badgers seem to have it.

Now the bad news, the Badgers shot the ball so badly from the free throw line at 4 of 14 they are still probably running laps for coach Ryan. Honestly it is hard to even believe a Badger team could pull that horrible stat off from the line in a game. The other really bad news is that the Badgers didn't block out nearly as well as they should have, the young inside players have some learning to do. Finally Taylor went 3 of 10 from the game for 9 points and while it didn't matter you never want your stud to play a game like he played. The good news is the Badgers won going away but that was due to being at such a different level to start with, had the Badgers had to play another top 25 team today they don't look ready to win on a consistant basis. As it stands the Badgers best shot at winning games against top competition is to fill the hoop in a hurry and that isn't a way the Badgers will win with enough to be a major player this season.

UW Badger Football vs MSU 2011: Game Score, Time, Live Blog

2011-10-22T14:44:00.000-07:00

UW Badgers vs MSU Spartans Live Blog

Badger Score 31 Spartans 37TV: ABC, Time 7:00 CT

We will be doing a live blog for this prime time matchup for the Badgers vs the Spartans in East Lancing so make sure to come back and follow the game with us and add some comments.

1st Quarter

Badgers 1st Drive

The Badgers recieve the kick and start from the 15.
Monte Ball gets a good gain on the first play of the game 8 yards.
Ball picks up the first down with another solid 4 yards.
Ball gashes for 6 more yards.
James White gives Ball a briether and picks up 3 going up the middle.
Wilson back to pass and hits Pederson at the sideline for what looks like 20 yards, not the worlds most perfect pass but not bad considering his first throw.
The Badgers on the move hear pretty well, the run is working and the pass was open.
Timeout Badgers after they let the clock down to 4 seconds and didn't like what they had.
Ball after some trickery goes up the middle and finds daylight for 7 yards, not touched until 3 yards.
Badgers just pounding.
Play action fake, not really great but Toon open over the middle and he is hit with a dart for 15. Almost a TD going away.
Ball with great running to the sideline waiting for his block. Ball for 7 yards.
Badgers pick up a terrible false start penalty in the red zone, Ricky Wagnor guilty.
Here we go we are the best in the red zone but we need this.
Ball up the middle for 6. Probably should have passed with the whole MSU team looking run.
Wilson goes back waits for it and Pederson is wide freaking open in the end zone TD.
What a march, and the crowd and MSU has something to thing about as the Badgers abused them.
(that was a big time statement drive right there, there was not a single play on that drive that we believe was 11 plays where MSU can say they did something to stop the Badgers, they got mauled little a high school team early) That drive took 6 minutes plus.

Badgers score 7 MSU 0

MSU 1st drive

Spartans to recieve lets see how they respond. The Spartans take it out to the 25 after the bouncing kick down to the 2.
Spartans fumble on the first carry running wide. Taylor puts the helmet on the ball and Cromartie recovers.
Play under review because Cromartie flew from being out of bounds. This could be huge. Ruling on the field stands.
Badgers 2nd drive
Badgers are starting with great field position for their second drive.
Badgers on the MSU 30, Ball picks up 5 running wide right. They give him 3.
Wilson on a cheap play action and Wilson hits Abraderris on the slant left for 15.
Ball slices and dices and just like that the Spartans are stairing into a crater.
(well the Badgers sent a different message this time they decided to score quickly going run, pass, run to score in about a minute. Why not the defense didn't get to winded on the Spartans last 1 play possession.)

Badgers score 14 MSU 0

Spartans 2nd Drive

Spartans back to receive and lets not hope for a big return that can get MSU back into this game. Badgers have the Spartans on the ropes in the first round and you have to think are going to be dialing up haymakers to end it early. Kick to the middle of the field and nice open field tackle before the 20.
Time of possesion Badgers 7+ and Spartans 15 seconds.
Cousins back to pass and hits on the sideline for 13 yards.
Cousins goes play action and he gets sacked after the coverage didn't bite.
2nd and 17, throw over the middle to Cunningham and they pick up the first down. That was a good looking play.
Spartans on their 45. Baker running wide and finds no daylight. Borland on the tackle.
Baker stutters in the backfield after not finding the whole and Borland blows that puppy up in the backfield.
Third and long 14, Spartans pass well short of first down and the Spartans will be punting.
A mini victory as the Spartans did help themselves on field position.

Badgers 3rd Drive

Abbrederis lets the ball bounce and it takes a Badger hop to the 23.
3:39 left in the first and lets see if we can't 21 in the first quarter.
White almost looks like he might find the house but is found for only a 14 yard run on first down.
White explodes up the middle for maybe 5 or 6, good burst there through the crease.
White doesn't find his whole and only gets half a yard and that forces a pass here on third and four.
Badgers run the draw play to Ball with extra defensive backs in the game. Ball gets his first down.
Badgers at the 50.
White is finally met in the backfield, so lets see what we do now.
It sails on Wilson and he gets picked off for the second time this season. Toon didn't adjust to the route.
Toon is the one who gets the talking to on the sideline. Well that was pretty unfortunate, if that play goes well the Badgers are in the red zone. By the way Wilson sprinted down field and made the tackle on the pick.

Spartans 3rd Drive
Spartans run the toss play and get 32 yards and all of a sudden they have some momentum.
Spartans on the 45 and the toss play gets another 5 or so as that play is working.
Spartans going towards the pylon and cromartie nice play on the under thrown ball. The Badgers bring 2 linebackers on the blitz and don't get home.
Big third down. Badgers bring pressure again and they might have gotten there just quick enough to blow that play up. Spartans punting.

Badgers 4th Drive

Badgers are going to start at the 5 after a nice punt and the Spartans win the field position battle.
We have a prediction for the next series for you, Ball, Ball, Ball, Ball, Ball repeat.
Spartans stuff Ball in the backfield and that was almost a safety, Olgesby is burned.
Wilson on play action had to throw it away. They call intentional grounding and that is a safety.
crap. You give up the 2 and now the Spartans are probably going to get good field position as well. That was a mistake by Wilson on that one. There was nobody on the side of the field Wilson through to and you have to wonder what he was thinking.

Badgers score 14 Spartans 2
Badgers kick from the 20 and really some nice pursuit means the Spartans will be starting at their 27.
Baker back into the game.
Spartans complete a pass on the slant for 9 yards. Nice hands on the throw behing Cunningham.
Baker runs for the first down beyond their 40 now.
Badgers could use a stop hear.
Badgers leave the tight end all alone up the middle and the Spartans get a big gainer.
Spartans all the way down to the Badgers 35.
Spartans score on a double end a round and the Spartans are back in this game.
The Badgers almost cought them deep on the double reverse but when it didn't happen he had a pretty clean lane.

Badgers scroe 14 Spartans 9

Badgers 5th Drive
Badgers need a scoring drive right here as the Spartans have quickly built up a lot of momentum.
You have to wonder what might have happened if not for the pick if the Badgers could have gone up a quick 21 but now they have kept the Spartans in this game.
White takes the kick out to the 30.
Wilson on the keeper to the 45 and that might have been a nice little play call to get a positive play after a few stinkers.
Ball going right middle and goes through a small crease for 4 or so.
Badgers get called for a false start on Toon and he is having a rough day, wow what a mistake from a senior and now the Badgers have 2nd and 11. To many mistakes now in this game for the Badgers.
Wilson keeps it again and is one blocker to short and he only gets 5 so 3rd and 6 now.
Badgers at the 50. Wilson with all day and a nice thow to the outside to Abrederris for just past the marker.
Badgers with a quick end a round and that happened very quickly to Abrederris for 21 yards. Nice looking full speed play.
Badgers knocking on the door now just outside the 20.
Wilson gets pressure and has to step up for just a few yard gain. Perimeter pressure on that one. Ball misses the block.
Ball nice run up the middle for call it 7. Ball appears a little hurt as he falls back down after getting up. There should have been a face mask called on a cheap shot after the play by MSU, they are a garbage team.
White running wide and he can't get the first down.
Welch in to kick a thirty yard field goal and it is blocked. Badgers are going to need some things to start going right. A bad hold there.

Spartans 5th Drive
Badgers need a bid stop on this drive as the offense has been sputtering.
Spartans pick up 4 yards on first.
Another toss to the right, and the Badgers stuff that one.
Big third and 4. All day to throw and they get 5 for the first down.
Spartans get a guy wide open, the tight end again and that it a big gain for 25 plus.
Spartans going wide again for 3 or 4 yards.
Badgers really need a quick stop to get the ball back again this half.
Spartans get really close to a first down as they pick up 4.
Spartans try the toss play outside and they lost yardage.
Spartans are going to go for it on fourth and 2.
All day to throw and it goes over the middle and the Spartans are in the lead now.

Badgers score 14 Spartans 16

Badgers 6th Drive
Abrederiss takes the kick to the 30 and the Badgers could use some positive plays after a horrible 2nd quarter.
Wilson sacked on first down and what was going to be a quick throw outside.
White is taken down in the backfield.
MSU stops the clock now with 51 seconds left in the half as the Badgers have some big issues.
Screen pass to White and the Badgers don't get the first down and now the Badgers give it back with 47 seconds. The punt is blocked and now it is a TD for MSU and things are going down hill in a big hurry.

Badger score 14 Spartans 23

Badgers 7th Drive
Abbrederis upended at the 27.
White taken down in the backfield.
Badgers going into the locker room and regroup.

Halftime

Badgers Score 14 Spartans 23
So after the Badgers rolled out of the gates for 14 fast impressive points the wheels fell off after mistake after mistake, hopefully they can get things back together. MSU gets the ball to start the half and it is a must stop to keep them from scoring on that first drive of the second half. That mistake by Toon that led to an interception was so disruptive as the Badgers looked to be rolling to a 21 point first quarter lead. We are going to find out a lot about Wilson and this Badgers team in 2011 in this second half.

Spartans 1st Drive
Badgers kicking it to start the second half and low kick at the 11 and it gets taken out to the 28.
Cousins was 8 out of 10 in the first half and that needs to change.
Good play for the Spartans on first down as Baker goes for 7. Southland hurt on the play and he was in for Shelton Johnson who is already hurt so who else do we have.
Badgers need some good mojo to start going on, second and three and Borland with the stop in the backfield.
Badgers can't off the field again on third down as the Spartans pick up 2 more than they need on a pass to the outside.
Spartans at their 40 and the Badgers get a nice stop in the backfield, loss of 2.
Direct snap to the running back picks up a solid gain of 6.
Badgers need to get off this field with third and 6.
Badgers blitz Taylor and it is quick enough that Cousins threw to quickly and an incomplete pass and now this drive didn't start in disaster.

Badgers 1st Drive
Poor punt and the Badgers start on the 25.
Huge drive here for the Badgers offense that has had 4 bad possesions in a row.
Play action and Abredderis wide open all the way to the 50, shaky pass by Wilson though but on second review nice touch.
Abredderis on the quick run and it didn't work again.
Second and 10, Wilson was looking for a shovel pass and Wilson still finds Abredderis for the first down.
Badgers on the MSU 45. Play action and Wilson finds Ball who has daylight down the sideline all the way down to the 18.
Wilson is pressured and tries to find the sideline and can't.
2nd and 11. Blitz comes and Ball only gets 6 or so. Big third down here in the red zone. The Badgers need 7 on 3rd and 7. Wilson rolls and he misses a wide open Pederson and that take 6 off the board.
Welch on for a 33 yard field goal and the last was blocked, this one is through and that was points but a major disapointment. Wilson looked like at the least like he could have ran for the first, probably the right call to throw to the wide open man but that is one where he had time and should have just set his feet and thrown the strike instead of floater.

Badgers Score 17 Spartans 23

Spartans 2nd Drive
The kick goes back to the 5 and gets taken out to the 27 and the one thing you can say is the kick coverage has been fairly decent considering what was supposed to be a pretty good return game.
Borland picks up the sack on a wierd looking play by the Spartans. Borland with 7 tackles already.
2nd down and Kohut with a big stop in the backfield.
Badgers have the Spartans 3rd and 15 and this is huge. Ball gets dropped off to the running back and the Badgers make the stop. OK this is what the Badgers need a way to get back in the lead.

Badgers 2nd Drive
Abrederris gets it at the 25 on the punt and can only go to the 28.
Badgers have a chance now to get the lead back, White up the middle for a couple.
White up the middle for a first down. Good now we have a little something do to start this drive.
Wilson to Abbrederis on the slant to the MSU 40, nice looking play right there.
Wilson rolls out and throws back across his body and he misses a wide open to Pederson.
2nd and 10, White goes up the middle for only a couple. Ball in on third down but there must be a reason he isn't really a part of the running game. Big third down play here.
Wilson fumbles the ball out of bounds trying to run for the first down. He pumps one last time and dropped it.
The Badgers are going to punt from the 38. Bad punt and it comes out to the 20.
The Badgers offense stalls out again after another Wilson mistake, and he is not having a very good game this time on the road. You have to question if maybe the Badgers should have just gone for it on 4th and 8.

Spartans 3rd Drive
This game is getting late enough now that the Badgers defense needs all stops.
Short pass outside picks up 6 for the Spartans.
Another short pass and it is cought but the slip looses the Spartans a yard.
Third and 5 and lets see what happens here. Spartans complete it on third down and the blitz didn't get home.
Spartans throw short and Cunningham picks up extra yards. Spartans have something going now and this isn't good for the Badgers.
Bell up the middle on the run for 6 yards. Mike Taylor missed the tackle.
Spartans at the Badgers 36 now.

4th Quarter
Bell squirts for the first down with the spin move up the middle.
The Badgers now need a turnover or a sack or at least not give up the TD because that could be devestating.
Toss play picks up 5.
Bell doesn't get a first down and now it third and a couple.
The Badgers need to make the big stop on third and 4 right now. This could be the game right now.
Cousins throws for the first down and that is devestating, he had all day.
Toss play again and Henry makes the play in the backfield.
Another run play and the Spartans try to stretch it out and then take it back up the middle.
Huge third and 11 coming, the Badgers need the stop. Spartans make a big play on the catch short of the sticks and that might be the game right there as he goes in for the TD. That was a 14 play 7 minute drive which is a back breaker. Spartans go for 2 and convert. The Badges need some magic now. Badgers took real poor angles to the receiver to give up the TD.

Badgers score 17 Spartans 31

Badgers 3rd Drive
Well now it has to become the Wilson show as the Badgers are out of options, they need points and they need them in a hurry.
White makes a mistake taking it out of the end zone and doesn't get back to the 20.
Abbrederis on the end a round and he didn't get the block he needed and only gets 9.
Badgers get called for a false start another mistake by the Badgers, Zeitler guilty.
Wilson throws it deep and hits Abbrederis in stride but drops the ball.
3rd and 6 and they need to make this happen. Wilson throws it low and they have to punt.

Spartans 4th Drive
The Badgers need a turnover in the worst way right now.
Spartans up the middle for a few.
Cousins had to throw it away after seeing pressure.
Third and 8 and the Badgers just need this right now. Badgers blitz and that was ugly but Cousins screwed that play up.

Badgers 4th Drive
Abbrederis with a nice return from the 20 up to the 43.
Badgers could use a nice quick score right here, look for them to go right back to the deep pass to Abbrederis. You have to wonder if Toon is really to hurt to play as he has been a non factor in the game other than the negative play on the interception.
Wilson has to throw it away and it is second and 10.
Ball up the middle and he sees daylight for 20 yards. Spartans didn't see that coming.
Wilson runs it in from the 20 for the TD. That is what we needed a very quick score.

Badgers score 24 Spartans 31

Spartans 5th Drive
Spartans take the kick to the 26 and the Badgers Ewing gets called for a late hit and that is a huge mistake.
Spartans now at their 40. Cousins almost threw the pick to Fenelus.
Spartans go back up the middle with the run and get 3.
Spartans have 3rd and 8, this is huge again. Badgers could get the ball back with 7 minutes to go to try and tie this up. Cousins has it deflected at the line and the defense makes a big play.
Abbrederis with another shot at a big return. Badgers go for the all out block and just miss it meaning the fair catch is needed.

Badgers 5th Drive
Badgers need Wilson to come up big again but Wilson made a huge mistake and throws a pick on a play he should have eaton. What was Wilson a senior doing, there was no reason to throw across his body into double coverage.

Spartans 6th Drive
Badgers still have time if they can get the quick stop.
2nd and 7. Bell with a good run for 3. Third and 3 and of course bigger than huge.
Cousins gets sacked as Hemer comes right up the middle and boy oh boy that was what they needed. Now they can't go on fourth down either. Wilson will get another shot at redemtion.They kick it away from Abbrederis and he lets it roll all the way down to the 12.

Badgers 6th Drive
Badgers have a long way to go and they need 7.
Ball up the middle for 11 yards.
Ball slashes right middle for 13. Is this just like the Rose Bowl with to little running to late.
Abbrederis again on the end around and he gets 3.
Three Twenty Seven left in the game.
Ball gets stoned and now a big third down play coming. Don't like that call to the outside when the middle was working. Third and 9 and they need it. Wilson waits all day and finds Ewing for the first down. Wilson waited for ever on that play. Wilson scoots up the middle and the Badgers get called on the holding, you have to wonder how MSU hasn't got a penalty in the game. Wagnor gets called and now it is 1st and 20. Yikes. Toon works his way back and he catches it out of bounds for a 42 yard gain down to the 15. Wilson bought a lot of time on that play and now the Badgers are in business. Spartans call timeout. 1:39 left in this game. All of those points this offense left on the field in this game is coming back to haunt them.
Abbrederis open and takes it at the sideline and they are now at the MSU 3.
Badgers you would have to think will call Ball's number. Wilson drops back to pass and a short one to Ball and he goes in for the TD. Great to see the Badgers come back and get this game tied but they are leaving a lot of time on the clock.

