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Badger News: With Great Success Comes Great Player Recognition

via wetzelphoto.wordpress.com

A picture is supposed to be worth a 1,000 words so consider the above from Steve Wetzel a lengthy intro to today's links.

Football

The big news Monday was the announcement of the All-Big Ten teams. Not surprisingly UW was well represented with 18 players being named 1st team, 2nd team, or honorable mention All-Big Ten, including 6 offensive linemen. James White was named the freshman of the year and Gabe Carimi the offensive lineman of the year -- you can read more about those two here.

Adam Rittenberg shares his takes on the awards, writing that for once the coaches and the media got the picks right. He also notes that Terrelle Pryor didn't make the 1st or 2nd team despite being the preseason offensive POY for the 2nd straight year.

Carimi and Lance Kendricks were also named 1st team All-Americans by the American Football Coaches Association. Badgers Mix has a write up and video highlights on both Carimi and Kendricks.

In what's become a common theme this year after playing the Badgers, Northwestern coaches and fans are trying to figure out what the hell hit them Saturday. North by Northwestern shares three takeaways (that's appropriate given the Wildcats' seven turnovers) from the game and grades NU's performance (they're not good) while coach Pat Fitzgerald sees the game as an abberation.

If the Badgers end up playing TCU in the Rose Bowl, don't expect there to be a lot of Horned Frogs fans in attendance. TCU actually has fewer students than UW-Whitewater.

Badger fans are still enjoying a successful football season. Dave Radcliff at Balls, Brats, and Beer shares his thoughts on UW's win over Northwestern and the Badgers' bowl prospects while Wisconsin Sports Tap discusses just how good the Badgers have been this year.

Mark Dantonio is understandbly upset by Michigan State likely being left out of the BCS and is stating his case for why MSU should be a BCS game over UW and OSU. Hey Mark, if your team made the trip to Iowa City you wouldn't be in this situation.

Hoops

The ACC/Big Ten challenge kicked off Monday night with Minnesota losing at home to Virginia (thanks Gophers). The experts at ESPN.com and Fanhouse share their challenge predictions. They don't have much confidence in the Big Ten but unanimously pick UW to beat NC State.

Etc

The UW Athletic Department posted its latest edition of the week in Badger Athletics to YouTube. Here it is.

 

Badger News: LA Bars, It's Time to Stock Up

It looks like the Badgers are headed back to the Rose Bowl, unless they somehow sneak into the national championship game. This is might be the best Badger football team ever. Here's today's Badger links.

Football

Jeff Potrykus writes that there's little doubt who the best team in the Big Ten is despite there being a 3-team tie for first place. He also write that it looks like the Badgers will likely play TCU in the Rose Bowl, unless Oregon or Auburn lose on Saturday.

At UWBadgers.com Mike Lucas writes that the UW's best qualities are epitomized by Scott Tolzien and shares the effusive praise Chris Spielman had for the Badgers. I know Spielman's a Buckeye but I like that dude.

If you're looking for a Big Ten champs T-Shirt, you can order them online for $25 at Bucky's Locker Room or $18 at Football Fantatics.

Adam Rittenberg shares some comments from MSU and OSU players and coaches about who the best team in the Big Ten is (hint, they don't agree). He also writes that the Badgers are seeing Pasedena in their future.

Obviously there's a lot of happy Badger fans today. Here's what The Bucky Channel, Badgers Mix, Buckys 5th Quarter, the Daily Cardinal, and BadgerBlitz had to say about the game and the Rose Bowl.

BadgerBlitz has a looks back at the careers of the 14 seniors who played their last game at Camp Randall Saturday.  They can all add Big Ten champions to the list of accomplishments.

With the way UW's been dominating opponents the past few games there are some crazy stats out there. You can check some of them out here and here. Only one Wildcat had more all purpose yards than UW had return yards on fumbles and INTs. Damn.

FoxSports.com has an updated UW team report with post-game player reactions, game balls, and a roster update.

