Wisconsin Radio Network

Wisconsin News and Sports

You are here: Home / Archives for Big Ten Conference

Three Badgers make Big Ten’s All-Decade Team

By

Chris Borland (Photo by David Stluka)

The Wisconsin football teams of the last decade won a total of 102 games, second only to Ohio State’s 117 victories.  The Badgers had three players named to the Big Ten All-Decade Team.

The Detroit Free Press surveyed six conference writers from the USA Today Sports Network to select the Big Ten’s All-Decade team.

There were a total of 10 teams represented on the all-decade squad.  Ohio State had the most with six.  Michigan had five, Michigan State had four, Penn State, Wisconsin and Iowa all had three.  Maryland had two and Minnesota, Indiana and Purdue each had one player make the squad.

Leading the way for the Badgers is running back Jonathan Taylor, who played from 2017-19.  Taylor won the Doak Walker Award twice, is a two time All-American, a three-time first-team All-Big Ten selection [Read more…]

Rettke named Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year

By

Dana Rettke

For the first time in 20 years, Wisconsin Badgers athlete was named Big Ten athlete of the year when the conference awarded Rettke the female athlete honor on Thursday.  The 6’8 middle blocker is the first UW female athlete to win the award since 1997 and the first UW athlete overall since Ron Dayne was recognized in 2000.

Rettke, who has another year of eligibility left at Wisconsin, led the Badgers to the NCAA championship match and the Big Ten title last fall.

Wisconsin’s last recipient of the Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year was Ron Dayne (football) in 2000, while the Badgers’ last female honoree was Kathy Butler (cross country and track and field) in 1997.  In total, Badgers have won the honor seven times overall (once for men, six for women) with five individuals claiming the honor.

Additionally, Rettke is the first Big Ten volleyball student-athlete to win this honor since 2010 and only the fifth all-time.

Rettke competed with the U.S. National Team during the summer of 2019, winning the Volleyball Nations League and qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.  She was a finalist for both the 2020 AAU James E. Sullivan Award and a 2019 Honda Award.

Ohio State’s Chase  Young was honored as the Big Ten Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year.  Young is the fourth Ohio State student in the past six years to capture the honor.

Wisconsin football lands another top defensive recruit

By

Paul Chryst

Paul Chryst’s Wisconsin football team has landed another top defensive recruit on Thursday.

T.J. Bollers, a four-star defensive end and the No. 147 overall player in the Class of 2021, committed to the Badgers over Nebraska, Iowa State and Alabama.

Bollers is from Clear Creek Amana High School in Tiffin, Iowa.  He is the eighth-ranked weak-side defensive end in the country and the second-ranked player in the state of Iowa.

Bollers is the 14th commitment and the second-highest ranked player in Wisconsin’s 2021 recruiting class.  The Badgers currently rank 16th nationally and sixth in the Big Ten in 247Sports team recruiting rankings.

Gross joins Wisconsin wrestling staff

By

Seth Gross –
Photo by Tom Lynn/Wisconsin Athletic Communications

Wisconsin head wrestling coach Chris Bono announced Thursday that former Badger wrestler and NCAA champion Seth Gross will be joining his coaching staff for the upcoming 2020-21 season.

Gross will begin his coaching career with the Badgers while also training for the 2021 Olympic games.

Gross is very familiar with Bono and associate head coach Jon Reader.  The duo recruited him to South Dakota State as a transfer in 2015.  As a redshirt freshman, Gross went 27-13 and competed at the NCAA championship for the Jackrabbits.  Moving onto his sophomore year, Gross was never ranked below seventh in the country at 133 pounds and earned a second-place finish at the 2017 NCAA Championships.

In his junior season at South Dakota State, Gross was the top-ranked wrestler in his weight class for the entire season.  He took his 29-1 record to the NCAA championship and claimed the 133-pound title over [Read more…]

Rettke, Taylor named Wisconsin’s Athletes of the Year

By

Dana Rettke

Junior middle blocker Dana Rettke of the volleyball team and junior running back Jonathan Taylor of the football team were both named University of Wisconsin Athletes of the Year.

The pair also serve as Wisconsin’s nominees for the Big Ten Conference Athlete of the Year honors, which will be awarded on Thursday.

The Big Ten has recognized a Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year since 1982 and first honored a Female Athlete of the Year in 1983.  The Big Ten Athletes of the Year are selected by a panel of conference media members, with one male and one female student-athlete nominated from each Big Ten institution to be considered for the honor.