Badgers score 31 Spartans 31

Spartans 7th Drive
Spartans returner dropped it but still got back to the 22.
Swing pass and they get 4 yards out of bounds.
MSU has a kicker that can kick at least 50 so the Badgers need stops.
Cousins throws incomplete, nice coverage by the Badgers.
Third and 7 and if MSU doesn't complete it the Badgers could be in business.Spartans pick up the first down on the pass to Bell, dang it that was big. Cousins fumbles and the Badgers have a huge chance to pick it up and it just doesn't roll their way.
Spartans are now at 2nd and 21. Badgers defense has had a pretty nice game for not being tested much this season, now is the time to truly show their stripes.
Spartans pick up 12 and BB still calls timeout with 30 seconds left. So the Badgers are gambling on the stop with 2 straight timeouts trying to get the ball back.
So monster huge 3rd and 8. The shovel pass picks up the first down and now they are in business. Complete pass to Bell for 9 yards. Spartans now in UW territory with 10 seconds left and lets hope the used timeouts don't kill us.
Badgers need a big stop here. Incomplete pass Henry on the coverage and 4 seconds left. Now it is the heave for the end zone you would think. Abbrederis back on the goal line, the Spartans catch it for what looks like the TD. That is a ball game. Play is under review but this looks like a TD. Taylor is valient trying to keep the guy out on the tip back out catch. Is it indisputable, we think the Spartans got it in the end zone but maybe it is to hard to tell. So the Badgers loose the absolute heart breaker.

UW Badgers Football vs MSU 2011: Looking Past Spartans

2011-10-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

The UW Badgers football team takes on MSU in 2011 in different circumstances than the 2010 squad. We all know what happened in 2010 the Spartans were the first team on the Big Ten schedule after a lackluster non-confernce schedule and the Badgers came out flat on the road and lost the game. At that point in the season the Badgers were still searching for an identity and to determine how well they might stack up in 2010 with the rest of the Big Ten, as it turns out they still recovered nicely. In 2011 things are very different as the Badgers have already found their mojo and are trying to determine where they stack up in the National Title race.

The rallying cry from people across the nation is Wisconsin will be exposed as the fraud it is when it comes out flat against MSU on the road again. We have a few argument points for you on why that will not happen. First the Badgers are a better team at this point in the season than last years squad was, they are a National Championship contender not a hope we can make the Rose Bowl team. The 2010 team was tested often during the non-conferce schedule because the offense wasn't yet clicking even against not the greatest competion and this carried over to the MSU game. In 2011 the Badgers offense has clicked on every cylinder possible from the get go and this has to do with this being a much more talented offense. Our next point is the Badgers haven't come out flat in a single regular season game since last years MSU game, there is no reason that they would now.

Our final point to teams in general left on the schedule on why you won't catch a break with the Badgers overlooking you is simple, they aren't going to be coming to the field to beat you they are looking for a title shot and are coming to the field to beat you into a silly looking pulp on national TV. Right or wrong the Badgers need to kick your tail feathers every game, so make no mistake about it they are scheming and preparing for domination. Frankly we love this approach because while we understand domination might not happen in every game it is the optimal approach to come into a game, if you come to the field to dominate your standards are high and you are sharp and looking to improve every quarter. Of course anything can happen, we can't guarantee a Badgers victory but the odds are not in the Spartans favor.

UW Badgers Football 2011 - Still No Respect?

2011-10-16T22:11:00.000-07:00

So far the UW Badgers football 2011 team has taken every team they have played to the figurative wood shed, with the real statistics to back it up. The Badgers have to show for their impressive victories an equally impressive number 4 ranking in both polls, yet we still have to put up with the trolls throughout the country that claim we aren't very good.

We hear it around here all the time in the fall that UW wins because of its system, oh no wait that is the basketball team the football team wins with a combination of talent, smarts, grit and athleticism that comes together unequally in Madison. Please keep in mind when you watch the Badgers that they aren't beating teams because of a unique concocted offense instead they are running a pro style offense to perfection, they don't get by on defense with multiple blitz packages or unique coverages to hide less skilled players they just lace them up and come at you.

If your team has more talent on offense than the Badgers in 2011 you must be from Oklahoma and combining teams and that is about it because the Badgers have a bountiful roster of players that will be playing in the NFL very shortly. In short why do the Badgers score a lot of points against all competition the last two seasons, because their quarterback, both running backs, fullback, tight end, entire line, and both starting wide receivers will be drafted to the NFL at some point. Can your team say that? We didn't think so. The Badgers offense has scored the most points in the country and done it with the most balanced offense between passing and rushing, something for your defensive coordinator to ponder. Our final point is our QB has the highest QB rating in the nation at 210.9. Quit saying we don't want a piece of your team whoever it is trolls, the Badgers match-up versus anyone.

Wisconsin Badgers vs Nebraska Huskers 2011: Prime Time Game - Husker Ignorance

2011-06-27T19:59:00.000-07:00

While there has already been plenty of smack talked by all of the Nebraska Huskers fans regarding Wisconsin and Nebraska's prime time tilt at the start of the season, it just went to fever pitch with the Badgers signing up Russell Wilson to presumably start at QB. You have likely heard the Nebraska talk, and if you hadn't we would point you in the right direction but at this point it is pretty easy to find. To summarize Nebraska has a defense the likes of which the Badgers have never seen, Wilson adds little as Nebraska's defense could shut down Aaron Rodgers if it had a couple weeks to prepare.

For the most part we are going to let the play on the field speak for itself, and besides a lot can happen between now and a Badger vs Huskers game that is months away but we will point out a few items. First this is a night game at Wisconsin, not sure how you Husker fans don't realize that you start at a big disadvantage no matter what. Next we would like to point out that the majority of the Badgers offense went up against a dang good defense everyday in practice last year which is a big reason it should be very difficult to stop this team. The Badgers have a formidable running attack, welcome to the Big Ten guys because you haven't been hit in the jaw yet by a team that prides itself on running the ball like this in a while. The Badgers still have a young coach that made a major mistake in the Rose Bowl by not pounding it down TCU's throats in the second half, the man learns his lessons well and it won't happen again.

Look we aren't saying we are going to win, we aren't sure we have enough playmakers on defense to be a Rose Bowl / National Contender because we feel you need at least 3 prime time players for that. We are the home team, and one of the top teams in the Big Ten and your going to have a problem on your hands when you come to Madison.

PS we hope you don't make the mistake of coming to the game as fans talking all this trash because as nice as we are in Madison, we will let the door hit you on the way out if you want to roll like that.

UW Badgers Basketball vs Belmont Reaction

2011-03-17T21:28:00.000-07:00

You already know that the UW Badgers basketball team proved the babble head Seth Davis wrong by defeating Belmont 72 to 58 in the March Madness 2011 round, so here are our thoughts. A bunch of talking heads somehow convinced themselves that they should take a team that doesn't even seem to have players in good enough shape much less basketball skill to stay with a team that had two Naismith award finalists on the roster. We really don't know how this could really ever happen, lets recap two Naismith award finalists versus a team of decidedly average athleticism, we hear from time to time how the UW doesn't have enough athletes but make no mistake about it every guy on the Badgers was in better shape than Belmont and a better "athlete". Not to belabor a point but how in the world does an "expert" pick against a team that leads the nation in free throw shooting percentage and least amount of turnovers, well you wouldn't if you were a real expert as those folks in Vegas who make the odds kept their bosses happy.

Enough with the rant and now to the actual game, this Badgers team does have a problem starting and we want to have a big shout out to Ryan Evans for breaking the ice in this game and doing what was needed. Evans only added two early points but his aggressiveness and drives to the hoop clearly jump started his teammates. We don't know why this team isn't starting at the tip but maybe Bo needs to rethink the lineup to start things off. Great game by Mike B., for those who think this programs cupboard is bare next year you clearly haven't seen the way Mike B. has developed because he has the potential to be a first team Big Ten player. We don't know what Gasser thought he was doing out there but either Bo or Taylor should have hit him upside the head early on because he should have had a great day driving to the hoop. Speaking of guys who seemed a little lost is Keaton saving his energy for future games because he seemed tentative again. Finally Tim Jarmusz had his best game in ages in this one. This really seemed like a game where Belmont had the energy to play some decent defense early on and then the Badgers realized they were playing back at the SERF with the really good recreation players that are good but couldn't actually stay with them physically.

Jordan Taylor vs Indiana: Thoughts

2011-03-03T20:48:00.000-08:00

Well if you didn't see Jordan Taylor put the hammer down on Indiana you missed one heck of a show, luckily you can watch the replay on ESPN 3. Taylor just proved the Badgers are a very legit Final Four darkhoarse contender and we can't believe it. Look we admit it when we were in December we thought this was a nice bunch of guys but without the stuff of prior Bo led teams, well when your team develops as the season goes on you end up where we are today. Taylor provides that go to national impact player that you need to have a real shot in the dance, we had that with Harris and Tucker but have missed it since. In addition you can't underestimate what it means to be the best free throw shooting team and the least prone to turnovers in the nation, those are two very nice stats to be at the top of and that speaks to the quality of the entire team. In addition to Taylor of course Jon Leuer is an impact clutch player, and Nankivil has embraced that role more this season as well and Josh Gasser just has it in his blood despite being a freshman so even if you keep some guys under wraps the Badgers have that necessary multi-scoring threat that is needed in addition to the dynamo. Brace yourselves folks this could be one heck of a March for the State of Wisconsin and not just because of the um governor.

UW Badger Basketball vs Michigan: Oh My Josh!

2011-02-23T20:36:00.000-08:00

Well this is one of those road games where the UW Badger basketball team just didn't look like it had what it had what it takes to win on the road, but they did 53 to 52 on Josh Gasser's last second banked three (more on that later). In this game the Badgers shot only 36.2% overall and 27.6% from 3 hitting only 8 of 29 from deep and somehow they shot only 3 free throws in the entire game. What was particularly disappointing in this game was Leuer's play as he went 0-6 from deep and was virtually non-existent in the second half despite showing early in the game he could simply shoot over the Wolverines from within 10 feet, why on earth he didn't do that all game long we will never know. In addition while Taylor finished with 20 points and only 1 turnover it simply didn't look like he was having a very good game until very late in the second half, sometimes stats really are deceiving.

You have to ask yourselves how the Badgers were even in this game for a chance to win it in the end? First is that they always seemed to find an answer when they needed it, they never once let Michigan get on a run where they could get in front by more than 5 despite many times when it looked like just that might happen so the shooting was clutch when needed. Next Nankivil had a five minute stretch with 7 to play in the game where played great on both ends of the floor, without that stretch the Badgers fate would have been sealed. Finally they have Josh Gasser who is one of those guys who clearly elevates his game at the end when needed, he plays at a pretty competitive level at all times but at the end he just goes nuts with energy. Sure he committed a costly charge because of that energy and that three banked in could be seen as lucky but make no mistake a freshman won this game for the Badgers, he scored the last 5 points and made a great defensive play down the stretch as well. In fact for us the defensive play is probably our Gasser highlight of the year right now, not that banked shot.

We have read a lot in the last couple of hours about Michigan fans talking about how they have a young team that is really good but just young so they mistakes. Well the Badgers do start one freshman and you know what that kid is a finisher, we do think Michigan will be better in future years as recruiting is up but the Badgers will be just fine with Gasser leading the attack and in the meantime we are going dancing come March. It is sort of funny to see Michigan fans try to justify their program to the Badgers and somehow to try and make us look bad, look the Badgers haven't had a rebuilding year in 12 years, um Michigan you have been rebuilding so long we actually have a soft spot in a heart for you and root for you to finally put an end to the madness.

PS: One of my fondest memories was when the Badgers stormed back to beat Michigan at home way back in the days of the Fab 5 when Michigan was great and the Badgers had Yoder at the helm = not so great. If you had asked anybody that day in 20 years where do you think these two programs will be at, nobody would have come close to the answer.

UW Badger Basketball: Wisconsin vs Ohio State - Reaction

2011-02-12T21:20:00.000-08:00

We have been trying to tell you folks this for a long time that the Badgers real best rivalry in the Big Ten is Ohio State and after knocking off both of their number 1 football and basketball teams hopefully you are coming around. What to say, well of course Taylor had a spectacular half but you know what that don't impress us much what does is the play of the rest of the team. For all the talk about Taylor is a shame as this was one heck of a great team victory, every player on that court today gave it their best and that is why they won. Mike B. who you would have thought would have been told after his last three point brick that he no longer had that option drilled some big ones, had offensive rebounds and did a nice job down low overall. Nankivil hit his threes and also did a nice job down low. Until he got in Bo's dog house because of a late first half turnover Ryan Evans was playing nice defense. Jon Leuer did his thing, maybe more quietly than most nights but he got it done. Finally Josh Gasser might not have been noticed by hardly anybody but he is a real player and a difference maker on this team as he continues to improve. Gasser had 11 points on 4 of 5 shooting only one turnover and 7 rebounds, he had a couple of freshman poorly thought out passes but otherwise he really helped this team.

Of course this is an easy thought after beating the number 1 team in the nation, but we will tell you now the Badgers can make noise during March Madness. Despite fans calls of demise this team is actually almost well built for a deep March Madness run in that everybody in the starting rotation can get hot from downtown, they shoot free throws well, they don't turn it over, and they have 2 game changers in Leuer and Taylor. This is not band wagon talk you factor all that in and this team can make a run, they aren't good enough to make almost an automatic run like Texas or Ohio State but they have a pretty good shot.

UW Badgers Basketball vs Iowa: Score, Thoughts

2011-02-09T20:09:00.000-08:00

The UW Badger basketball team won a hard fought game over Iowa on the road 62 to 59 in overtime. To do so the Badgers overcame a horrid shooting display in the first half, but for once they stayed persistent on the road and got the victory. One of the plays of the season so far has to be the play that gets Josh Gasser a nickname as he should now be called the torpedo for his dive on the floor for a loose ball at the end of OT, we will try to get the video up. Now on to the horrible officiating in this game and a holy cow, can't believe Iowa fans are griping about calls. The officiating was overall terrible and that plays to Iowa more as they played hard and undisciplined and got away with a ton. Wisconsin usually doesn't foul as it is. The referee who at the end there went right into a travel call needs to be removed from the Big Ten referee roster until a final investigation of the FBI because that has to have been the most pre-meditated call in the history of basketball. How on that do you go right into a travel call with an over aggressive team that has been fouling all day looking super aggressive again and committing another clear foul. Lets just hope there is a good explanation like living in Iowa City or something. http://badgersmix.com

UW Badgers Basketball vs MSU: So Sweet

2011-02-06T12:11:00.000-08:00

The UW Badgers basketball team just dismantled the MSU Spartans on national TV on CBS (82 to 56), and it doesn't get any better than that. The look on Izzo's face is so priceless it has to be the highlight of they year. CBS gave the Badgers also sorts of love, it wasn't like they were talking about how bad MSU was it was about all that the Badgers can do with their efficient team and group of scorers. The Badgers got contributions from the whole team but in particular Taylor was just off the hook today as he went nuts scoring from everywhere on the court (30 points,1 turnover and 6 assists) and of course Leuer did the usual with 20 points. For those of you wondering the margin of victory over the Spartans is one off the Badgers all time record. One thing to notice that most won't is Wilson might be out of the doghouse finally as he played 11 minutes.

You know there has been a lot of talk lately about how the UW Badger basketball program is slipping and that Bo better get it together. Well right now the Badgers clearly have a top 20 team so that isn't all bad, and as we can see in the Spartans epic fail of 2011 even great programs can go through a rough patch. Lets shelve all the talk folks of the Badgers impending doom, it isn't likely happening as players like Gasser will step up and Taylor will be back next year. Lets Go Pack! (our guess 38 to 17)

Wisconsin Badger Basketball vs Penn State: That Hurts

2011-01-29T18:55:00.000-08:00

Well we also saw a possible loss coming from the Wisconsin Badger basketball team on the road vs Penn State given some of the good things PSU has been doing this season, but this one hurts. This was a winnable game that got lost do to Bo Ryan being hard headed or something. We hate throwing players and coaches under the bus on this site but today was one of those games when the true freshman was killing us, we have full confidence that the Badgers would have won this game had Bo recognized how bad Josh's body language and play was in the first half. With the Badgers with a solid double digit lead the play of Josh gave PSU life, most of his mistakes came on the defensive end where he helped the Lions get new life. Look Josh is a freshman and he will learn from this and maybe the next three years we own PSU due to his contributions but today he killed us and Bo didn't make the adjustment until it was to late, he even played him to start the first half and that was the dagger to the Badgers in this game. Frankly just a poor game by Bo all around because he should have gotten himself a technical late in the first half when Mike B. got mugged on a slam attempt with no foul called, he has to back his player on something like that to the hilt. They get a spark of a play on a block that looked clean up top was a clear mugging down below the shoulders. Tough road loss hopefully we bounce back.

Rob Wilson MIA

2011-01-15T15:37:00.000-08:00

Rob Wilson didn't play a single minute to our knowledge in the Badgers victory over Illinois and to us that sounds like a pretty strong statement. It is true we don't know if he was injured but we restrained ourselves from pointing out how badly he played down the stretch versus MSU. It was a tough decision to not mention it and instead we decided to refrain all together from commenting on the game. Despite all the talk out there that it was a team effort in the loss Wilson had some clearly lacking play and our guess is that Bo Ryan wasn't as kind with him as the local media. On a better note we got the win against Illinois and still looked poised to stay in the hunt to finish in the top couple of teams in the conference.