The Dr. Saturday blog at Yahoo! Sports looks at how dominating UW has been in its last few games and hopes that TCU or Stanford will at least punch back in the Rose Bowl.

PollSpeak.com lists where each of the AP voters had UW on their ballots. UW's highest ranking is 3rd and the lowest is 7th. The guy who has UW 7th has a 2-loss Arkansas team 5th.

Hoops

It was a relatively successful weekend for the Badgers as they beat Manhattan and Boston College in the Old Spice Classic before falling to Notre Dame 58-51 in the championship game. UW was streaky all weekend and lost Sunday's game in large part because of a 15-0 ND run in the final minutes.

Hockey

The hockey team hosted the College Hockey Showcase this weekend. They tied Michigan 4-4 on Friday and beat Michigan State 4-1 on Saturday. Early last week the Badgers received a verbal commitment from Waupaca's Brad Nevin, who talked to Chuck Schwartz at 60 about his decision.

I think Northwestern just turned the ball over again.

Walking the Line - Northwestern

This segment will "air" every Friday throughout the season.  I will breakdown the upcoming game and give a prediction as it relates to the betting line.  Sure, this is aimed at our degenerate gambler fans but I think it will be informative for the non-betting folks as well.  Feel free to post a comment regarding your thoughts.  This segment is meant to be unbiased as the only color that matters here is green - as in US currency.

Agree to disagree?  Leave your predictions for this week's game in the comments for this blog.

Season Record (ATS):

15-8

Great year this year.  Regardless of the outcome on these bets this week, this season is a winner.  Thanks for coming out and look for a special Bowl Edition of Walking the Line later on this year.

Last Week Recap:

Making Money!  Walking the Line is happy to report a 2-0 weekend.  Wisconsin covered the spread against Michigan without too much trouble, pushing the Wolverine's head down to swallow yet another loss ATS, for an overall conference ATS record of 0-7.  Oklahoma also showed that they could play on the road and continued to push the Baylor Bear into hibernation mode (if they aren't fast asleep already).  We pushed on the Iowa/OSU game, which came as a big relief - from a Badger standpoint.  But that Iowa bet was the perfect example of insurance for the Rose Bowl.  That could not have played out an better unless the OSU kicker missed the extra point.

Offense:

The Badgers come into this game licking their chops as NW gave up 330 yards to an individual RB last week.  Clay's status is again uncertain for this week but UW has shown that they are more than comfortable without him.  Considering the lack of performance by NW last week on D and the unstoppable display the Badgers put on in the 2nd half, I think they feel like they will be able to shred the Cats D.  NW comes into Camp Randall struggling.  After losing their starting QB in the 4th Quarter 2 weeks ago, their offense has been sluggish and unable to get going.  All things considered, they should get better week after week as their backup QB gets more reps.

Defense:

The Badger D has really been getting the job done this year.  With the lack of firepower from the Cats offense, UW should be able to pin their ears back and come out swinging.  I would expect a very confident and aggressive bunch.  There is blood in the water... and these sharks are swarming.  NW, as previously mentioned, comes in with a serious limp.  They gave up 330 yards rushing to one individual last week.  Enough said.

Intangibles:

Wisconsin comes into this game with all of the Rose Bowl cards on the table and, regardless of what happens Saturday morning, knowing that NW is the last hurdle for a share of the Big Ten championship.  The weather will be clear and on the cold side which should bode well for the physical style that UW will put on display on Saturday.  Should there be a 3 way tie for the conference, Bucky will have to put their best foot forward to keep OSU below them in the polls.  Bucky can't give these voters a reason to justify an OSU jump.  Do I smell the Indiana game?

Walking the Line:

UW -23   O/U 57.5

The Badgers will be looking to put on a show for the pollsters.  They will be potentially one significant win away from the Tournament of Roses.  NW is a team that seems to have quit after last week's performance on D.  Should that same effort be displayed at Camp Randall this week, then it will be an extremely long day for the people in purple.  I really believe there is an Indiana sized ass whopping that is going to go down with the Badgers delivering blow after blow and score after score with little resistance.  

