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Badger women’s softball advances to NCAA Regionals

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The Wisconsin women’s softball team (40-12) clinched its third-straight NCAA tournament bid and will head to Norman, Oklahoma for the Regionals May 17-19.

The Badgers will face Notre Dame (36-16) in their opener on Friday.  It is the first time in program history that the Badgers have made three consecutive NCAA Tournaments.

The Badgers are in the NCAA Tournament for the eighth time in school history and the fifth time under head coach Yvette Healy.

Wisconsin lost to Michigan, 8-3, in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament on Saturday in Bloomington, Indiana.

Badgers beat Iowa in Big Ten Softball Tournament opener

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After missing 19 games due to injury, Wisconsin softball senior Melanie Cross shined in her return to the starting lineup, leading the Badgers to a 7-4 win over Iowa in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament in Bloomington, Indiana.

Wisconsin’s win Thursday afternoon secured a spot in the second round of the Tournament.  The fifth-seeded Badgers will face number-four Ohio State on Friday morning at 10 a.m. central time.

Cross went three-for-three with a single, double and triple.  She finished the day with three RBI and reached base in all four of her plate appearances.

Freshman Maddie Schwartz earned the win on the mound after pitching four innings in relief to improve her record to 4-0 this season.

Taylor is headed for the track

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Jonathan Taylor

The Wisconsin football team is wrapping up spring football workouts this week, but running back Jonathan Taylor ended things a week early.

Taylor started practicing with the Wisconsin men’s track team this week.  He plans to make his debut in the 400-meter relay at the Penn Relays Thursday through Saturday.

Taylor is also scheduled to run at UW’s Alumni Classic on May 3 and then at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships May 10-12 in Iowa City.

Besides football, Taylor was also a track star in high school in New Jersey.

Badgers learn breakdown of 2019-20 Big Ten schedule

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The Big Ten Conference revealed a breakdown of all 14 schools’ opponents for the 2019-20 Big Ten men’s basketball season on Wednesday.  Conference teams will compete in a 20-game conference schedule, playing seven teams both home and away and six teams once (three home and  three away).

The Wisconsin Badgers will play home games only against Illinois, Maryland and Northwestern and road games only against Iowa, Michigan and Penn State.

The Badgers will play home and away against Indiana, Michigan State, Minnesota, Nebraska, Ohio State, Purdue and Rutgers.

The season concludes with the 23rd annual Big Ten Men’s Basketball Tournament (March 11-15) which returns to Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis for the first time since 2016.

UW’s Chryst lands a pay raise

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Paul Chryst

The University of Wisconsin restructured head football coach Paul Chryst’s contract recently, but he still remains in the bottom half of the Big Ten in football coaching salaries.

Chryst 5-year deal gives him a $300,000 annual increase, but he’ll enter the 2019 season no better than ninth among the 14 Big Ten head coaches.  Chryst is set to earn $4.15 million this coming season.

Chryst’s base salary is $400,000.  The remaining $3.75 million comes from the UW Foundation.

The Badgers finished 5-4 in the Big Ten last season and 8-5 overall.  In Chryst’s first three seasons saw the Badgers go 10-3, 11-3 and 13-1.

With Ohio State’s Urban Meyer retiring, Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh becomes the Big Ten’s highest paid coach.  Harbaugh earned $7.5 million last season.  Nebraska’s Scott Frost and Illinois’ Lovie Smith both earned $5 million.

Purdue’s Jeff Brohm earned $3.8 million last season, but after being courted by Louisville, Brohm got a new deal with the Boilermakers that could be worth up to $6 million a year.

 

Kalynuk named Wisconsin men’s hockey team captain

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Sophomore defenseman Wyatt Kalynuk, who was a second-team All-Big Ten pick last season, will serve as the Wisconsin men’s hockey team’s captain next season.

“We are really excited to have these three lead our program,” Coach Tony Granato said.  “From the second they’ve gotten here they’ve done everything right.  All three have gotten off to great starts in their first two years with our program and they’ve been excellent in the classroom.  They are great leaders and big parts of our program.  We are excited about their leadership and the future of our program.”

Kalynuk will lead the team, while sophomore forwards Tarek Baker and Sean Dhooghe will help as the team’s alternate captains.

Kalynuk posted his second straight 25-point season this past year, and collected nine goals to rank second on the team.  His 25 points were one point off the team lead, while his 116 shots made him the only skater with over 100 shots on goal.

Baker (Verona, Wis.) finished his 2018-19 season with seven goals and 20 points, ranking second on the team with 91 shots on goal.