Wisconsin Badgers Basketball vs Michigan State

2011-01-11T06:28:00.000-08:00

The Wisconsin Badgers are taking on Michigan State in what is the most anticipated game of the season thus far for the Badgers. While the Spartans were supposed to be really good in 2010/2011 they have struggled mightily this season with their latest loss coming to Penn State, it was at Penn State but come on. In fact the Badgers are now rated ahead of Michigan State 21 vs 24. Bo Ryan started off with a ton of success against Izzo and the Spartans and that has turned it to a preconception that the Badgers can beat the Spartans anytime but the fact is we haven't won in East Lancing in the last 5 trips, this is the year that needs to change. The Badgers need this game badly, well like all the rest but a big road win like this will keep them squarely in the Big Ten title race which is the yearly goal. We wish we had time to go into our normal game breakdowns but his here is the long and the short of it the Spartans lead the conference in turnovers and they aren't shooting free throws very well, the Badgers do the opposite if this continues the Badgers have an excellent shot at a win.

Badgers Rose Bowl 2011 Report: Running Back Lineup?

2010-12-29T07:17:00.000-08:00

What we do know is that the Badgers have three good running backs going into the 2011 Rose Bowl but with just days before the big game there is still speculation on their order in the lineup. As it sits right now the running back lineup for the Badgers is the same as it was in the final game with Ball first, White second, and Clay at third. Clay of course is an AP Third Team All-American so it is sort of a stunning turn of events that he could go from the lead back to third back due to injury but that is where we sit. Ball has come on strong for the Badgers in Clay's absence, in fact Ball looks like a completely different back than he used to hitting holes instead of running into his own men while also being a faster back as the season has gone on. In addition Ball does a great job of catching the football out of the backfield. White would start on all but maybe ten teams in the country because as a freshman he is scary good, he has all the moves you could want outside and he isn't afraid to go inside but he does make some dumb freshman mistakes loosing yardage in key situations.

John Clay because of his injury has slipped to being the third back right now according to the coaches, but should you buy the hype? Is this just another matter of the coaching staff messing with the other team while trying to motivate Clay? Supposedly Clay has the brace off and is now wearing just a sleeve on his knee so he must be pretty healthy, we would find it hard to believe that we wouldn't want Clay carrying the rock most of the time versus a supposedly great defense. There have been a lot of Clay haters out there with a lot of talk after his injury, but make no mistake Clay is still the back with the most talent on the roster. Clay has the most patience and the most vision, and while he didn't play much in the last game there was still the classic power play where he sent a tackling linebacker airborne for about five yards. Even if Clay can't hit the home run which we think he can he is our best to pick up consistent first downs which is what we need against TCU. Our guess is BB is just keeping TCU and Clay motivated, he is going to carry the rock a lot with maybe 3 touchdowns. If Clay doesn't play a lot there is some match-up problem we don't know about.

We are going to the 2011 Rose Bowl and will hopefully be updating while there but if not On Wisconsin, lets bring this one home.

Wisconsin Badgers 2011 Big Ten Champions?

2010-12-23T16:27:00.000-08:00

Did the Wisconsin Badgers just gain an inside track on repeating and becoming the 2011 Big Ten Champions with the suspension of Pryor and company for the Buckeyes first 5 games? If all of the suspensions hold the 5 players involved will only miss one Big Ten game against Michigan State but by that point the season could already have the wrong vibe for OSU going into Big Ten play which is never good. The players will also likely miss the Miami and Colorado games, which would normally be almost automatic wins but you never know now. Of course we are getting way ahead of ourselves, OSU has great depth and if any program can say next man in they can but don't underestimate how big of distraction level it can have with the media attention and lost continuity. The Badgers had a season destroyed by the Shoe Box "scandal", we have learned from it and kept our ears clean sense so while we never want to win because a team isn't at full strength maybe Karma will be on the Badgers side in 2011.

By the way anybody want to raise hands if they think Pryor isn't hiding other benefits, nope I don't even see the Vest's hand in the air yet.

Wisconsin Badgers Rose Bowl 2011 Report: TCU AP All Americans

2010-12-23T06:34:00.000-08:00

The Wisconsin Badgers will be in Pasadena for the 2011 Rose Bowl to take on TCU in no time and we are getting more pumped by the day. Today we thought we would introduce you to the 3 TCU 2010 All Americans as these guys are clearly some of the play makers on their football team to watch for in the Rose Bowl.

First Team AP All American
#3 Tejay Johnson a senior safety listed at 6-1 and 212 pounds who went to high school in Garland Texas where he was a three star recruit. He played as a true freshman and has started since his sophomore year, he was second team All-Mountain West Conference last year with 3 interceptions and 59 tackles. This year he has 3 interceptions and 53 tackles so not really a jump in production and nothing truly eye-popping either these are hardly Jimmy Leonard OMG numbers so we aren't sure there is that much reason to worry about him somehow dominating a game. The thing that makes Johnson stand out is he is supposedly a very strong leader and communicator on and off the field, he is even earning his degree in sign language because he believes in the power of communication.

TCU Second Team AP All American
#76 Jake Kirkpatrick in a senior center listed at 6-3 and 305 pounds who went to high school in Tyler Texas where he was not even really on the recruiting radar after picking up football in only his last two years of high school. Besides being named to the second team he also won the Rimington Trophy given to the best center in the country. Jake is a fifth year senior after red-shirting his freshman year, he didn't begin starting actually until last year in a season that saw him get the first team for SI and be a Rimington finalist. Pretty impressive stuff for a guy that hasn't been playing football that long. Jake is considered the leader of their potent line and calls out the blocking schemes.

#43 Tank Carder is a 6-2 and 215 pound junior linebacker from Sweeny Texas where he was a 2 star recruit. Now Tank Carder is an interesting story as he was a BMX star at a very young age, yes a BMX star (won a World Championship in France) who was said to be able to become one of the best ever but he gave it up because of the lifestyle. He was also in a horrific car crash in seventh grade where he broke his back, and punctured his lungs and his doctors didn't know if he could walk again. He was voted the pre-season Mountain West defensive player of the year coming into 2010 even after having shoulder surgery in the spring. Tank is known as a defender who is always in position that can move sideline to sideline and brings talents in rushing the QB and defending the pass. Last year was his first year as a starter at TCU and he made the Second Team All Western Conference squad with 89 tackles, 2 sacks,1 interception,1 forced fumble and 11 passes defended. This year the tackles slipped to 55 he had 3 sacks, 1 interception and 1 forced fumble. Between Tank and Tejay the TCU Horned Frogs clearly have some strength up the middle of their defense.

Clearly there are more impact players for the TCU Horned Frogs and we will be introducing you to some more of them in the coming days. The one thing we will say is we would be more scared if TCU had All-Americans on the defensive line who might neutralize our offensive lineman more, no doubt TCU has some good ones but without any superstars on the line we expect our guys to still be pushing up to the second level where very good things happen in the ground game.

Stay with us every day for Wisconsin Badgers Rose Bowl 2011 coverage.

UW Badger Basketball 2011: Talk

2010-12-20T09:45:00.000-08:00

It is that time of year again where the UW Badger basketball team takes a long layoff for finals so we thought some of you fans might be getting restless. This is a hard Badger basketball squad to figure out, we have only one game left before we get to the Big Ten schedule and frankly we still don't really have a great idea of how they are going to do this year. Every other year under Bo Ryan we could take a look at their body of work in the non-conference games and go you know what they should be at the top of the Big Ten competing for the title and finishing no worse than third or fourth, but this year we are stumped.

To further illustrate our point so are the expert analysts that participate in the ESPN power rankings, we have never seen such a wide gap in opinions on the Badgers or probably any other team. At present 8 out of the 15 voters don't even place them in their top 25 but such quality experts as Fran Fraschilla has them all the way up at 16, the senior basketball writer Pat Forde has them at 20, and Joe Lunardi who does their brackets slots them at 22.

The reason we are stumped is two fold, one the Big Ten is so dang good this year to say you are going to be able to compete for the title this year is a strong statement. Just go ahead and count the quality Big Ten teams, Ohio State, Michigan State, Purdue, Illinois, Minnesota that could be ranked in the top 15 teams in the country. Notice we didn't list Wisconsin because unfortunately we have done nothing to prove we are a top 15 team and sadly we likely aren't this year. While we think the Badgers somehow, someway might make another title run we just don't have much to back that up with.

What we know is the Badgers struggle to score because they have very limited scoring options on this team. Yes we know that in theory Rob Wilson, Jarmusz, Berggren, Evans, Mike B. can score, but until they actually prove it this year the scoring options on this team are limited beyond belief. At the present time for scoring the Badgers have two very good ones in Leuer and Taylor, and that is not enough to compete for a title you need at least three scoring options who you can count on in Big Ten play to easily pick up 12 points in a game. Nankivil should be this third scoring option and is on a lot of nights but he has to many nights where he goes MIA to count. We love the freshman Gasser, you know we do but he isn't going to be a consistent scoring threat in the Big Ten this year so if we are going to contend or stay respectable Badger upperclassmen not named Taylor or Leuer need to step it up.

Besides scoring this Badger team does some good things to win a lot of games like not turning the ball over and shooting well from the charity stripe, then again they don't close out on three point shooters well and let teams back in games late so again who knows. We will however know very quickly in 2011 as the Badgers early Big Ten schedule is not kind with Minnesota, Illinois, and Michigan State to play in the first 5 games.

Wisconsin Badgers Running Back U, Now Official?

2010-12-18T09:17:00.000-08:00

For about the last 15 years Wisconsin has done its best to seemingly brand the Badgers as Running Back U, but with the new name for the Big Ten trophy for best running back has Barry Alvarez in a great marketing ploy gotten it to be an official title. The Big Ten trophy for running backs is now named the Ameche - Dayne trophy, it is one only two of the 14 trophies to have both names represent only one school with the other being the QB trophy being all Purdue. You have to wonder in this convoluted process of picking two names for each trophy and trying so hard not to give any team an edge that they let Barry convince them to name the entire trophy after Badgers, the Big Ten has such a strong tradition of running backs you would think there would have been strong debate on the second name. Of course Ron Dayne has to be on the trophy he took the conference by storm, but Ameche could have been debated for the sake of equality.

Some of you may ask why does this matter, haven't we tried so hard to shed that image as only a running school with only this years beast of an offense slightly shedding that image (weren't some Badger fans even trying to go on other football boards promoting we have no running back this year because we have three in a case of subterfuge)? Well no, this is a good thing that the Badgers probably lobbied hard for given that if it can get them in the door on a couple of the nations best running backs every single year it is a big advantage. Think about it Wisconsin can now go into the second best running backs kitchen from Florida and say you know what kid we are Running Back U in the outstanding Big Ten conference, if you come here we expect you to represent and win the trophy named after two former Badgers something now Ohio State, and Michigan can't say to a running back. Any edge you can get is a good edge on the recruiting trail. The other thing it is a lot better to be known for the Badgers as Running Back U than say Offensive Lineman U and you have to think if Barry had tried hard for it he might have been able to get one of the lineman names instead. Wisconsin will get its lineman in any case, but running backs is a nice position to get any edge you can in. For those of you who missed it Richter is on the Richter - Howard trophy as well with Jim Bakken being on the Bakken Anderson trophy as the other Badger trophy representatives.

One final point on trophies is we would like to propose a new walk-on award trophy for the student athlete that improves the most after entering college, of course it should be just named the Jim Leonard trophy. Lets make sure we have a trophy case ready to house all those Ameche-Dayne, Richter-Howard, and Bakken-Anderson trophies that will pile up at the Camp.

Stay with us for all the Badger Rose Bowl 2011 reporting we can.

5 Wisconsin Badgers All-Americans in 2010: Thoughts

2010-12-16T06:51:00.000-08:00

The Wisconsin Badgers had 5 players that made the APs All-Americans teams, that is a new record for the Wisconsin Badger program. You know winning usually starts with fine players and it is clear most of the nation has recognized Wisconsin as a team with real talent this year, and as being really good. Some teams end up 11-1 or even 12-0 and you shake your head and go how did they do that, this team it is clear how they did it and that is with a large quantity of talent and the right mentality. Badgers fans like to play the no respect card, but clearly there is nothing but respect right now for the Badger program and we see that lasting into the future. By the way the talent card is a clear recipe for success for the Badgers as they have never lucked into a Rose Bowl and have only gotten their with a ton of future NFL players on both sides of the ball, it is also the main reason they have won the last three Rose Bowl's they have been in.

The Badgers placed Gabe Carimi and John Moffit as first team All-Americans, J.J. Watt and Lance Kendricks as second team All-Americans and John Clay made it as a third team All-American. This class of great players is a blend of what can happen by winning the recruiting battles in state, developing players and Wisconsin producing some gems. First lets start with Gabe Carimi a guy who has started every game he has played in at the UW but came in as only a three star from the area, Gabe unlike some five star lineman to come to the Badgers proved again that the packers develop lineman as well. John Moffit is the same way needing the time to develop in Madison to turn himself into an elite player.

J.J. Watt is a guy who wanted to be a Badger all the way being from Pewaukee, WI and proved it by transferring to the Badgers and switching positions. Can you believe this guy has switched teams and positions, was lightly recruited and is already a second team All-American who very easily could have been on the first team. With Lance Kendricks you have another Wisconsin product this time one who was a five star player out of high school but the Badgers were able to turn him into the finest tight end in the country despite the fact he is on the second team, make no mistake Kendricks is the best this year.

Then there is John Clay also from Wisconsin a complete five star stud out of high school who one would expect would have made the first team All-American by his Junior season, but considering he was injured and sharing carries third team isn't half bad. For all those fans who laugh and say Clay isn't deserving of this award, he is the third best back on the team you are wrong he is still one of the finest backs in the country. If a team had a line opening up normal size wholes John Clay is just the man you would want pounding his way through them. You know the other thing is John Clay played huge in big games this year, so stop the swings at the big guy and get behind him because we have a feeling TCU is going to spend a lot of time looking at the back of his jersey.

These 5 players are all very deserving of the recognition they have gotten. It is impressive to note that 4 players on the Badgers offense are All-Americans and 4 players from the state of Wisconsin are All-Americans. We don't want to take away anything from these 5 and there special day but we think Scott Tolzien should be mentioned in any article talking about Wisconsin excellence in 2010, and now we did. Final thought is one more All-American on defense could have made all the difference between being a team for the ages, Boreland you were greatly missed.

UW Badgers Rose Bowl 2011 Report: A TCU Horned Frogs Primer Part 1

2010-12-15T06:50:00.000-08:00

So the UW Badgers are taking on the TCU Horned Frogs in the 2011 Rose Bowl and you are asking yourselves who are these guys really? Sure TCU has been in the upper reaches of the college football landscape the last couple of years but you were just hoping they were a fad to be ignored before you learned some background information on them, like say for instance TCU stands for Texas Christian University. Well the Badgers are taking on TCU in the 2011 Rose Bowl so now is officially time to learn some useful and maybe not so useful facts about the Frogs. We want you to be educated by the time you are in Pasadena so study up.

1. TCU Horned Frog sports have been around a while starting way back in 1914, they joined the SWC athletic conference in 1924 and stayed there until it was disbanded in 1995 because the rest of the Texas teams aligned with the Big 8 to form the Big 12. From there TCU moved to the WAC and then to Conference USA so their bags are well traveled. If you can't tell TCU is sort of on the outside looking in with regards to the other Texas schools.

2. The TCU Horned Frogs currently play in the Mountain West Conference, they will be moving one more time to the Big East Conference for all sports in 2012. We would think this would make the Badgers defeat of TCU look better in the future when they join a BCS Conference because people will forget TCU was actually playing in the MWC at that time, of course the Big East is sort of sad in football right now anyways. (for those of you keeping score at home the Big Ten count but apparently now the Big East can't do geography so everything is all good, right?)

3. There are 18 Horned Frogs varsity sports teams, the women's teams are often referred to as the Lady Frogs.

4. The TCU Horned Frogs have a proud football heritage having won 2 National Championships in 1935 and 1938. Since the 1998 season TCU has won 6 conference titles, 2 in the WAC 1999, 2000, 1 in USA 2002, and 3 in the MWC 2005, 2009, 2010. I guess the lesson here is don't go spouting off to their fans to much about not knowing football because they are winners with some heritage.

5. TCU has had 36 1st team All-American players with some of the most famous being Sammy Baugh, Davey O'Brien (Heisman Trophy winner), Rags Mathews, and LaDainian Tomlinson.

6. TCU plays its football games at Amon G. Carter Stadium named after a prominent business / newspaper man. The stadium is located in Fort Worth Texas and seats 44,008 people. The stadium is currently undergoing a 115 million dollar renovation to the West stands.

We are going to have a lot more TCU basic facts and get deeper into the actual football team and matchups so stay with us for our UW Badgers Rose Bowl 2011 reports.

UW Badgers Basketball vs UW Green Bay Thoughts

2010-12-13T19:09:00.000-08:00

The UW Badger basketball team defeated UW Green Bay 70 to 56 at the Kohl Center. The score was actually within 7 in the final minute of play but the Badgers did their job of keeping UW Green Bay at bay. The Badgers were led in scoring by Leuer with 22, Mike B. added 18, Nankivil 16, Taylor 10, Gasser 2, and Jarmusz 2. That is all the scorers UW had in the game, for those counting at home that means the Badgers got all of 2 points from their bench. Last year all we could talk about was the great contributions by the Badgers bench but this year they have gone missing far to often. If you are wondering about overall bench scoring so far this season Evans leads the way at a sad 4.6 points per game, Berggren is at 4.5 after his last big game, Jarmusz 3.1 and Wilson at 2.4, everyone else is a rounding error. One would hope that Berggren and Evans in particular could raise their average in Big Ten play up to at least over 6 but Evans doesn't look like he has progressed this season as hoped.