One of the country’s best middle blockers, Rettke helped lead the Badgers to the 2019 NCAA National Championship match and earned her third-consecutive selection as a first-team All-American (2017, 2018, 2019).  The 2019 Big Ten Player of the Year, Rettke was also selected to both the 2019 NCAA Championship All-Tournament team and 2019 NCAA Regional All-Tournament team.

Jonathan Taylor

Rettke competed with the U.S. National Team during the summer of 2019, winning the Volleyball Nations League and qualifying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.  She was a finalist for both the 2020 AAU James E. Sullivan Award and a 2019 Honda Award.

Taylor cemented his place as one of the great running backs in college football history during the 2019 season.

He finished his career with 6,174 yards, finishing number-six all-time in rushing among FBS players and is the only player to ever eclipse the 6,000-yard mark in just three seasons.  His career total ranks No. 2 all-time among Big Ten players, trailing only Badgers great Ron Dayne (7,125).

Taylor repeated as winner of the Doak Walker Award as the nation’s premier running back in 2019, while also earning unanimous first-team All-America honors for the second straight season.

Taylor was picked in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts.

 

Badger football adds 4-star tight end

By

Wisconsin football is adding a four-star recruit from Ohio for 2021.  Tight end Jack Pugh announced his commitment on Memorial Day to play for the Badgers.

Push also had offers from Michigan, Penn State, Indiana among others.  His older brother Trey is a tight end at Northwestern.

The 6’5 Pugh focused on basketball during his first two years of high school before joining the football team last fall.  But despite the lack of experience, Pugh received nearly two dozen offers.

UW  now has 11 known commitments for the 2021 class, although Pugh is the first tight end.

Caufield named Big Ten men’s hockey Freshman of the Year

By

Cole Caufield – Photo Courtesy of UW Athletics

Wisconsin men’s hockey standout Cole Caufield was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year on Monday.  Caufield and defenseman Wyatt Kalynuk were named first-team All-Big Ten, and forward Roman Ahcan and defenseman K’Andre Miller were named to the honorable mention team for men’s hockey.

Caufield, who won the Big Ten scoring title with 24 points in Big Ten play, was also named to the All-Freshman Team.

The 15th overall pick by the Montreal Canadians in the 2019 NHL Draft, Caufield led the Badgers and the Big Ten in all games, and shared the national lead among freshmen with 19 goals, while leading the Badgers and ranking second among Big Ten players with 36 overall points.  His 36 points shared third in [Read more…]

Big Ten extends suspension date

By

The Big Ten Conference announced today (Monday) that it will extend the previously announced suspension of all organized team activities through June 1, 2020, and will re-evaluate again at that time.

This is an additional measure to the previously announced cancellation of all conference and non-conference competitions through the end of the academic year, including spring sports that compete beyond the academic year.  The Conference also has previously announced a moratorium on all on-and-off-campus recruiting activities for the foreseeable future.

 

Four Badgers named in NHL Central Scouting rankings

By

The final NHL Central Scouting rankings were released on Wednesday, prior to this year’s 2020 NHL Draft.  One current and three incoming Badger’s made that list.

Current Badger Dylan Holloway is expected to be one of the first NCAA players to go off the board in the upcoming 2020 NHL Draft.  In the final  NHL Central Scouting rankings for North America, Holloway found himself in the No. 12 spot after a 17-point (8 goals, 9 assists) freshman season.

Three incoming Badgers join Holloway in the rankings, including forward Sam Stange, defenseman Daniel Laatsch and goaltender Cameron Rowe.

The 6’0, 200 pound Stange (RW) spent last year in the USHL playing for the Sioux City Musketeers and the Sioux Falls Stampede.  The Eau Claire native finished No. 110 in the scouting rankings after playing in 48 games, notching 26 goals and 19 assists last season.

Incoming freshmen Laatsch finished this past season with the United States National Team Development [Read more…]

Frederick announces retirement at age 29

By

Former Wisconsin Badger football center, who went on to play in five NFL Pro Bowl games, announced his retirement from the NFL at the age of 29 on Monday.

Frederick retired after saying he “could no longer perform at my highest level”.

Frederick just went to his fifth Pro Bowl after recovering from Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which is a rare autoimmune disease.  Frederick missed the 2018 season but returned last season and played in the all 16 of the Cowboys games.

Frederick was a first round pick by the Cowboys in the 2013 NFL draft (31st pick overall).  He became the first rookie in franchise history to start every game at center and was named to the NFL’s All-Rookie team.

Frederick signed a six-year contract extension in 2016 worth $56.4 million, making him the highest-paid center in the NFL.