Dhooghe (Aurora, Ill.) led the Badgers as the only double-digit goal scorer with 15 tallies.  He shared the team lead with 26 points..  He also was tied for third in the Big Ten with eight power-play goals.

 

Woeful offensive showing ends Badgers season

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Wisconsin’s offensive struggles in the latter portion of the season was a concern going into Friday’s NCAA Tournament opener against Oregon and those concerns turned out to be valid.

The Badgers shot just 20 percent from three-point range (6 of 30) and 33.3 percent overall (20 of 60), falling to the Ducks 72-54, seeing their season come to an end.

The loss was an embarrassment for the Badgers, who were tied with the Ducks, 25-25 at halftime.

Ethan Happ finished with 12 points and eight rebounds but turned it over five times.

Khalil Iverson, who has played well down the stretch, was the most effective Badger player in the loss, finishing with 12 points and five rebounds.

Brad Davison missed all seven of his three-point attempts.  D’Mitrik Trice made just 2 of 10 from distance while Brevin Pritzl went 0 for 3 and Kobe King and Aleem Ford missed both of their attempts.

The Ducks (24-12) ran their win streak to nine games.  Point guard Payton Pritchard finished with 19 points, eight assists and five rebounds.

The Badgers have struggled to score down the stretch and it was just a matter of time before the poor shooting would catch up with them.

The Badgers saw their season come to an end at 23-11.  They lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013 when they were eliminated by 12th seeded Ole Miss 57-45, in Kansas City.

 

Happ named first team All-Big Ten

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Ethan Happ

The Big Ten Conference handed out its season awards on Monday and the only Wisconsin representation is senior forward Ethan Happ.  Happ was named first team All-Big Ten, becoming the first Badger in school history to receive the honor three times.  It’s just the 13th time in league history that a player has received the honor three times.

Happ finished fifth in the Big Ten in scoring this season (17.8 ppg), third in rebounds (10.4), third in assists (4.7) and fifth in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.6).

The last Big Ten player to be named All-Big Ten three times is Robbie Hummel of Purdue in 2008, 2010 and 2012.

Michigan State junior point guard Cassius Winston was named the Big Ten Player of the Year, averaging 19.0 points and 7.6 points a game.  Winston shot 82.6 percent from the free-throw line and 41.1 percent from distance.

Purdue’s Matt Painter was named the Big Ten Coach of the Year.  He led the Boilermakers (23-8, 16-4) to a share of the Big Ten regular season title alongside Michigan State.  It’s the fourth time that Painter has won Big Ten Coach of the Year honors.

Wisconsin’s hockey season ends at Big Ten Tournament

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The Wisconsin Badger men’s hockey team fell just short of a semifinal berth in the Big Ten tournament Sunday evening, falling 4-3 in overtime to No. 18 Penn State at Pegula Ice Arena in University Park, Pa.

Liam Folkes tallied the game-winner at the 10:50 mark of the first overtime period to earn the 4-3 win for Penn State.

The Badgers got goals from Max Zimmer, Brock Caufield and Josh Ess.

The Badgers won the series opener on Friday night before the Nittany Lions were able to even the series at 1-1 on Saturday, forcing the third and deciding game on Sunday evening.

Freshman goaltender Daniel Lebedeff made a career-high 46 saves in the loss, good for a .920 save percentage.

The Badgers finished the season with a 14-18-5 overall record.

Iverson leads Badgers past Ohio State in overtime

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Khalil Iverson

The 21st ranked Wisconsin Badgers blew a 23-point second half lead and needed overtime to knock off the Ohio State Buckeyes 73-67 in Columbus, Ohio on Sunday.

Ohio State (18-13, 8-12 Big Ten) outscored the Badgers (22-9, 14-6) 27-5 over the last seven minutes of regulation.

Khalil Iverson had a career-high 22 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Badgers.  He hit 10 of 14 shots from the field.  Ethan Happ added 16 points 14 rebounds and 8 assists to allow the Badgers to lock up the fourth spot in the Big Ten and secure a double-bye in this week’s Big Ten Tournament.

Senior C.J. Jackson led the Buckeyes with 22 points.  Ohio State, which played its third straight game without top scorer and rebounder Kaleb Wesson, missed their first 13 shots to start the game and trailed 26-16 at halftime.

The Badgers started the second half with an 18-5 run to go up 44-21 before the Buckeyes started their comeback.

The Badgers go into the Big Ten Tournament having won five of their last six games and will open play on Friday.  Ohio State is the No. 8 seed and will open play in the second round of the tournament on Thursday against ninth seeded Indiana.