UW Badger Rose Bowl 2011 Report: Dave Doeren's Last Badger Game

2010-12-13T17:50:00.000-08:00

Dave Doeren will be the defensive coordinator for the UW Badger football team at the 2011 Rose Bowl, but that is now his last game as a Badger coach. Dave will take over after the game as the new head coach at Northern Illinois and we couldn't be happier for him. Dave getting the Northern job is a great situation for both him and the Badgers. In the case of the Badgers we get to be seen as a program where young coaches can go on to become head coaches, which is the ultimate recruiting tool in attracting the elite new young coaches you need to be successful. Dave Doeren was up for two other jobs in Vanderbilt and Indiana and if he had gotten either one of those positions it is conceivable he could have poached an additional Badger coach as a coordinator on his staff, but at Northern Illinois that is highly unlikely.

For Dave it is a big win becomes he becomes a head coach at a school that is on the up and up with top 25 potential, something that Indiana and Vandy can't come close to saying. In addition if he does well at Northern Illinois someday he will be inline for a coaching job in a BCS conference that isn't a complete disaster going in. For Northern Illinois they get a very capable young coach who should have a bit of an edge recruiting the second tier Wisconsin talent they need to lock up to be a successful program year in and year out. Really you can look at Dave going to Northern Illinois much like Jeter going to UW Milwaukee in basketball a while back.

For those of you worried about loosing the defensive coordinator, Dave Doeren in our opinion is likely better suited to be a head coach than a defensive coordinator anyways. Dave never did get the Badgers defense up to elite status, which has happened at Wisconsin in the past. Bret Bielema has already said he hopes to promote from within for the vacant position, we think a lot of the coaches left on the roster so that sounds great to us. Partridge is the senior coach now on the defense and the highest paid but we have a hunch that the job will go to Chris Ash who did a great job with the defensive backs in his first year. Our hunch is partially based on the fact that Bielema knew that Doeren could very likely be gone in 2011 and likely brought the young hotshot Ash in for a firsthand audition and we don't know how he couldn't have passed. Like we said either Ash or Partridge is just fine with us, of course if he does promote one of the two he will likely still have to find someone from outside the program to take that job. We would like to say with the success he has had in hiring former Badger player Joe Rudolph that he take a very strong look at other available former Badgers, Troy Vincent (one can dream).

Big Ten Leaders and Legends Divisions / New Big Ten Logo Video

2010-12-13T10:24:00.001-08:00

For more on the new Big Ten Leaders and Legends Divisions in addition to the new Big Ten Logo check out the following video from the Big Ten.

New Big Ten Logo for Badger Fans to Embrace

2010-12-13T10:19:00.000-08:00

This is the new Big Ten logo that we need to embrace, you can see the names are now stacked and the I has been replaced with a 1. For those of you not familiar with logo design the stacked effect that turns the logo into a box is preferable to the prior spread out logo because it is easier to transfer between different media without loosing the ratio. For instance a logo taller than it is wide might not fit correctly on a hat and so forth, no problems with this one so that is good. Personally though we don't really like this one because it is a little hard to read, probably because it seems that they are trying to deemphasize the Ten part. The type looks very collegiate but in a sort of childish sort of way that we aren't happy about, this shouldn't have been that hard just go with the BTN type.

UW Badgers Football in Big Ten Leaders Division

2010-12-13T10:06:00.000-08:00

For now on the UW Badgers football team will be playing in the Big Ten Leaders Division, try to get used to the name you will see a lot of it. The other Big Ten football division will be the Legends, and that is the one with Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Michigan... Big Ten Commissioner James Delaney announced the new names for the new divisions and you just had to go what, OK whatever.

Now if we had to pick a division name for the Badgers to be in it would clearly be the Leaders because it is better than being an old Legend Division with washed up programs like Minnesota, and soon to be Michigan right? The question is how did we arrive at these names, we knew we couldn't have famous Big Ten football alumni because that could favor certain schools, and East and West didn't work due to how the divisions were aligned so they seem to have settled on something that might conjure up images of what the players in the past and present become. The Big Ten isn't the conference of Has-beens and Followers but Legends and Leaders, problem is we think they should have kept on searching because both start with L and neither is great to begin with. How about the Power and Strength divisions, or Titles and Champions we don't know we don't have an army of marketers and we spent all of thirty seconds on those two suggestions but there has to be something better.

Outland Trophy 2010 Winner: Gabe Carimi

2010-12-09T21:51:00.000-08:00

The Outland Trophy 2010 winner is Gabe Carimi a Badger all the way. This is not an award to be taken lightly it is given out yearly to the best interior lineman in the nation on offense or defense, that is a lot of great players to choose from when you consider both sides of the ball. To have a second Badger recipient of the Outland Trophy and Wisconsin native to boot in the span of ten years is remarkable.

Gabe Carimi is a lineman who hales from the state of Wisconsin. In fact Gabe Carimi's hometown is Cottage Grove, WI and he went to Monona Grove High School which for those of you not from Madison is only four miles and change from Camp Randall Stadium. Gabe Carimi came to the Badgers as your typical three star lineman recruit and was considered the 30th best offensive tackle in the nation, not the five star best in the nation high school stud Joe Thomas was (Joe of course we are very proud of as well and is the other Badger to win the Outland Trophy). Gabe came to the Badgers and immediately went about building himself into an elite winner when he stepped foot on the UW campus. He red-shirted his first season but has started every game he has played in with the Badgers, 48 of them in total now. This is not the first recognition for Gabe of course as he has been named First Team All Big Ten now the last two seasons.

You know we couldn't be prouder of Gabe for the job he has done as a Badger, and we would like to point out this season hasn't been all roses for him. There was actually talk earlier this season that the line was over rated coming into the season and is not the best in the nation and that his draft stock was really slipping. All of that seems silly now because if you watched the tape over the last half of the 2010 season Gabe and his teammates turned into a wrecking machine but it shows how he responded to adversity. Gabe Carimi personifies being a Badger, a hard worker, a leader, a winner, and a student. We look forward to seeing him one more time in Badger red and well maybe he looks good in the green and gold as well (hey we can dream).

Please stay with us for hopefully at least one UW Badger football Rose Bowl 2011 report between now and the big game.

Badger Rose Bowl 2011 Report: Barry Alvarez College Football HOF Thoughts

2010-12-08T06:41:00.000-08:00

It is only fitting that as the Badgers are going to the Rose Bowl in 2011 that Barry Alvarez got inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame on Tuesday. Of course one of the big reasons he is going is that beautiful Rose Bowl record he has at 3 wins and no losses. Apparently at the induction ceremony Barry had friends, colleagues and former past players with him including Hayden Fry, Kirk Ferentz, Lou Holts, and Badgers Chris McIntosh and Brooks Bollinger. The College Football HOF doesn't do as good of job promoting itself as HOFs like for the NFL and MLB but if you don't think this means a lot Barry he had all of his kids and grandchildren there. As a college coach Barry went 118-73-4 and has the best bowl record for a coach with at least 11 bowl games at .727.

With a lot of great coaches you here about the coaching tree, Barry Alvarez falls under the Fry tree so you don't hear much about the coaches who made stops in Madison but Barry should get credit as well because he has a great eye for talent and developing it. First clearly there is Bret Bielema who was far from a finished product when he arrive to the Badgers. The list also includes Dan McCarney who went on to coach at Iowa State and then there are NFL coaches like Bill Callahan and Brad Childress. It is Barry's eye for talent that really is one of his greatest strengths and something you can see he is passing to Bielema, in fact Bielema has two potential head coaches in Chryst and Doeren on his staff so Barry's tree might grow a little bigger.

There was always a lot of talk about what new coaching job Barry would take leaving the Badgers in the dust as he was sure to go to bigger pastures like Notre Dame, Florida or the bright lights of the NFL. But you know what he has proved himself as one of the biggest Badgers through and through of all time never taking those offers and then stepping into the Athletic Director job which he is doing a terrific job at by all accounts. Minnesota Athletic Director Maturi recently made a joke that he contacted Alvarez for his next coach but he got turned down, thankfully all those years ago when Pat Richter went for the big splash and hired the top assistant off the National Championship team he got it right.

Barry Alvarez has a bronze statue outside the stadium for good reason, he is a legend our legend.

We will have a UW Badger Rose Bowl 2011 report at least once a day heading up to the big game so stay with us.

UW Badger Rose Bowl 2011 QB Scott Tolzien Unitas Award Winner

2010-12-06T20:43:00.000-08:00

When the UW Badgers play in the Rose Bowl January 1, 2011 Scott Tolzien will be the QB, and he will be the most decorated Badger QB to ever play in a Rose Bowl. Scott Tolzien has now been named the Unitas Award Winner given to the best senior QB in the country, this is big stuff folks QBs often stay in college until their senior seasons even if they are really good (sure this years award finalists were Andy Dalton of TCU, Colin Kaepernick of Nevada, Christian Ponder of FSU, and Ricky Stanzi of Iowa instead of Mr. Tebow but still nice company). Nobody would have seen this coming two years ago when Tolzien came out of nowhere to beat out Curt Phillips in a dogfight for the starting QB spot. We knew a little about Tolzien before he won the starting job but frankly we were on the Phillips wagon thinking a running QB could help a team with so so receivers more than what we thought would be an average to maybe a little above average QB in Tolzien. All Scott did was mesh with his receivers this year to form the most lethal passing attack in Badger history, that gives TCU a nightmare scenario in the Rose Bowl.

Tolzien finished the regular season number 1 in the nation in completion percentage at 74.3%, he is also fourth in passing efficiency rating at 169.8. He should also break the completion percentage record for the Big Ten which is currently 67.8% held by fellow Badger Darrell Bevell. Scott has passed for 2,300 yards, and 16 touchdowns this season with only 6 interceptions. We are sure Scott would tell you his success is also do in large part to his outstanding line, receivers that came into this year ready to improve, and a tailback trio that is best in the nation.

Scott Tolzien is often considered a quite leader, and is said to have stepped foot on the Wisconsin campus with a business like persona as a freshman. Those we would thing Bielema might seek those qualities out like radar in future QB recruits given the success Tolzien has had for a lightly regarded QB coming out of high school. Like we have said before part of the Badger way is recruiting smart and determined players, a winning combination. We would excpect Scott to keep his same focus that got him to this point to help UW to a big win over TCU and to begin his NFL career which he has now earned a shot at.

UW Badger Rose Bowl 2011 Report: Coaches Poll Voting Thoughts

2010-12-06T06:15:00.000-08:00

Badger Rose Bowl 2011 Report
The final Coaches Poll is announced and the Badgers stayed put at number 4, what is always interesting in the last poll though is how some of the coaches voted. Bret Bielema seemed to be a realist putting the Badgers at number 4 and then showing a little Big Ten love by putting OSU and MSU 5 and 6 ahead of Stanford (also really probably how it should be with how weak the PAC was this year). Stanford coach Jim Harbough returned the favor putting the Badgers number 8. Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio still believes his team would apparently beat the Badgers as he had MSU 4, OSU 5, and UW 6, apparently he doesn't get a chance to watch some other Big Ten games week to week, we can see the logic on MSU over UW but using the same logic UW is then over OSU right?

Ohio State coach Jim Tressel took off his rosed colored glasses and just voted putting the Badgers at 4, OSU at 5, Stanford 6, and MSU 7, the vest does have some class. It looks like Bret Bielema and the Badgers make the most friends when they don't run up the score on a team Ron Zook of Illinois put the Badgers at number 3, of course we didn't play Illinois this year. The interesting thing about Zook given his reputation as a recruiter you would think him and Bielema might not get along like Bielama and Brewster didn't but this would show otherwise. The other 2 coaches that put the Badgers 3 are Dan Mullen of Mississippi State and Rick Stockstill of Middle Tennessee State, interesting in particular that Stockstill did you think he might be pretty inclined to go with the small school. If you are looking for low votes Nick Saban had the Badgers at 7, Stanford 4, MSU 5, and OSU 6, the votes don't help the SEC so it would be interesting to know the motive we can see MSU as the first Big Ten school given his history does he know Harbough well? Fellow SEC coach Urban Meyer of Florida who knows a thing or two about good teams places the Badgers at number 4. Well that should be enough with the voting but it is sort of fun to look at, especially on the final vote.

Remember to come back every day for UW Badger Rose Bowl 2011 reports.

Badger Rose Bowl 2011 Tickets Update

2010-12-05T22:54:00.000-08:00

The UW has announced that there will not be any tickets available from them to Badger fans for the 2011 Rose Bowl that were not donors to the athletic department or season ticket holders. This was an unexpected announcement by the athletic department, but demand has been apparently stronger than anticipated for the the Badgers first Rose Bowl trip in a decade. UW Badger season ticket holders should find out by Monday at the latest the status of their Rose Bowl 2011 tickets. The Badger sections of the 2011 Rose Bowl are 1-5,8-12 and 24-48 in the 91,000 seat capacity stadium. Student season ticket holders are permitted to buy two Rose Bowl tickets each while supplies last until 4:30 on Monday, cost is $145 for all available tickets through the UW. We of course hope that all the students who can go get to go as it is a great college experience they should always remember. For all people going or thinking about it also remember that air fare is going up as seats are selling fast. If you can't get tickets from the UW there are always the ticket brokers like Stub Hub. From experience at past Badger Rose Bowls you can also get tickets at the stadium from scalpers for a reasonable price, likely cheaper than Stub Hub but you are then taking a much bigger risk. Make sure to also think about when National 'W' Club and other booster club events are and plan travel accordingly because it will be well worth going to a couple events for the revelry with other Badger fans.

Wisconsin vs TCU Rose Bowl 2011 Game Report,Time,TV

2010-12-05T21:47:00.000-08:00

Wisconsin Badgers vs TCU Horned Frogs

January 1st 2011

Time: 3:30 PM CT
TV: ESPN

Wisconsin will take on TCU as expected in the 2011 Rose Bowl Game and while we would have preferred the tradition of a PAC 10 opponent this game should be great (well we hope so, you never know it could get a little one sided with another big Badger number on the board). TCU of course is in the Rose Bowl because Oregon is in the National Title game and the BCS Bowls have to take at least one school from a non BCS Conference. TCU is a fine opponent on paper being ranked third in the nation and not loosing a game in 2010. The match up of TCU and Wisconsin is actually the first time that the 3 and 4 ranked teams have played in a bowl game in the same year that the number 1 and 2 ranked teams played each other as well. If Wisconsin wins this game there should be no question that it was the third best team in the country this season. Of course there is the problem that it is difficult to judge how great TCU is this year as their big victories are over Oregon State, Utah and Air Force which don't really jump off the page at you. As Barry has told this group of players winning this game is really important, it isn't the time to let up and with this group we are sure they read him loud and clear.

We are going to have much more on the game hopefully with a Badger Rose Bowl 2011 report every day leading up to the big game so stay with us.

Badger Football: Academic All Big Ten List / Thoughts

2010-12-03T06:12:00.000-08:00

The Badger football team had 22 players named to the Academic All Big Ten team for the 2010 season which is a really high number. We don't know if it is unusual for a championship team to have so many quality student athletes but we do know is it fits the character of this team seeking success in everything they do. We have long contended that one of the key areas that sets Badger football apart from other teams is like Minnesota is that they make a clear effort to recruit smart student athletes. It seems like later in his Barry's tenure and then in to Brett's when given the choice of players with similar skill the Badgers likely pursue the best student, the reason for this is they probably have learned these are the players who will grow most with the Badgers and be good teammates. For those of you going well it is the kids from Wisconsin that don't play that get the good grades, wrong check out the list sure there are players like all everything Carimi from WI who is on the list while pursuing Civil Engineering but remember he sort of starts. Look close at the list and you will see key contributers from states like Texas, and Florida, we might not get the best players out of Florida but we might be getting the smartest. One of the disappointing things to see though was Clay didn't make it this year, this isn't a knock as we know he has had a lot going on with injuries which can be a big distraction but UW has a proud history of smart backs and by all accounts he is one as well.

Badger football 2010 Academic All Big Ten list:

LB Ethan Armstrong, So., Undeclared, Ottawa, Ill.

OT Gabe Carimi, Gr., Civil Engineering, Cottage Grove, Wis.

FB Bradie Ewing, Jr., Sociology, Richland Center, Wis.

CB Antonio Fenelus, Jr., Family, Consumer & Community Education, Boca Raton, Fla.

DT Ethan Hemer, So., Undeclared , Medford, Wis.

FS Aaron Henry, Sr., Consumer Affairs, Immokalee, Fla.

S Shelton Johnson, Jr., Zoology, Carrollton, Texas

DT Jordan Kohout, So., Sociology, Waupun, Wis.

C Peter Konz, Jr., Communication Arts, Neenah, Wis.

TE Rob Korslin, Sr., Civil Engineering, Brookfield, Wis.

CB Andrew Lukasko, Sr., Kinesiology, Edgar, Wis.

Zach Matthias, So., Undeclared, Hemlock, Mich.

DE Pat Muldoon, So., Undeclared, Mason, Ohio

P Brad Nortman, Jr., Accounting, Brookfield, Wis.

LB Conor O'Neill, So., Undeclared, Delray Beach, Fla.

CB Devin Smith, Jr., Consumer Affairs, Coppell, Texas

LB Blake Sorensen, Sr., Consumer Affairs, Eden Prairie, Minn.

LB Culmer St. Jean, Gr., Consumer Affairs, Naples, Fla.

QB Scott Tolzien, Gr., Consumer Affairs, Rolling Meadows, Ill.

DE J.J. Watt, Sr., Life Sciences Communications, Pewaukee, Wis.

P Ryan Wickesberg, Sr., Finance, Investment and Banking, Saukville, Wis.

OG Kevin Zeitler, Jr., Kinesiology, Waukesha, Wis.

J.J. Watt Award Watch: Badgers 2011 Rose Bowl Report

2010-12-02T06:52:00.000-08:00

J.J. Watt is a huge part of the reason why the Badgers are most likely playing in the 2011 Rose Bowl and while it didn't always look like it would happen he is getting national respect for his performance. J.J. Watt just got named one of 6 finalists for the Ted Hendricks award given to the nations best defensive end. Watt joins Big Ten players Clayborn from Iowa and Kerrigan from Purdue, while those players had more hype going into 2010 we believe Watt had far more impact this year. Watt's performance in games like Ohio State, Michigan and Northwestern were nothing short of amazing, he has a motor that just never stops. Watt is also a finalist for the Lott Impact Trophy, and the Bednarik Award. J.J. is just such an amazing story coming to the Badgers as a walk-on after transfering schools, clearly he has the drive of a champion.

