The Marquette Golden Eagles know they’ll have a spot in the NCAA Tournament field when the pairings come out on Sunday.  But they spent the past couple of days improving their potential seed with Big East Tournament wins over St. John’s and Villanova. 

That run ended on Friday night when the Golden Eagles fell to Georgetown 80-57 in New York.  Georgetown’s 6′11 big man Greg Monroe poured in 23 points and added 13 rebounds for the Hoyas. 

Jimmy Butler scored 17 points to lead the Golden Eagles (22-11).

Ersan Ilyasova’s put back with 27.2 seconds left gave Milwaukee the lead for good and the Bucks went on to beat the Utah Jazz 95-87 at the Bradley Center.

John Salmons scored 24 points and Brandon Jennings added 23 as the Bucks won their 5th straight game and 11th in the last 12.  The streak includes home wins over Cleveland and Boston. 

Carlos Boozer had 26 points and 14 rebounds for the Jazz but was ejected for arguing with officials in the final minute.

Andrew Bogut added 16 points and 12 rebounds for the Bucks who have held 14 of their last 21 opponents under 90 points.

Illinois bolstered its NCAA Tournament chances by knocking off the Wisconsin Badgers 58-54 at the Big Ten Tournament Quarterfinals in Indianapolis. 

The 13th ranked Badgers suffered through one of their worst shooting performances, hitting just 18% of their first half field goals and 28% for the game.  On the flip side, Illinois converted 65% from the field in the first half and 52% for the game.  

The Illini’s most potent weapon was center Mike Tisdale who scored 21 points on 8 of 10 from the field.  Wisconsin’s Jon Leuer said they knew what to expect from Illinois, they just couldn’t stop Tisdale.

AUDIO: Jon Leuer says they couldn’t find an answer for Tisdale :15

Demetri McCamey added 13 points as Illinois built a 16-point lead in the second half, only to see the Badgers make a furious comeback late.

Despite hitting just 6 of 33 shots in the first half, the Badgers hung around and climbed to within 2 in the final minute.  They got a clean look at a 3-pointer from Jason Bohannon with a chance to tie, but the shot was errant.  Head coach Bo Ryan said despite the poor offensive display, they almost pulled it out.

AUDIO: Bo Ryan says they almost pulled it out :22

The Badgers (23-8) loss prevented Bo Ryan from collecting his 600th coaching victory.  Trevon Hughes, who struggled early, led the Badgers comeback that fell just short.  He tied Jon Leuer for team scoring honors with 14-points. 

Wisconsin will put this loss behind them quickly and focus on their opponent in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.  They’ll get that assignment when the pairings are announced on Sunday.

The 3rd ranked Wisconsin hockey team (22-9-4) opens the WCHA Playoffs against Alaska Anchorage (11-21-2) at the Kohl Center tonight.

The Badgers completed a series sweep against the Seawolves with 6-2 and
5-1 wins in mid-November at the Kohl Center. 

The Badgers own a six-game winning streak over UAA and holds a 10-game unbeaten streak against the Seawolves (9-0-1).  The Badgers are 18-2-1 over the last 21 games against Anchorage and have won the last 9 games in the series played in Madison. 

The Badgers are also playing for NCAA seeding.  Forward Ben Street said they’d obviously like to be one of the top 4 seeds when the pairings are announced.

AUDIO: Ben Street says Wisconsin is hoping for a top seed in NCAA’s :17

This series is best 2 of 3 with games set for tonight and Saturday night, then again Sunday night if necessary.

The Milwaukee Brewers dropped a pair of Cactus League baseball games on Thursday, falling to the Reds 3-1 and the Oakland A’s 7-3. 

In the Cincinnati game, Joey Votto homered for his first hit of the spring to lead the Reds to the victory.  Votto’s solo shot came off of Brewers lefty Chris Capuano, who is trying to make a comeback from reconstructive elbow surgery.  Capuano gave up 2 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks in 2 1/3 innings. 

In the loss to Oakland, Randy Wolf pitched three scoreless innings in the 7-3 loss to the A’s. 

Former Brewer Gabe Gross hit a 2-run triple against his former team in the seventh and Michael Taylor added a three-run homer for Oakland. 