UW Badger Basketball: Wisconsin vs North Carolina State Live Score - Live Blog

2010-12-01T16:15:00.001-08:00

UW Badger Basketball
Wisconsin vs North Carolina State
Time: 6:15 CT
TV: ESPN 2, ESPN 3
Badger score 87 - NC State 48

UW Badgers vs North Carolina State Live Blog:
The Badgers need to get on track vs North Carolina State as the team hasn't gotten it all together yet in a game this year. Last year of course the Badgers upset eventual National Champion Duke in the Big Ten ACC Challenge in a well played, big time game.

NC State wins the tip.
Working down the lane NC State draws the foul and is shooting 2. Quick foul on Gasser.
Badgers turn it over on their first pocession.
NC State attacks the rim but misses on the drive, NC State foul on the board.
Badgers get pressured in the back court, Nankivil comes up empty on an open 3, Leuer clears inside and puts it home.
Badgers give up an open 3 attempt but off, NC State pounds the glass and puts it home.
Badgers run a lot of offense and Taylor hits an open 3 with 7 left on the clock.
Mike B. gets abused by Leslie down low for 2.
Taylor works in the lane and puts it in, nice trip.
Leslie for NC State is way off on the shot.
Taylor back inside and throws it out to Gasser who drains the open 3.
Taylor gets a hand up but gets a 3 hit right over him.
Timeout: Badger Score 10 NC State 9
Badgers off to a nice start given their shooting problems this year, currently at 4 out 5 from the floor.
Badgers with the ball Evans in and Bergerren. Jarmusz misses an open 3, Evans gets the board but then dribbles it out of bounds.
NC State misses on a runner, Leuer with another board.
Leuer gets blocked from behind. Still Badger ball. Nice inbound down low to Evans and he lays it in and is fouled. Nice play all around. They don't count the bucket Evans shooting 2 hits both clean.
Foul inside goes against Leuer. NC State is really trying to work it down low every trip.
Taylor gets abused on a pass down low and NC lays it in.
Evans puts up a flat jumper that doesn't go down, Jarmusz with the board. Gets fouled, shooting foul.
Nankivil and Gasser in for Leuer and Nankivil. Jarmusz hits 2.
Carry on NC State.
Badgers really look bad on this trip. Bad movement. Evans ends up with the ball with 2 seconds left and gets bailed out with a foul. Evans misses the first, nails the second.
Mike B. in for Ryan Evans. Great pass down low by NC State but they can't finish on 2 tries inside.
Gasser drives and Mike B. to Nankivil and he misses the open jumper.
Another palm call on NC State, young team.
Timeout: Badger score 15 NC State 9
Badgers haven't hit a jumper in a while and they just don't look good on the court on offense with Leuer or Taylor in.
Badgers get pressured in the back court. Nankivil way short on a pull up jumper and he looks off today.
NC State travels trying to push the other way.
Gasser to Taylor inside and he hits ending a 5 minute field go drought.
NC State throws it away trying to go down low.
Taylor puts it in off the glass from the block and he is feeling it.
NC State doing crazy things down low but they put it in and get the foul. 3 point old fashioned.
Wilson in for the first time.
Leuer hits an open 3 from out top. Not sure why they let him shoot that open.
Evans with the block, still NC ball. Wilson gets burned, gives up a 3.
Leuer puts it in down low and he has 5 straight points.
NC State manages to turn it over again.
Taylor to Leuer and this time he is off on the jumper.
Open NC State three is off.
Mike B. down low to Evans and he does a good job of drawing a foul.
Timeout: Badger score 24 NC State 17
Badgers look like a different team with Leuer and Taylor in there, like the look with Gasser and Evans with them on offense and defense.
7:42 left in the half. Evans shooting 2, he hits 2.
Mike B. forces an off shot down low.
Taylor goes to the rim and is off.
NC State misses down low but puts it back.
Mike B. wide, wide open and he hits.
NC State pushes and rolls in an easy 2.
Evans feeling good shoots a long jumper and it is flat and not down.
Badger board and a NC State foul. Leuer shooting 1 and 1. Leuer hits 2.
NC State turns it over out high.
Smith jacks up a quick 3 and is off, Badger board and Mike B. hits another open 3.
Timeout NC State: Badger score 34 NC State 21
Badgers taking advantage of some really bad defense, nice to see them hitting the open shot.
Taylor gives up an open 3, off but Smith can't corral the board, out of bounds.
Mike B. forces the turnover down low.
Taylor off with a 3 at the end of the clock, Nankivil gets the board and throws up a complete brick later.
NC runs and Nankivil with the rejection down low.
Foul against NC State, Taylor will shoot 1 and 1 after the break.
Timeout: Badger score 34 NC State 21
Nankivil with some real nice hustle after another brutal shot with that rejection, wow is he off today.
Brett Bielema in the crowd. Taylor hits his free throws.
Smith draws a charge outside the lane.
Alley oop to Evans and he can't finish.
NC State turns it over yet again.
Smith has to drive with 4 on the shot clock and draws the foul. Smith hits 1 of 2.
Leuer back in. NC State off with a quick jumper.
Evans on the dribble why, Taylor gets fouled with the clock winding down.
Taylor hits 1.
NC State can't buy a bucket if they were free.
Evans great pass underneath to Leuer and he hits the bunny.
NC State tries to bank one in and can't.
Leuer hits an open jumper. Badgers up 21 now.
Taylor with the steal and he takes it to the hoop and scores.
NC State hasn't scored in 6 minutes and the half ends.

End of First Half
Badgers end on a 15 to 0 run on a NC State team that just looks horrible. This isn't a matter of good Badger ball but an example of what can happen to a young team with maybe talent but little basketball knowledge.
This is Jimmy V week at ESPN and if you get a chance make sure to watch Jimmy's speech it is well worth it.
Taylor with 14, Leuer 13, Mike B. 6, Evans 5

Second Half
Wisconsin turns it over to start the half.
NC State turns it over again on the other end.
Leuer working his way down low and NC State picks up a foul. Number 4 on Howell.
Nice inbound pass and Taylor lays it in.
Leuer with a block on a quick drive down low.
Leuer hits from down low.
NC State timeout: Badger score 48 NC State 21
So far it has been all Leuer in the first couple minutes of the half.
NC State short on the jumper that is their 18th consecutive empty trip.
Nankivil finally scores as he hits the hook shot.
NC State can't hit the straight away jumper.
Leuer almost looses it and then gets fouled recovering it.
Leuer spins and scores and that was pretty . Badgers up 31 now.
Sorry folks we ran into computer problems so we couldn't finish the live blog.
Badgers to win big though.

Badgers Rose Bowl 2011 Report: All Big Ten 2010 Badgers

2010-12-01T06:30:00.000-08:00

Anytime you are as good of team as the 2010 Badger football team you would expect to place a lot of players on the All Big Ten Team, well good news the Badgers have earned respect this year. Badgers to place on the First Team All Big Ten Team for both the coaches and the media are Gabe Carimi, John Moffitt, Lance Kendricks, and J.J. Watt, in addition Antonio Fenelus made the media's first team. Badgers to place on the Second Team All Big Ten Team are John Clay, James White, Scott Tolzien and Aaron Henry. Badgers named to the Honorable Mention All Big Ten Team are Peter Konz, Ricky Wagner, Kevin Zeitler, Bill Nagy, Niles Brinkley, Montee Ball, Blake Sorensen, Mike Taylor, and Philip Welch.

For those of you who lost count that is 18 Badgers named to one tier or another of the All Big Ten Team, like we have been saying this team is about talent not smoke and mirrors. Also impressive is that 4 sophomores were named to the squad and one true freshman so the Badger talent pipeline is not exactly running dry anytime soon. Unfortunately you will notice that none of the Badger wide receivers despite really solid seasons made All Big Ten and in particular David Gilreath wasn't recognized for his overall effort. Also while J.J. Watt made first team the rest of his linemates realistically didn't deserve recognition and didn't receive any. As far as individual awards Carimi was named the top lineman something that even Joe Thomas didn't get, and James White was the top freshman.

UW Badger Football 2010/2011 Rose Bowl Report: James White Big Ten Freshman of Year

2010-11-30T06:47:00.000-08:00

As expected in Badger Land James White was named the consensus 2010 Big Ten Freshman of the year by both the coaches and the media. James White becomes the second Badger football player to win the award in two years as Boreland won it last year. The Badgers become the first school to have back to back winners of the award and have had seven winners overall.

The award came as no surprise given White won Big Ten Freshman of the week 4 times and put up some gaudy numbers this season. James White led the Badgers during the regular season with 1,029 yards and his 6.95 yards per carry would break the schools record if it holds up in the 2011 Rose Bowl game. To put it in perspective White is third nationally in yardage for a freshman while sharing carries with two other really good backs older than he is. That insane 6.95 yards per carry is also second in the nation for a back with over 100 carries.

James White came out of fall camp with a real buzz about his game and didn't disappoint the whole season. The great thing about White is that he can run hard inside the tackles and when he bounces it outside and gets in the open field he has moves that leaves the defense with their hands on their hips. In addition White rarely looses yardage on a play and we can really think of only one play this year where he did in a critical situation. Also he doesn't fumble which is a problem a lot of young backs seem to have and he catches the ball pretty well. It is pretty hard to believe this kid wasn't even considered the best back on his high school team as he wasn't as explosive supposedly.

The coaches clearly had a lot of confidence in White from the get go as he is the only true freshman to play on the offense and given the depth at running back it would have been very easy to redshirt him, maybe the best call Bielema made all season was not going that route.

Lets hope James White starts of 2011 with a bang in the Rose Bowl.

The following video has some highlights of James White vs Indiana.

UW Badger 2010/2011 Rose Bowl Report: Lance Kendricks First Team All American

2010-11-29T09:17:00.000-08:00

Lance Kendricks has been named an All-American by the American Football Coaches Association joining fellow Badger offensive teammate Gabe Carimi on the first team. Lance came into this year with a lot of fanfare and more than lived up to the hype showing he is clearly the most complete tight end in the country. The way that Lance Kendricks has progressed in his five years in Madison from a raw wide receiver to a skilled tight end who not only catches the ball with ease but also throws maybe the hardest blocks from a tight end in the country is simply astounding. Lance Kendricks is such a huge part of the Badgers record setting offense it can be hard to comprehend, he stretches the field, he makes key catches, he throws the big blocks for the running backs down the field, runs reverses as called upon, he is the Badgers Mr. can do man.

Lance Kendricks came to the Badgers from Milwaukee Rufas King where he was a highly regarded recruit for his athleticism, but there were clear questions on whether he could take his natural gifts and turn it into success. Kendricks spent much of his career making his transition from wide receiver to tight end and was stuck on the depth chart by the long line of past great Badger tight ends but emerged last year as a clear offensive weapon and only improved this year. In addition Lance is such an easy guy to root for as you can just see the pride he puts out in everything he does on the field, but he isn't cocky and a great guy from all accounts. Kendricks got a little banged up on his touchdown catch vs Northwestern so hopefully he is at full speed by the Rose Bowl game.

Lance Kendricks and Gabe Carimi were both named first team All-Americans which means that two recruits from the state of Wisconsin turned themselves into really good players in their senior year. We know a lot of Badger fans aren't necessarily from the State of Wisconsin but for those of us who are we feel especially proud of these two. Both came into the program as non 5 star studs and left as All-Americans and they are great guys to boot, and we will be watching both one more time with the Badgers and likely countless times in the pros.

The following is a video with some Lance Kendricks highlights from the bowl game last year, sorry it is last year but it a great demonstration of all he can do in a game. Warning you also might want to mute the video as some of it is not pc on the music end.

UW Badger Football 2010/2011 Rose Bowl Report: Gabe Carimi First Team All American

2010-11-29T08:56:00.000-08:00

The UW Badger football team is almost one hundred percent positive to be playing in the 2010 / 2011 Rose Bowl game, and thus we will be updating with multiple reports per day heading up to the big game. The first is the exciting and deserved news that Gabe Carimi the Badgers outstanding left tackle has been named a first team All-American by the American Football Coaches Association.

Gabe Carimi is a fifth year senior who played his high school ball locally at College Grove High School. Coming out of high school he was your run of the mill lineman recruit, not a five star stud but he turned himself into a player over his five years that made him worthy of joining a long list of elite Badger offensive lineman. Carimi is also a finalist for the Outland Trophy which all everything former Badger lineman Joe Thomas won back in the day. Carimi also figures to be a first round draft choice in the next NFL draft something you might not have said after the MSU game. After MSU everybody talked about his stock falling but Gabe and the other regulars along the offensive line upped their game so significantly after that point that there was no question they are the best line in the nation and one of the 2 or 3 best Badger offensive lines of all time allowing Tolzien's jersey to stay sparkling white and the running back trio to rush to the record books.

The following video is Gabe Carimi working against fellow Big Ten stud Ohio State's Cameron Heyward in the 2010 game.

Gabe is joined by fellow Badger Lance Kendricks on the first team All American team, more on that in our next post as we thought they each deserved their own recognition.

UW Badger Football Rankings: BCS,AP,Coaches, Power Rankings - Week 14

2010-11-28T20:34:00.000-08:00

As follows here are all of the relevant UW Badger Football rankings for week 14 of the 2010 season. These will not be the rankings used to determine the Rose Bowl Big Ten representative, those will be next weeks rankings but it looks strongly like Ohio State will not jump the Badgers as they lost ground on them this week. Get ready Pasadena for a lot of jumping.

Badgers BCS ranking - 5

Big Ten in BCS: Ohio State 6, Michigan State 8, Iowa dropped out
Badgers AP Poll - 4
Badgers Coaches Poll - 4
Badgers Harris Poll - 4
Badgers Legends Poll - 4

Badgers computers for BCS - AH 4,RB 4,CM 12,KM 9,JS 11,PW 7
The average computer ranking for the Badgers is 7, we don't have time to figure out how the computer rankings work but it is funny to look at the JS one and try to imagine how they go from 9 to 11 after the thorough beat down of Northwestern. Some other teams must have had really impressive weeks, there also must be some magic none of the voters no about in some other teams because our guess is none has the Badgers lower than 10 in the polls.

UW Badger Football Big Ten 2010 Champions

2010-11-27T19:28:00.000-08:00

The UW Badger football team are 2010 Big Ten Champions, boy doesn't that have a great sound to it! We just got back from the beat down on Northwestern and for now we won't go to much into other than it was another great performance, ESPN is using the word dominant, that is an appropriate discription. Sure this time we have to share the title with Ohio State and Michigan State, but oh well the way they are playing is the sweetest thing anyways. This game for us was the icing on the cake that proved this is for sure the best Badger offense in the history of the team. Never before have the Badgers have had such a balanced offense attack, make no mistake this team will hurt you just as bad with the pass as the run. Those other great Badger teams had nice passing games but nothing like this. We don't have a Chambers, Toon the first, or Evans but every receiver on this team is playing to the best of their ability right now and Tolzien is gunning it.

It looks like we will be playing in the Rose Bowl which is great, our only complaint is we bet at this point everybody in the nation would prefer that it was a traditional Rose Bowl with Oregon taking on the Badgers. Ducks vs the Badgers would be a great game, are we saying that we think we should be playing for the National Championship, no we aren't untill Auburn loses they should. What we are saying the matchup people should want to see is the Ducks and the Badgers slug it out because it could be one heck of an entertaining game just based on the matchups.

Finally shout out to the student section which showed up mostly on time, filling the seats on Thanksgiving weekend. Yes we know some sold their seats to older fans but a real display of support on their part whether they had so sell the tickets or were able to take part in the fun.

Jump around! Jump! Jump!

UW Badgers vs NU Wildcats 2010

2010-11-26T19:24:00.000-08:00

When the UW Badgers take on the NU Wildcats on Saturday for the final Big Ten game of the 2010 season Badger fans are expecting only one outcome, a win. While the fans always expect a win this time Vegas and the experts agree, and so do we all leading up to what we all hope is a chance to play in the Rose Bowl. Normally we would go into all of the breakdown about the game, how tough the Wildcats have been for the Badgers have been over the years, how you can never look ahead, and so on but with the opponent missing their starting QB, RB, and a valuable linebacker and with the offense the Badgers we are going to save the speach. Badgers to roll at the Camp 45 to 24. We will however leave you with some other thoughts.

1. John Clay is still the best running back on the roster, he is the guy we would want carrying the rock if the holes weren't double wide. Clay has the best vision at this time in his career and he doesn't get stopped behind the line so in a big game he is still our man. We love White, he has a Heisman Trophy in his future but right now he is still a freshman.

2. We saw it elsewhere and while it is a game to early the question is when we talk about this team 10,15 years from now who is the player we are going to associate with this team? Actually a great question and we will go with Lance Kendricks who isn't the most popular choice or even one we have seen suggested. The reason being is he is a great pick because he is the best at his position in college football. He is a senior who has improved a lot during his time in Madison which exemplifies this team and finally he is going to have a long great NFL career which is going to keep himself in the spotlight. Sure Clay, the line, Tolzien, Watt might be flashier picks but Kendricks has done a lot and will be the one remembered.

3. Finally besides the talk about Roses this is Senior Day, don't forget that. We know the stadium will be rocking but please show up early and support this senior class, they have earned it big time.

Oh, and just finished watching Boise State lose to Nevada and we will tell you right here and now if you missed the game there are probably 5 Big Ten teams that would beat them more often than not and only maybe 3 teams that you would say they won't win. Boise against the Badgers would have been a complete disaster for them with the power rushing game destroying them, the passing game dicing them, and their offense not being good enough playing straight up football.

UW Badger Basketball vs Boston College: 3 Points

2010-11-26T14:54:00.000-08:00

The UW Badger basketball team against Boston College started for the second straight game very slow but turned it on the second half for the 65 to 55 win. In order to get the win the Badgers used an insane 26 to 2 run keyed by Jordan Taylor and Jon Leuer. Things actually got a little dicy after the Badgers were up 22 with 5 minutes to play and Bo took Leuer out for Evans and then Evans had a series of turnovers that made things much tighter than needed in the final minutes.

Badger Three Points:

1: The Badgers again started very slowly from the field and even more disturbing was the lack of hustle on the defensive end. In the first half it seemed like Mike B. was the only player who brought his hustle to Orlando.

2: In this tournament Taylor has looked surprisingly tentative but once he got things going in the second half he really took it to the Boston College Eagles smaller guard. Taylor finished with 14 points on 5 of 11 shooting.

3: Keaton Nankivil plays far to passive and this has been a problem his whole Badger career. It looked like this was going to be another passive game for him but he got things going in the second half and it sparked the rest of the team as well, that is the type of play the Badgers need out of their senior big man.

Josh Gasser update:Gasser finished with 8 points on 3 of 6 shooting, he missed 2 very open looks from three otherwise he would have had a great offensive game. Gasser also had 6 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and what is most impressive for a freshman guard no turnovers. Gasser's defense still needs a lot of work as he doesn't fight hard enough through screens and is slow on help defense, but right now he is helping the team more than hurting it. He played 31 minutes in the game an almost unthinkable stat for a freshman on a Bo Ryan team.

UW Badger Basketball vs Manhattan

2010-11-25T21:58:00.000-08:00

The UW Badger basketball team defeated Manhattan 50 to 35 on Thanksgiving and if you missed the game consider yourself lucky. Looking to come back from what was supposed to be a learning experience in a loss to UNLV the Badgers started the game about as poorly as you can. The shooting display in the first half by the Badgers was horrible to say the least. While the Badgers were able to get open outside shots they couldn't buy a bucket and as a bad sign for things to come this year had trouble working the ball into the paint despite a very healthy height advantage. Make no mistake Manhattan is not a team that should give Wisconsin any trouble ever under any circumstances as the talent level is low, they have multiple injuries and are a huge physical mismatch but if you can't shoot straight you can't shoot straight.

In the second half the Badgers were able to at least build up a lead early as Jon Leuer went to work, he finished the game with 16 points and 13 rebounds for the double double but that was about all that went right for the Badgers. Taylor and Nankivil were so off on their early shots that they actually looked tentative later in the game on wide open shots, the two combined to go 3 for 13 from the floor. In addition Mike Bruessiwitz had an terrible game finishing with 3 boards in 23 minutes despite the constant opportunities for rebounds clanking off the rim. Ryan Evans did his usual impression of the good, the bad, and the ugly routine. Rob Wilson came back to the court and was off on his passes. Brett Valentyn came off the bench as an attempt at a shooting spark and went 0 for 2, basically this was a day for North and the rest of us fans to keep our eyes closed and pretend this never happened.

The lone bright spot was Josh Gasser who finished 5 of 9 for 12 points and added 4 assists and 2 rebounds vs Manhattan. Josh Gasser again showed he is going to be a player for the Badgers in just his first season as he does some very nice things on offense both distributing the ball and creating his own shot. On defense though Josh needs to improve as he was late to cover his man from beyond the arc, and went for offensive rebounds when he should have been going down on defense to stop the fast break. On the plus side in this game he did have a nice steal which he converted to three points going the other way strong to the hoop.

Lets hope we don't see more efforts like this in 2010/2011 because if so it is going to be a very long season.

PS: the Badgers finished with 36.2% overall shooting percentage and 23.8% from three.

Badger Football Awards

2010-11-24T07:50:00.000-08:00

The award nominations for the Badger football team are starting to pile up as one would expect as the best one loss team in America. Lance Kendricks is a finalist now for the Mackey Award, James White won his fourth freshman of the week award from the Big Ten, and Bielema is up for coach of the year nationally. Lance Kendricks deserves the Mackey and should be Wisconsin's first winner of the award in addition White should be the second straight Badger to win the Big Ten's freshman of the year as Boreland got it last year. White is also for what it is worth number 2 in CBS Sports freshman watch nationally if you want to get a better idea of the respect White and the Badgers are getting this year. Bielema will not win the coach of the year award due to politics but deserves it after righting the ship masterfully after MSU and being at the helm of a team with the least penalties in the nation. One of the great injustices is that there is not an award given to the best offensive line unit as that would go to the Badgers without a contest. In fact if we had it our way the individual awards would be eliminated from the NCAA and only unit awards would be given out for football.

Of course none of the awards seem to matter to the Badgers and they shouldn't, everybody is focused on roses, and we can smell them from here. You never want to look ahead but now it is just one game left and we fully expect victory on Saturday against Northwestern. The three headed tailback monster will leave tread marks on the Wildcat players all day long and that should be enough rain/sleet/snow or shine. We will have more on the game coming up but think about how bad it would normally sound to say at Wisconsin you have a three headed tailback monster, that would mean they probably aren't very good 99.99% of the time (of course the reality is there are at least three future NFL backs on the roster).

Wisconsin vs Northwestern Time,TV: Badger Football 2010

2010-11-21T23:44:00.000-08:00

The Wisconsin vs Northwestern time and TV channels have finally been anounced, so the Badgers will play the last game of the year versus the Wildcats at 2:30 CT, on ABC regionally or ESPN out of region. The game is of course at Camp Randall and despite the likely cold the place should be jumping with a chance at a share and possibly better of the Big Ten title on the line. Our early prediction for the game is the same as versus Michigan, the Badger football team is 1-0 and can't get ahead of itself but we expect the offense to roll all over Northwestern similar to recent past games. You would think Clay will be back for this game so it could be interesting his effect on the outcome. For those of you who aren't Badger fans and are reading this, just a note of warning that even if for some odd reason you think you can slow the running game the passing game this year is perfectly capable of torching you as well, best of luck.

UW Badger Football Rankings: BCS,AP,Coaches, Power Rankings - Week 13

2010-11-21T18:20:00.000-08:00

As follows here are all of the relevant UW Badger Football rankings for week 13 of the 2010 season.
Badgers BCS ranking - 7
Big Ten in BCS: Ohio State 8, Michigan State 10, Iowa 24

Badgers AP Poll - 5
Badgers Coaches Poll - 5
Badgers Harris Poll - 5
Badgers Legends Poll - 6
Badgers computers for BCS - AH 8,RB 7,CM 12,KM 9,JS 9,PW 10

Ohio State did gain on the Badgers by fractions of a point in the BCS, but it is looking strongly like nothing can change for Wisconsin to stay ahead of them in the BCS short of a loss to Northwestern. Stay focused and the Badgers have about as nice a shot at the Rose Bowl going into the final game of the season as you can ask for.

UW Badger Football vs Michigan 2010: Ran up the Score, Up the Middle

2010-11-21T09:51:00.000-08:00

Actually the UW Badger football team ran at Michigan up the middle, to the left, right and anywhere else they wanted to for an astounding 32 times in a row in the second half. Our belief is that coach Bielema was clearly trying to run up the score on the sorry Michigan defense as clearly mixing in a pass now and then would have been the more professional thing to do as Michigan could have maybe forced a punt;) Bielema had no reason to humiliate the proud and mighty Michigan program by beating them by 20 points on their own turf, in front of so many blue clad fans with the band trying its hardest to play their fight song despite the coming outcome.

We want to say right now that before we get into some of the running stats the Wisconsin passing corps deserves a lot of credit for this win with an excellent performance as well with 201 passing yards on 14 of 15 attempts by Scott Tolzien. In addition we all know the Badger receivers and tight ends give it there all when blocking for the backs down the field which is hugely important. So Badger passing groups congrats on the most ignored 201 yard performance in history.

On to the running game stats fun. Montee Ball you know the excellent kid who due to circumstance found himself in third place on the running back depth chart ran for 173 yards on 29 carries and 4 touchdowns. One interesting fact about the four touchdowns is that they tie the mark for the most in a game versus Michigan and he is really good company with Red Grange, Robert Ferguson, James Otis, and Vince Young. Every single one of those players mentioned was an All American and with the exception of the great Red Grange who appeared on the cover of Time magazine won a Heisman or came close to doing it (our guess is Grange would have won it if the award was around). So does that mean that Montee Ball will be an All American some day, pretty tough with sharing carries with White but it can be done.

On to James White the Badger freshman running back who has been the Big Ten freshman of the week 3 times and our guess is a fourth time will be awarded shortly after his 23 carries for 181 yards and 2 touchdowns. Sure the Badger line opens up nice sized holes but not to many players cut as hard and fast as White going through him, somebody needs to figure out how many times he has had an opponent looking for his jock after he runs by them. White is the best Badger "fast" back since Aaron Stecker was busy trying to transfer to get away from the glare of Ron Dayne (sorry Calhoun, and Bennett but this kid is already a more complete runner).

So the Badgers have three running backs who have each rushed for 13 touchdowns. Clay is still in the lead with 929 yards, White has 895, and Ball has 686. We are going to try and dig up some Badger stats of past of running backs to put this in perspective.

It is good to be a Badger, and bad to be a Big Ten linebacker in 2010.

UW Badger Football vs Michigan: Wisconsin 1-0!

2010-11-18T03:30:00.000-08:00

Well the big UW Badger football game vs the Michigan Wolverines up in Ann Arbor is quickly approaching so we thought we thought it was about time to give some opening thoughts on the game. The first is don't fool yourselves Badger fans Bielema is going to need to keep this team focused to come out of an Ann Arbor with a win, this is especially true as they will almost 100% be without John Clay again by the rhetoric out of Camp Randall (stay focused Badger fans we are 1-0, as Bielema preaches). For those of you who look at White and Ball and shrug why Clay makes a difference, you need to keep in mind Clay still has more big game experience, and given his performances this year has proven himself to be a big play back. On the plus the Wolverines defense is atrocious and one of the defenses better players run stuffing nose tackle Mike Martin has a bad ankle and may not play, which makes it even easier for White and Ball to continue to pound up the middle. In this game don't be surprised if we also see a return to some of the short passing to the backs that was so effective versus Iowa, part of the reason for the use was to exploit a weakness in the Iowa defense but it is also a nice complement for the Badger high powered offense that they chose to leave in the closet versus Indiana and we think there is a reason why.

We fully expect a barn burning high scoring game as Michigan has proven week in and week out that their offense can score, and while our secondary may be more solid than years past and the defense has come around as a unit it is still lacking the number of playmakers you like to see to shutdown an explosive offense. That said though the Wolverines just might have to score on every possession to keep pace with the Badgers offense and we don't see that happening. One interesting stat to keep an eye on is time of possession will the Badgers try and grind it out, or will they score as quick as this offense is capable of. The Badger score vs Michigan will be 55-44.

Lance Kendricks Badger Tight End Gains Recognition

2010-11-16T06:24:00.000-08:00

Lance Kendricks first put on his Badger uniform as a wide receiver when he walked on campus, since that time he has transformed himself into one of the very best tight ends in the country and was recognized as such when he was named a Mackey Award semifinalist yesterday. The Mackey award is given to the best tight end in the country. Lance currently leads the Badgers with 31 catches for 473 yards and 4 touchdowns which puts him 6th nationally and tied for 11 amongst tight ends. What us has impressed us most this season about Kendricks is his tenacity on blocking, he can truly call himself a tight end after some of the hits he has dished out. In what is becoming a great tradition of Badger tight ends, no Badger has yet won the Mackey but Travis Beckum was named as a semifinalist and finalist in 2006 and 2007. The accolades just keep coming for Badger players which is going to happen when you have talent on a winning team, Kendricks, Clay, and White have gained recognition this week. Of course the great thing about all of the individuals being recognized is that they clearly think of the team first and that isn't always the case with "star" players.

Wisconsin Badgers Run Up the Score? Indiana / Minnesota

2010-11-15T10:03:00.000-08:00

Did the Wisconsin Badgers run up the score on Indiana, no way! Well yes maybe? We don't know, only Brett Bielema knows if he ran up the score and you know what our guess is that he didn't do it on purpose one bit. For all the talk about Brett being a not well liked guy he seems to be a pretty straight up fair kind of guy who loves the game and the Big Ten. We haven't heard a word about Brett making recruiting violations, when a Badger player gets in trouble it is dealt with very swiftly by Bielema, the Badger players are also succeeding in the classroom. The Badgers players have shown almost nothing but class on the field during his tenure (no excessive celebration penalties, no big brawls, no major taunting, way more behaved than the student section or band), so it has to make you question why he is being questioned about his respect for the game. Sure Brett's forte is not public speaking, does he stick his foot in his mouth from time to time, yep he does. Bielema walked on at Iowa to play football and is not a self described communications expert, he is a football coach.

We are sticking with coach on this until proven otherwise, all he has shown is a strong desire to get the Badgers back to the BCS and someday a National Championship. The only two cases you could make against Wisconsin running up the score against Indiana was in the third quarter with Tolzien in passing, and in the fourth with White running. But you know what Indiana had a better chance of forcing a punt with Tolzien passing than Ball or White running and if you ask Indiana or Brett and if they could speak freely they would tell you that. Did Brett try and get his QB some game work so that he might be prepared for a tough battle up in Ann Arbor, yes he did, did he keep White in because he looked visibly rusty at times so he could get more work before Michigan, yes he did, did he run up the score no! Indiana played no defense against backups, Tice ran it in for ... sake.

Did Wisconsin run up the score against Minnesota? No it didn't, they went for two points because Bielema again was trying to prepare the Badgers for the BCS and they hadn't gone for two much and it was a legit situation on the coaches card. In this case it is more questionable on whether he should have done it, but the answer is the same he didn't run up the score against Minnesota and if he did, he did it by 1 point. Don't you think every major coach in the nation has rung up the score once by more than one point? We hate to say it but Brewster is a prick anyways and deserved it, the players didn't but it was one point and you know what they have moved on and got a win. We can't wait to see the Gopher program head in the right direction, because it fell off the path big time.

James White Big Ten Freshman of the Week: 3rd Time

2010-11-15T09:20:00.000-08:00

UW Badger freshman tailback James White has been named the Big Ten freshman of the week after his performance vs Indiana. Of course all he did against Indiana was run for 144 yards on 19 carries and put it in the end zone twice. This is the third Big Ten Freshman of the Week award for James White, he also won it on September 27th and October 4th for his work against Austin Peay and Michigan State. Not bad for a player that has been number 2 or number 3 on the depth chart, he is fourth now in the nation for rushing as a freshman at 714 yards and he leads the Big Ten with 6.8 yards per carry. The 6.8 yards per carry is something to get used to Badger fans and Big Ten opponents because if he finds a hole with his moves and speed his if off to the races. Of course what we have been most impressed with is his desire to run inside and the patience he has shown waiting for the play to develop. Congrats James on the award, we see much bigger awards in your future.

UW Badger Football Rankings: BCS,AP,Coaches, Power Rankings - Week 12

2010-11-14T22:29:00.000-08:00

As follows here are all of the relevant UW Badger Football rankings for week 12 of the 2010 season.

Badgers BCS ranking - 7
Big Ten in BCS: Ohio State 9, Michigan State 12, Iowa 20
Badgers AP Poll - 6
Badgers Coaches Poll - 5
Badgers Harris Poll - 5
Badgers Legends Poll - 6
Badgers computers for BCS - AH 14,RB 9,CM 14,KM 11,JS 11,PW 11

Of course the one that matters is the BCS and we stayed put and actually had Ohio State gain on us a little in the percentage points do to the computers not caring we put 83 points on the board on Saturday. The Big Ten in the off-season is going to have to address the strength of schedule for out of conference for all teams because it is killing the conference with the computers. The good news is most who "study" the BCS think Ohio State won't jump us now, but we will see and besides a lot of football is left to be played by all.

Josh Gasser Badger Basketball Freshman Guard #21

2010-11-14T17:54:00.000-08:00

For Josh Gasser (#21) a freshman guard on the UW Badger basketball team his debut night against Prairie View A and M was impressive to say the least. Here we all thought the Badgers might be in big trouble for the 2010 / 2011 season at the 2 guard and Gasser puts those questions to rest in the first game, as he is clearly already a competent player on the court.

Note that we have decided to update this article with the latest Josh Gasser news and notes as he goes through his college career. New notes about Josh Gasser and his performance will be at the bottom of the article.

Josh Gasser is from Port Washington WI, and is listed at 6-4 and 185 pounds. He flew "under the radar" in his college recruitment and Scout for instance had him rated 44th at the guard spot nationally and as a three star recruit. So what does a three star recruit do coming off the bench in the first game of his college career, he scores 21 points second most on the team behind the senior Leuer on 5 of 7 shooting, 2 of 4 from downtown, and 9 of 10 from the charity stripe, in addition he just misses a double double with 9 rebounds, adds 3 assists and a steal in his 26 minutes of action. Gasser's 21 points is the second most in Badger Basketball history for a freshman in his debut as Rashard Griffith scored 26 in his first game, and Devin Harris is now third with 20. Shooting the ball straight is all well and good and maybe not as hard to do against Prairie View but in addition Gasser showed good vision on his passes, played solid defense, was able to get the rim and the line, and grabbed rebounds inside.

From everything we had heard about Josh Gasser and our little exposure watching him, he was a sharp shooter with potential in other areas. He has way more than potential, he is a player and one that might be the first freshman to start on a consistent basis for the Badgers since Tucker and Wade. He is going to need to show he can play defense against Big Ten caliber competition but he looks much farther along than advertised in all facets of his game. In Bo Ryan's post game comments he mentioned what he liked about Gasser's defense was that he was getting beat by his man for threes in the first half, got upset about it and made his man put it on the floor in the second instead. That shows that he is way ahead of a lot of freshman in terms of how he thinks about the game. Gasser is quicker than JBo so we expect him with the help of Ryan to be an abover average defender soon.