Ryan Braun clubbed a 2-run homer in the loss for the Brewers.  Milwaukee will face the Chicago Cubs today.

Darius Johnson-Odom hit 5 three-pointers and finished with a career high 24 points to lead the Marquette Golden Eagles to a 80-76 win over 4th-seeded Villanova in the Big East Tournament this afternoon.

Senior Lazar Hayward added 20 points as the Golden Eagles (22-10) move into tomorrow night’s Big East semi-finals against 8th seeded Georgetown.  The Hoya’s advanced earlier in the day, knocking off top seeded Syracuse 91-84. 

Marquette’s win avenges a last-second loss to Villanova in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament a year ago, as well as two tight conference losses this season.

The Golden Eagles hit 11 of their 18 three-pointers (61%) and 19 of 24 free throws (79%). 

Villanova was led by Corey Stokes, who scored 22 points.

Wisconsin men’s hockey assistant coach Kevin Patrick has been named head coach of the new Muskegon USHL team that will begin play in the 2010-11 season.

Patrick will finish out the season with the Badgers, where he has spent the last five seasons as one of Mike Eaves assistants.  In his first year with the Badgers, the team captured their sixth NCAA championship, posting a
30-10-3 record.  Wisconsin finished second this season in the WCHA’s regular season and has compiled a 107-70-22 record during Patrick’s five years with the program.

It’ll be the first season in the USHL for Muskegon.

Prior to his tenure with the Badgers, Patrick served as assistant coach at Bowling Green State University (2002-05) and Union College (1998-2002) while also coordinating the recruiting efforts at both schools.  Patrick also had a previous stint in the USHL with the Green Bay Gamblers.  He spent the 1997-98 season as an assistant coach and assistant general manager.

As a player, Patrick was a four-year letterman at Notre Dame.  The defenseman captained the team during his final two seasons.

Former Stevens Point high school standout Suzy Favor-Hamilton headlines the 2010 class of the National Federation of State High School Associations Hall of Fame. 

Favor-Hamilton becomes the first female athlete from Wisconsin to enter the Hall.  She is one of the greatest distance runners in U.S. history, from her 11 WIAA State titles to her 9 NCAA individual championships at the University of Wisconsin and finally to her three Olympic appearances. 

At SPASH, Favor-Hamilton won four WIAA State Cross Country championships and holds the state record for fastest time on a 3,200-meter course.  In track, she won the 1,600 run at the State meet four consecutive years, and she also claimed titles in the 800 run, 1,600 relay and 3,200 relay.  She still holds the State 800-meter record set 24 years ago.

At the University of Wisconsin, in addition to the nine NCAA titles, Favor-Hamilton won 23 Big Ten Conference titles and 14 All-American honors.  She was named Big Ten Athlete of the Decade for the 1990’s.

Since her graduation from Wisconsin in 1991, Favor-Hamilton has competed extensively around the world.  She made three Olympic teams (1992, 1996 and 2000) and was ranked No. 1 in the United States five times.  In 2000, she was ranked No. 1 in the world with a 1,500 meter time of 3:57:40 and was named USA Track and Field Distance Runner of the Year. 

Favor-Hamilton is the third Wisconsin athlete overall to be enshrined into the NFHS Hall of Fame.  The two previous inductees were Alan Ameche in 1986 and Elroy Hirsch in 1988.

The St. Norbert College men’s hockey team moved into the NCAA Division 3 quarterfinals, beating Adrian College 4-3 on Wednesday night. 

The Green Knights entered as the top seed in the West Region and will now face Gustavus Adolphus in Saturday’s quarterfinals. 

St. Norbert College is vying for their 6th appearance in the NCAA Division 3 Frozen Four, held this year at the Olympic Arena in Lake Placid, NY.  The last time the Knights made the Frozen Four field was 2008 when they won their first ever hockey championship.

The Green Bay Phoenix ran their home court win streak to 27 straight games, rolling past the Milwaukee Panthers 72-48 in the quarterfinals of the Horizon League women’s basketball tournament.

Kayla Tetschlag had 16 points and Celeste Hoewisch added 15 points for the Phoenix (27-3), who committed 21 turnovers in the win. 

The top-seeded Phoenix advanced to Friday night’s semifinals against Cleveland State at the Kress Events Center.