We already had a good feeling Gasser was going to be thrown into the fire at least a little this year because this team needs the shooting that we were promised he had, but this kid can already create his own shot better than a pre-senior JBo, so the Big Ten is now on notice. It is so refreshing to have a player that is billed as a shooter step on campus and carry on that reputation, as you probably recall TJ, Krabbenhoft and others have been billed as plus shooters and that hasn't been the case once they lace them up at the Kohl Center.

Josh Gasser as you recall kind of entered the Badger recruiting picture after the whole Blue fiasco, he may or may not have been a replacement for him so you ask how did Vander Blue do against Prairie View as Marquette played them last? Blue started and in 28 minutes had 7 points on 2 of 3 shooting, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, 3, blocks, 4 turnovers and 3 fouls. Overall it was a pretty full stat sheet for Vander Blue and it seems he played well but Gasser more than held his own with 1 turnover, no fouls, and 21 points in 26 minutes. It is all kind of subjective of course as they play on different teams but fun to look at.

You know one more thing about Josh Gasser is that he seems to really fit the Badger way, he looks fit and plays tough, he looks like a chip off a block from past and current players like Tucker, Taylor, Krabby, and Mike Wilkinson.

Welcome to the Badgers Josh, it looks like the UW Basketball team just hit reload for 2010/2011 instead of the almost rebuilding button, because we needed to know where we could find some points.

Josh Gasser Update
The lone bright spot was Josh Gasser who finished 5 of 9 for 12 points and added 4 assists and 2 rebounds vs Manhattan. Josh Gasser again showed he is going to be a player for the Badgers in just his first season as he does some very nice things on offense both distributing the ball and creating his own shot. On defense though Josh needs to improve as he was late to cover his man from beyond the arc, and went for offensive rebounds when he should have been going down on defense to stop the fast break. On the plus side in this game he did have a nice steal which he converted to three points going the other way strong to the hoop.

Bucky Badgers Number of Push Ups vs Indiana

2010-11-14T15:02:00.000-08:00

We all know that the second most tired people at Camp Randall Stadium Saturday were likely Montee Ball and James White as they sprinted to daylight numerous times, in an unusual twist the folks with the biggest workload on Saturday were Bucky Badger and the guys holding him up on the stretcher. So how many push ups did Bucky Badger do against Indiana you ask, well we added it up and get him doing 573 total push ups on the day so he might want to submit that to the Guinness Record folks for the most in a three hour period in public or something. While we would like to believe that Bucky is super human or something we do recall at one point he went up the tunnel in feigned angst after the Badgers scored again and didn't come back for a while and as the TV crew pointed out might have grown some. In addition we can't really be sure that all of his push ups were fully regulation but congrats to Bucky and we know we missed him in our post game awards but he definitely should get a "helmet sticker" for his performance.

With Paul Chryst at the helm of the Badger offense either the Bucky's might want to train with Bo's basketball program on the hill next year or devise a plan for occasions like this because it will likely happen again.

UW Badger Football vs Indiana Hoosiers Live Score and Live Blog,Stats

2010-11-12T23:27:00.000-08:00

UW Badgers vs Indiana Hoosiers Live Blog
Wisconsin Badger score 83 Indiana 20

TV: ESPN 2 / ESPN 3, Time 11:00 CT

Welcome to the Badgers vs the Hoosiers live blog for hopefully every play of the action. Please note the latest play / game insight will always be at the bottom of the article. Final thoughts and stats are at the bottom as Indiana let the beast out of the bag and got mauled by the Badgers high powered offense.

Look for John Clay not to play in this game as he is a "game time decision" which is code for he isn't playing in this game unless both White and Ball get hurt, no way does he take the field as conditions in Madison are not projected to be optimum come game time. Other news of note of course is that Indiana at home last week managed to take Iowa down to the wire loosing only after their star receiver dropped the ball in the end zone on a last second play, in a show of support he has been voted a captain by his team for this weeks game. The Badgers came out flat last week against Purdue, don't look for the problem to happen again though against Indiana as Brett seems to have enough command of this team that doesn't happen in back to back weeks. One thing you will want to keep an eye on is if the Badger secondary can continue to show the progress it has all year because Indiana is 11 in the country in receiving yards at 311 per game, yikes. Last week Indiana QB Ben Chappell went 27 out of 46 for 222 yards and he leads the Big Ten with 296.3 yards per game. Of course there is always a flip side when you see numbers like that and that is that their rushing averages only 97 yards per game, don't look for the Hoosiers to have anywhere their average number of passing yards per game as the Badgers will limit their possessions with ball control on offense to the point that is impossible.

Stay with us folks all game long, we are guessing this is going to be a fun one for the Badgers.

1st Quarter
Sorry folks we were having trouble with the cable so we missed the early going but are live now.
Badger score 10 Indiana 7
Indiana 3rd Drive
Hoosiers on the drive, Ben Chappel the Indiana QB has been abusing the Badgers zone coverage.
Indiana in Badger territory and they get 4 yards on the carry on first down.
Indiana has gotten a hugely surprising 91 rushing yards in the first quarter they barely average that for a game.
Of course that has been aided a lot by a huge 67 yard scamper by Nick Turner.

2nd Quarter
Indiana on the Badgers 30, third and 7 and he can't find a receiver and Chappel scrambles and gets taken down and he comes down awkwardly and he limps off.
48 yard field goal attempt and the Indiana kicker kicks a season long kick which he drills.
(It turns out that Chappel didn't get hurt, his brace got tangled up. The Badgers were good just to get off the field on that drive to limit to 3 because Indiana had a head of steam going. For the second straight week the Badgers are in a ball game early.)

Badger score 10 Indiana 10

Badgers 3rd Drive
Gilreath takes it from the 2 and finds a seam up the right sidelines all the way to the 50, great return and the field position the Badgers need right now.
Play action on first down and Tolzien ends up checking down to Ball for 9 and a half yards.
On second and inches Ball takes the handoff and finds a huge lane up the right side for we will call 8.
Ball with a nice move in the backfield to make sure he got back to the line of scrimmage. Ball only gets a half yard. Carimi came up lame but it doesn't look to bad hopefully he can shake it off.
Tolzien trying to hook up with Kendricks over the middle but Kendricks slips on the play.
Tolzien all day to throw and he drives a dart of a pass to Gilreath, nice pass into a zone for a big third down chain mover.
James White goes up the middle and finds room, he picks up 8. Nothing fancy there from White, he knocks someone over at the end for an extra 2 yards.
Tolzien rolls left and he is looking to the end zone and it is covered and Tolzien tries to run but eats a sack.
Badgers stopped themselves there, just run the dang ball.
Tolzien tries to connect with Nick Toon in the end zone but he can't hang on. Luckily they were working on a freshman and he interferes with Toon and the Badgers get a break. What do we not know about the Indiana rush defense that the Badgers didn't stuff it down their throats.
Ball on the handoff and he takes it to the 6 inch line. Nice tackle by Indiana to keep the ball out.
Ball on second and goal and he isn't met with much resistance. TD.
(Well the Badgers have had the ball on offense and scored on every possession. Not sure what they were doing trying a pass on that second down in the red zone but it ended up working out after the Indiana mistake. Ball is running well and the holes seem to be there. That pass to Gilreath on third down was nice vision, patience and passing by Tolzien.)

Badger score 17 Indiana 10

Indiana 4th Drive
Indiana takes the kick up the right sideline to the 36.
Audible at the line on first down. The pass rush almost gets there but Chappell throws it long up the seam, to long.
Nick Turner looks like he war running to daylight but gets ankle tackled from behind, that was close to a disater instead gain of 2.
Badgers come with a blitz and get heat but Chappell finds his man on the outside three yards beyond the sticks. Indiana pushed off on that one and didn't get called.
Turner picks up a couple on the carry up the middle.
Chappell on the blitz did get a little hurt on the play.
Indiana at the 50, Chappell has time and finds his man on the right side wide open in a zone. First down.
Indiana driving again now, JJ Watt brings the pressure and Chappell throws it away.
Badgers bring pressure on what was a swing pass and the back drops it.
Badgers need a stop on third and 10, this is what you work for third and long.
Look for pressure again, no pressure but the throw goes underneath and picks up 5.
Indiana is going for it on 4th and 5. Play clock winds down on Indiana and they call a timeout.
Indiana probably made the decision to go for it on fourth as they got themselves into third and manageable.
Now Indiana brings the kicker out for a 52 yarder, um OK interesting. It didn't get to the uprights.
(well again the defense got the stop but it didn't look pretty)

Badgers 4th Drive
Badgers are going to start just inside their 40 yard line.
Ball finds a huge seam after he goes up the middle and picks up call it maybe 40.
Ball at 115 yards rushing on the day.
White takes it this time going left and he hits a hole does a dance and he is gone for the TD from the 30 and that is what you would call a running display. 2 carries 70 yards by 2 different backs, that is going to sting a bit for Indiana. WOW
(That drive took all of maybe 20 seconds, all on the ground. You know what the blocking was the most impressive part and of the runs maybe Whites was the most impressive as he exploded and made a little cut. Clay is smiling on the sidelines and that is good to see)

Badger score 24 Indiana 10

Indiana 5th Drive
Indiana again takes the kickoff up the right side to the 30.
Chappell is out of the game with a hip injury, he might return.
Indiana brings in a redshirt freshman and he has trouble giving it to the back and the ball is on the ground and Watt has it.
(Indiana is falling into destruct mode.)

Badgers 5th Drive
Ball takes the first carry 8 yards as their defense stiffens a little.
Ball powers it up the middle for 5 and a first down.
Badgers at the Indiana 16, Ball on first down finds 5 yards over the left middle.
Ball takes a sweep over the right side and only gets 3, don't like that play as it took to long to develop just run it.
Third and 1, Ball finds a huge lane on the left side and runs in untouched.
(Indiana is now starting to find tread marks on their backs from the Badger run game. It looked like the Badgers even called a completely different run play on every down, it is like Indiana is hoping they take it to the same hole at least twice and stocking up and that isn't happening. Run left, Run right, run middle, outside it doesn't matter)

Badger Score 31 Indiana 10

Indiana 6th Drive
Better kick coverage this one only comes back to the 24.
Handoff up the middle, gets 3. Chappell still out.
Another handoff and the runner looks tentative going up the middle and finds red.
Timeout.
3rd and 7. Indiana tries to throw it long up the right side and that wasn't a pretty pass as it was 10 yards over thrown to an open receiver.
Punt almost gets blocked, rolls to Gilreath and he picks up a big time block early that springs him for a 25 yard gain over midfield.

Badgers 6th Drive
Badgers on the Indiana 45, White looses a few running right on first down. Nice tackle Indiana.
Timeout Indiana.
Tolzien in the shotgun, he throws high over the middle and Kendricks flashes the skill going vertical for the first down catch.
Tolzien throws in quick to Toon for a first down to the 20.
Tolzien throws to the left side now to Anderson for another 11 yards and a first down.
Badgers first and goal from the 4. Tolzien darts it to the back of the endzone to Toon for a touchdown.
(so Indiana proved they could stop the run on one play and the Tolzien ripped them apart. That went middle,right,left, middle and was like they do it in practice. So this game was looking a little dicey and the Badgers on offense have hit the puree button on the Indiana defense as they are in pieces right now.)

Badger score 38 Indiana 10

Indiana 7th Drive
Indiana hands it off to run out the clock and JJ Watt blows up the runner just in case the poor kid didn't want to remember the first half.

Halftime
Brett gets asked if he was thinking about running the clock out with 1:45 on the clock on that last drive, and he answered the best he could that they needed to score. BB also said an understatement that he thinks the Badgers can run the ball on Indiana, you think 186 yards in the first half and four rushing touchdowns. Brett also says that they came out a little sloppy which is actually what we wanted to see most in this game that this program comes out rolling week in and week out. In that half especially late Chryst was like the puppet master seemingly playing Madden in the living room as he taunted the Indiana defense with different plays all over the field, in fact our guess is at least one player on that defense got whiplash trying to figure out which way the play was going.
Some first half stats for you Montee Ball has four touchdowns and 145 yards on 20 carries in the first half folks, not bad for a kid who found himself third on the depth chart. White has 36 yards on 5 carries and a touchdown. Toon picks up his first touchdown of the season and 3 catches for 26 yards.Gilreath had 1 kickoff return of 49 yards, 1 punt return of 22 and 2 catches for 28 yards.
Badgers have 281 total yards to Indiana's 153, 94 yards passing to 62, 187 rushing to 97. Wisconsin has no penalties and Indiana has 5 for 50 yards. Time of possession goes to the Badgers at 17:23 to 12:37.
Hopefully Ben Chappell can return for Indiana as you never want to see a competitor get hurt and Indiana doesn't have much to call on offense without him. Hopefully the Badgers can stay focused in the second half, stay healthy and keep the throttle open.

Second Half

Badgers 1st Drive
Lets see what Gilreath can accomplish on this kick, he has had an impressive all around game to say the least. You have to feel proud for this kid, he has really turned himself into a weapon that not many people saw coming. In fact there was talk at the start of the season that White could replace him on the return units.
Well we are going to have to wait for one more commercial and then the kick, jeez that seemed like a long half time.
(Things to look for in the second half, Badgers will punt at least once he didn't in the first half as the Badgers maximized their opportunity for points leaving only 4 on the field in the half.)
Indiana decides they don't want any part of Gilreath and kick it short and Abrederris gets it and takes off and takes it all the way down to the Indiana 24 on a nice run.
Ball gets it on first down, cuts to the middle and runs someone over for 8 yards.
Ben Chappell the Indiana QB is done for the game.
Ball cutting up the middle and he takes it all the way to the 2.
Tolzien throws to Byrne on first and goal for the touchdown.
(That was very quick after the nice field position setup up by Gilreath being a weapon and Abrederas having talent ahead of him.)
Badger score 45 Indiana 10

Indiana 1st Drive
Indiana picks up a first down on the 1st down handoff.
Indiana tries a run again and JJ Watt takes down the runner in the backfield.
The redshirt QB they have out there is an athlete and he takes off for 3 yards.
Third and 12 coming, Badgers bring pressure get to the QB and he fumbles and JJ Watt comes up with the fumble recovery. The wheels are very off oh my, Watt with that trademark high motor to get the ball.

Badger 2nd Drive
Badgers at the Indiana 41 and White gets it and gets 3 after a touch in the backfield.
Carimi is done for the day as he got tweaked and the Badgers are up 45.
Tolzien hits Kendricks up the middle for call it 20. Tolzien still looks sharp.
Ewing gets it and he has a 17 yard catch which he takes inside the 5.
White goes up the middle and does a good job of letting it develop and he is in for his second touchdown.
(we called the Badgers offense would have some fun in this game but we aren't sure if we have ever seen a defense look as defeated as Indiana's is. The Badgers are dropping the playbook on their heads every time they get the ball.)
Badger score 52 Indiana 10

Indiana 2nd Drive
Indiana takes it at the five and runs it up the right sideline to the 26.
Indiana has switched QB's to another redshirt freshman and this one is billed as a passer.
Indiana rushes on first down for a 1st down, fumbles but gets it back.
Indiana on another carry picks up a first down and they are moving for the first time in a while.
Indiana at the Badgers 40.
Indiana on a long sideline throw and they can't find the shoulder.
Nice pass all the way to the 13 over Brinkley and that was a nice pass, Brinkley tried to break it up but couldn't.
Handoff to the back and he gets 2.
The QB and the receiver aren't on the same page in the end zone and that pass falls harmlessly.
Third and 8 for Indiana at the 15. The QB has the ball fall off fingertips and it is 4th down. Ball thrown early and high.
Indiana kicks the short kick and pick up 3 points.
(well the Badger defense was put on alert that there is in fact still a ball game, one thing to look for is the Badgers just missed on getting home on the QB a couple times so they were still playing hard.)
Badger score 52 Indiana 13

Badgers 3rd Drive
Lets see what Indiana decides to do on this kick, kicking it short of Gilreath didn't work out well.
They go ahead and kick it to Gilreath and he takes it to the 37.
Play action by Tolzien and he checks to Ewing on the right side for 9.
Badgers moving forward again as White takes it for a first down up the middle.
Badgers on the Indiana 45. James White with a cutback and he almost has another first down.
Tolzien finds Byrne open on the left side and he is slowly becoming more a part of the offense, first down.
Tolzien fakes the handoff and rolls right and Gilreath makes a diving catch for first and goal at the 7.
White goes up the middle cuts for a couple but is met at the 3.
White drives for the goal line and an Indiana makes a lone man stand to keep him out, White was driving hard but couldn't push the guy back.
White waits a little and walks in on the right side. Flag down though and this could be the first of the day on the Badgers and it is. Holding call apparently on 2 players.
Wagnor and Ewing get called on the hold.
Tolzien throws over the middle to Kendricks in the back of the end zone a little leap and a touchdown.

Badger score 59 Indiana 13

Indiana 3rd Drive
The kick is bobbled and put on the turf and the Indiana man goes forward to the 17.
The handoff up the middle for 3 yards.
Jay Valai with the big hit on the handoff, not much doing.
The third down pass falls incomplete, and that was a quick three and out with the defense showing they still remember the game is going on.

Badgers 4th Drive
Gilreath with the fair catch at the Badgers 42 with 19 seconds left in the quarter.
Tolzien is out of the game and Budmayr is in.
Jump around time, Jump, Jump, Jump

Fourth Quarter
Second down and 6 for the Badgers, White on the handoff outruns people to the left corner and takes it 12 yards.
Tolzien was 15 out of 18 today.
White again slicing to a whole and he is up the sidelines for another big chunk of change. Good to see him appearing to running healthy and confident.
Ball on the 10 first and goal.
A little swing pass to Abbrederas and he gets 4, flag on the play.
Badgers pick up an unnecessary roughness penalty their second penalty of the game.
Now it is 1st and goal at the 20 and White gets tackled for a loss.
Budmayr gets pressure and throws to the feat on the dump off incomplete.
Now it is third and goal at the 23.
Budmayr does a nice job of escaping the initial pressure but takes the sack in the end as he doesn't force it down the field, really a nice decision to be seen made.
Welch kicks and it is good.
(you hate to see penalties and that dump one took 4 points off the board likely, not really liking even keeping White in this game but it does help to have him take some handoffs from Budmayr)

Badger Score 62 Indiana 13

Indiana 4th Drive
Welch drives this kick out of the end zone.
Indiana runner gets a couple up the middle maybe.
Indiana airs it out along the sidelines and it falls incomplete.
Third and 9, and the pass is picked by Henry and he walks it in for the score and the band gets some more practice.
(Overall the defense has tried to do its part in this game and now has a fumble recovery and an interception touchdown return. For those of you unsure if the Badgers have lucked their way to a top ten ranking, we think not.)
Badger Score 69 Indiana 13

Indiana 5th Drive
Indiana finds room on the right side all the way to their 37.
The first redshirt QB Baker is back in the game after the pick.
Indiana gains 1 on first down.
Turner on the carry losses half a yard.
Indiana dumps it off and that goes for a couple but not the first down.

Badgers 4th Drive
Gilreath with the fair catch at the 22.
Handoff the middle gets 1.
White on the carry over the right side for 4 yards.
Budmayr rolls out and on the bomb throws to the future Abbrederris for a long TD, nice. Budmayr gets hit late but our guess is he feels just fine. (Bucky has left the building fearing more push-ups.) That drive looked like the first punt coming and true to form turned into a highlight real touchdown. We will tell you what Abbrederris is going to be a fun player to watch in the coming years, the Badgers are just stacked on offense when you think about players like him playing a supporting role. Brett is going to get and is already getting heat for bombing it out at this point in the game.

Badger score 76 Indiana 13

Indiana 6th Drive
Welch blows it threw the end zone.
The running back takes it up the gut for 8 or 9 yards.
Running back carries for the first down.
Indiana driving? This time the run looses yards.
QB on the keeper for 6.
QB finds a man wide open after a Badger falls down on the coverage and that is a 62 yard touchdown pass.
(that play helps the defense take it on the chin a bit thanks to that in this game)
Badger score 76 Indiana 20

Badgers 5th
Zulinger on the return? taken to the 32.
Nate Tice now in at QB for the Badgers.
White still in there doing the freshman's work and he gets a couple as it is looking vanilla now.
Never mind James White goes up the middle busts free for a bunch of yards.
White tries to stay in bounds and he took it to the 27.
Sorry guys but don't know think that is Zulinger on the run down to the 17.
Zulinger doesn't find much on second down.
Play action on the keeper and the QB Nate Tice gets a gift and runs it in.
(Brett is going to here about the score now from the media as the score ties a modern day Big Ten record. Keep in mind folks a Doak Walker semifinalist has been chilling on the sidelines all day.)
Badger score 83 Indiana 20

Indiana 7th Drive
Indiana gets a short kick and gets to the 25.
Indiana run goes nowhere up the middle.
Indiana up the middle for a few.
We are guessing there will not be much of a handshake at the end of this game.
Third and 8 and they run for a few and that should do it.

Final Score: Badgers 83 Indiana 20

Final Thoughts:
BB can't resist and in the post game interview with ESPN says that he thinks even Bo Ryan would be proud, yes he probably would be. This game reminds a nation again that Wisconsin is not slow and plodding but an offensive machine. We have said it multiple times all season long, absolutely not defense in the country wants anything to do with a healthy Badger offense. The Badgers pull all the levers and put up 83 again without a Doak Walker semifinalist. Brett Bielema didn't really look like he was trying to run the score up, he took multiple steps to take players out and had Tice in at QB on the last one. The one thing you could argue is he could have taken out White and made anybody else carry the ball because we know White is not exactly a backup quality player. By the way Northwestern pulled off the upset over Iowa at Iowa so that is going to be disruptive in the BCS / Rose Bowl chase. We don't know how this game will effect the Badgers in the BCS our guess is not much but you have to think they won't be dropping. If you get a college video game next year our tip would be to play Wisconsin vs Oregon and see what happens. FYI the final handshake between Brett and the Indiana coach Bill Lynch wasn't a disaster.

Final Stats
Badgers 597 yards total offense to Indiana 316.
337 rushing yards for the UW, Montee Ball 22 for 167, James White 19 for 144, Nate Tice 1 for 17, Scott Tolzien 2 for 6, Kyle Zuleger 2 for 6, Jon Budmayr 1 for -3. Rushing touchdowns Ball with 3, White with 2, and Tice with 1.
260 passing yards for the Badgers with Scott Tolzien finishing 15 of 18 for 181 yards and three touchdown. Jon Budmayr got a nice dose of play and finished 2 of 3 for 79 yards and a touchdown.
Receiving went as follows Jared Abbrederis 2 catches for 79 yards and a touchdown, Lance Kendricks 3 for 47 and a touchdown,David Gilreath 3 for 41, Nick Toon 3 for 26 and a touchdown, Bradie Ewing 2 for 26, Jake Byrne 2 for 18 and a touchdown, Isaac Anderson 1 for 18, Montee Ball 1 for 9.
Gilreath returned two kicks for 84 yards and a punt for 22. Welch banged home two field goals and Brad Norman was in a state of boredom as he didn't get to punt with the Badgers scoring every time they touched the ball.

Game Balls:
Montee Ball for getting this game off on the right track with some power running.
JJ Watt for making himself known early.
Scot Tolzien for throwing at a very high level while given the chance.
David Gilreath for a huge overall day.
Jared Abbrederis for his big display of the future being bright.
Really a bunch of players could get game balls, what you going to do at 82 to 20.

UW Badger Basketball 2010/2011 Preview

2010-11-12T23:07:00.000-08:00

Badgers 2010/2011 Big Ten Dark Hoarse
As what has turned into a tradition in Madison the UW Badger Basketball team led by Bo Ryan figures to be a dark hoarse in the Big Ten title race again, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Last year ended in humiliating fashion for the Badgers in the Big Dance with that second round loss to Cornell. Cornell had a solid squad but the loss was still humiliating and we can't wait for the sting to be erased by the UW Badger basketball season getting underway.

What follows is our quick thoughts heading into the 2010/2011 season, with of course more to come including hopefully as many live game blogs and previews as last year.

UW Badger Backcourt
Coming into the 2010/2011 season the Badgers have more question marks than in recent years, that is going to happen when you loose your entire senior led starting backcourt and a solid one at that with Hughes and JBo moving on. We all know that those two provided a ton of minutes, leadership and some clutch play with games on the line but players move on in college and the Badgers have options for 2010/2011.

It all starts of course with Jordan Taylor who as a sophomore was really a starter in the backcourt and now in his junior year this is his team to lead. What we really like about the fact that Taylor is a leader is the same thing we liked when Tucker was a leader and that is that Taylor is a strong tough kid without quit and the talent to go with it to make his teammates stand up and take notice of what he does on and off the court. All reports are that the Badgers had one of there best off-season conditioning programs from top to bottom for the players and one can't doubt that Taylor was a leader setting an excellent example for the younger players to follow. Taylor will provide the playmaking ability and decision making this backcourt needs to be successful, he has grown every year as a player and look for him to be in the discussion for Big Ten Player of the Year when the season is said and done.

Rob Wilson figures to get more time at the shooting guard spot this season than at forward as he is the only upperclassman to play meaningful minutes at the guard position on the roster. Rob has been a player during his UW career that has shown flashes of being a key contributer but that is all they have been is flashes. If the Badgers are going to be truly successful during this season they need him to grow as a player which means a lot more consistency on his part, that means making the right decisions on when to penetrate, shooting a higher percentage from beyond the arc, and not committing dumb fouls on the defensive end.

The freshman guards Ben Brust and John Gasser are going to need to contribute this year as there isn't enough depth to hide them on the bench in the way Bo has so often hid his freshman. In particular the Badgers are going to be looking for one of them to be a sharp shooter from beyond the arc and that figures to be John Gasser from Port Washington, WI. If these two can average 15 minutes of solid play between them per game it will be a success.

Also look for the walk-on seniors Wquinton Smith and Brett Valentyn to play a bigger role than walk-ons have in past recent years. In fact it wouldn't surprise us at all if Smith ends up playing more backcourt minutes than the freshman as he like Taylor is a solid figure, with good decision making abilities. Look for Valentyn to play an increased role as well in particular if he gets on a role hitting shots from deep.

Overall this backcourt won't have the experience you like to see, but led by Taylor it could be better for the team because we should know more what to expect from it night in and night out. The one thing about Hughes and JBo was that they weren't consistent even as seniors and that led to problems when the team looked at them to lead.

UW Badger Basketball Frontcourt
The frontcourt is where the Badgers will have an advantage over other teams in the 2010/2011 season and this group makes them a dark hoarse for the Big Ten title. Of course it all starts with the senior Jon Leuer who gives a solid effort on the defensive end but has turned himself into one of the most versatile offensive big men in the country with his scoring moves at the rim and being able to hit the jumper. Leuer is good enough to be like Taylor a candidate for Big Ten Player of the Year and we expect him to finish at the very least on the first team squad.

Senior forward Keaton Nankivil has had a bit of a disappointing career at the UW as he has yet to put it all together for the Badgers in the consistency department. When Nankivil is on his game he can be a dominating player by playing tough and with emotion on defense and having the versatility to light a team up from downtown. If Nankivil can be more consistent this season he pairs very well with Leuer to give the Badgers an intimidating one two punch down low on offense and defense.

Senior forward Tim Jarmusz has been a bit of a whipping boy for Badger fans as he doesn't seem to have enough athleticism as you would like for Big Ten play. Despite that he was a starter for the Badgers as Bo Ryan likes his smarts as he doesn't make dumb decisions and through positioning can be effective on the defensive end of the floor. In the past Jarmusz has also had a reliable outside shot that this team desperately needs him to rediscover as it went missing most of last year. Look for Jarmusz despite being a senior to play less minutes than last year in the frontcourt as players like Evans, Mike B. and Evan Anderson prove to be better options but Jarmusz might pick up some slack if needed in the backcourt.

Ryan Evans is a player who came to the Badgers as a raw prospect and has always worked hard on the court and has made strives every year to improve. One thing you will notice though is that no player on the roster drives Bo Ryan more crazy than Evans and he has the shortest leash on the team when he makes a mistake. Evans can be a true impact player for the Badgers, he already was on the defensive end last year where his tenacity and athleticism when he was making smart decisions drove teams nuts. On offense he was still very raw but he showed flashes of an improving jumper and at least a little less forced shots around the rim. Evans is the type of kid who is going to keep improving because that is how he is and why the Badgers recruited him, look for his jump shot to be just good enough that he turns into the third biggest contributer to the team behind Taylor and Leuer.

Sophomore forward Mike Bruesewitz did one thing very well as a freshman and that was attack the glass. Mike is a fearless player on the court and draws comparisons back to Krabbenhoft but that is only on the defensive end, on offense Mike needs to show he belongs in his sophomore season otherwise he might not get the minutes his defense warrants. Jared Berggren another sophomore big man is another player who needs to show he is progressing in the system, one thing that would make him invaluable this year is if he found his stroke from beyond the arc as has been advertised that he is capable of.

Evan Anderson was once considered a good get for the Badgers on the recruiting trail, but last year he had a disappointing senior high school season. Despite that senior season don't be surprised if Anderson makes the biggest contribution of the Badger freshman this year as he is 6-11 and weighs 240 and all reports are that he is ready to play for the Badgers. In addition reports are that he works hard in fact he took to the off-season conditioning program with open arms, the Badgers have been burned by their last few Center recruits but we expect Anderson to be the one that contributes from day one and are expecting him to not redshirt and have the possibility to make a contribution if a player ahead of him gets hurt.

This frontcourt has a diverse group of upperclassman leading it, and we expect it to be the dominating factor in Big Ten play that makes this team competitive. We expect Leuer to have a terrific season that will propel him into the NBA draft and we expect Ryan Evans to have a huge impact on this team, not always the prettiest to watch but a huge impact.

Early Conclusion
This team is no doubt thin in the backcourt and the loss of Taylor could pretty much send the season off track in a hurry, but the Badgers have just enough in the backcourt with Taylor, Wilson, Smith and if Jarmusz has to swing over that you know they should be solid. In the frontcourt the Badgers have all sorts of upperclassman with diverse talent and that will give opposing teams fits and that is how the Badgers are going to win. In the 2010/2011 season the Badgers will have stifling inside defense, above average rebounding, and the big guys will stroke it from the outside and bang it home inside with Jordan Taylor creating as needed and a freshman knocking home some clutch threes outside. Is this the best team in the Big Ten this year, no it is hard to say with all of the talented Big Ten teams and you have to respect MSU but this team will be there at the end competing for a title.

Evan Anderson to Redshirt 2010/2011 Season

2010-11-12T20:24:00.000-08:00

UW Badger basketball freshman Evan Anderson has announced that he plans to redshirt for the 2010/2011 season. This decision is likely primarily due to the number of experienced big men the UW basketball team has on the roster including Leuer, Nankivil, Berggren, Mike B., and even Gavinski. There are folks out there that have been skeptical that Evan Anderson can become a difference maker for the Badgers especially after a non wowing senior year of high school and this will likely fuel those concerns. Our take on it is that Evan seems like a kid with a good head on his shoulders, all reports are that he attacked the off-season conditioning program and has progressed as a player while on campus. We believe this is more a numbers decision made by a kid thinking about the future instead of the here and now, and that is commendable. Sure redshirting hasn't worked out for Gavinski or the Badgers but that is just one player, it has worked out before for the Badgers and it will again likely with Anderson.

John Clay in Doak Walker Final 10

2010-11-12T17:58:00.000-08:00

John Clay despite what some Badger troll fans would lead you to believe is still having a pretty nice 2010 season, as such John Clay has been named as a semifinalist for the Doak Walker award. What this means is that a group of people out their actually thinks he is one of the 10 best running backs in the country which just might mean he might be one of the best backs in the Big Ten and yes even one of the better backs on the Badgers roster.

For those of you who still doubt John's resume remember that he is averaging 103.2 rushing yards per game good for 13th in the nation while sharing carries and playing hurt. In addition he had a big game against OSU becoming the first back to gain over 100 yards on them in 29 games and followed that up with 2 touchdowns and 91 yards against Iowa, all in all two big wins aided by the star back isn't to shabby. The other thing Clay brings to the table is consistency with his 12 one hundred plus yard games in the last 14, not many backs can lay claim to that.

Ron Dayne of course won the Doak Walker award in his senior season and was a finalist before, the other Badger backs to be named semifinalists are Anthony Davis, Brian Calhoun and P.J. Hill. It is surprising that either Moss or Fletcher weren't named semifinalists but they were sharing caries most of the time. Of course the Badgers look to already have the next in line for at least a semifinalist showing in James White, but lets not look ahead.

Show some love tomorrow if John can tough it out and get on the field against Indiana, he has earned it.

UW Badger Football vs Purdue Thoughts

2010-11-08T13:54:00.000-08:00

This was another game that showed the UW Badger football program under the leadership of BB is on the rise to joining the national elite year in and year out. Of course the Badgers came out flat against Purdue which you never like to see, never ever like to see on the road because it usually leads to a loss like against MSU but adjustments were made at halftime that allowed the more talented team to win. Purdue got some nice breaks to contain the Badgers offense in the first half which was very unexpected but we would venture that the Badgers defense did a nice job in this game from the get go considering they were facing a QB they didn't have tape on. It was clear that when the Badgers coaches were able to see the new Purdue offense in person they were able to put the defense in a clear position to dominate in the second half, and it couldn't have gone better.

We have been skeptical that the Badgers don't have the playmakers on defense to really be considered for the now number 5 ranking they have, however over the last three games the players on the field on the defensive side have proved us very wrong. Most of this has to be attributed to coaching as the Badgers defense is still clearly lacking the athletic playmakers we have grown accustomed to in past dominating Badger defenses but what this team has is a group of players playing together on defense, staying on their assignments and never quitting. With every game it is becoming clear that Ash was an excellent choice for the defensive backs coach as he has his unit playing at a superb level right now that probably hasn't been seen since the Badgers had physical specimens such as Echols and Fletcher patrolling the field.

The offense is another story completely as despite the injuries which have plagued the unit we believe the Badgers have one of the very best most fierce-some dynamic offenses in the country in 2010. This offense particularly with a healthy White and Kendricks just has weapons to burn, but the weapons are nothing without the coaching mastery showing by Chryst taking advantage of them at the right times. It is really hard to figure out what Chryst is going to dial up on any particular play this year, and we will go to the significant fourth down call in the third quarter where Chryst gave it to Clay again on fourth and two that wasn't expected by Purdue despite it being a high percentage play call. Of course the final thought on the Purdue game and the coaching should go to Ball who again had a huge game, a lot of this can be attributed to Ball being a pretty dang good player with clearly a solid head on his shoulders but you have to give some credit to the coaches for keeping him involved in the program and his spirits up as a lot of kids might have checked out if that happened to them and it wasn't handled correctly.

The Badgers have shown they have talent all over the field on offense that extends well down the depth chart and that combined with the emerging smarts of the defense has us now expecting and demanding that this team wins out this season. Indiana you had a shot against Iowa but you are about to get rocked by a team that really is top 5 in the country this week, and a lot of that has to do with coaching.