I like UW-23 and a group of deserving Badgers with roses dangling from their mouths.

D DOGG Daily Double:

Below are 2 picks that I really like this week:

Michigan +17: I know, this goes against EVERYTHING that has ever been discussed as part of this blog.  However, with the trip to the Rose Bow pending on an OSU victory, this is one hell of an insurance policy.  This bet gives you a 17 point middle in which you can win money and have UW in the Rose Bowl.  If you lose the bet, UW is in the Rose Bowl.  If you win the bet and Michigan wins, at least you will have some extra scratch laying around.

Michigan State -1.5 : Another insurance bet although this has 1 point to throw you off and come up empty.  With that said, a 1 point loss is rare in football so I feel good about it.  Should things go bad in Columbus, this could be your chance to either cash in or get your Badgers to Pasadena.  Either way, I like the insurance in this scenario.  I went to the Rose Bowl 10 years ago and realized that you just never know when this opportunity will present itself again, so I'm coving my bases and swinging for the fence.  I would gladly lose this bet if it means Wisconsin is synonymous with roses in 2010.

 

Thanksgiving Weekend TV Guide

Here's a guide to the Badger-related games this weekend, including the Old Spice Classic and football games that could affect the Badgers, in case you need something to watch while working off a food coma or sipping on a brandy OF.

The football team needs 5 of the 6 teams ahead of them in the BCS standings to lose to have any shot at the national title game. It just so happens that all six teams are in action with Oregon, Auburn, Boise State, and LSU having tough match-ups,  Stanford having a likely win, and TCU pretty much guaranteed to get a W. Stranger things have happened.

Meanwhile, the basketball team will play three games in the Old Spice Classic starting Thanksgiving day against Manhattan. The game times below assume the Badgers will win out.

Thursday

• UW Basketball:  vs. Manhattan, 1pm CST, ESPN 2

Friday

• UW Basketball:  vs. BC/Texas A&M, 11am CST, ESPN
• Auburn @ Alabama, 1:30pm CST, CBS
• Arizona @ Oregon, 6:00pm CST, ESPN
• Boise St. @ Nevada, 9:15pm CST, ESPN

Saturday

• Michigan St. @ Penn St., 11am CST, ESPN
• Michigan @ Ohio St., 11am CST, ABC
• UW Football: vs. Northwestern, 2:30pm CST, ABC/ESPN
• LSU @ Arkansas, 2:30pm CST, CBS
• TCU @ New Mexico, 3:00pm CST, Versus
• Oregon St. @ Stanford, 6:30pm CST, Versus

Sunday

• UW Basketball:  Old Spice championship, 6pm CST, ESPN2

Badger News: Bring on the Wildcats

Overall it was a pretty slow news day. We all know what is at stake this weekend.

Football

UWBadgers.com has a great recap of how the former Badgers playing in the NFL did this weekend. To be honest, I was surprised to see some of the names on the list.

Buckys 5th Quarter lists the top 5 most desirable bowl destinations for Badger Fans.

This is the first article I have seen that addresses the potential attendance problem due to the game falling on a holiday weekend. Personally I don’t see how you could pass up an opportunity to see a title-clinching game. The 2:30 kickoff time also allows the fans and team know where they stand in the race to win the Big 10 because OSU and Michigan St. play at 11.

Jeff Potrykus notes that John Clay is extremely motivated to get into the game to make amends for last year. In another article, he examines just how good the RB depth is. Nothing surprising here, but the future looks bright.

Michael Hunt makes an interesting comparison between the current Badger squad and the 1993 team. Lets hope they end up with similar results.

The Chicago Tribune takes a look at the top 5 reasons why the Badgers could run up the score. I found the Mike Hankwitz reason the most interesting.

Hoops

UWBadgers.com conducts and interview with Josh Gasser. I am looking forward to Josh’s career with the Badgers, but we may need to talk to him about his favorite movie, Coach Carter. Really Josh?

Badger News: Four Badgers Named Award Finalists

Who's really doing any work this week? Here's some Badger News for you.

Football

It was a big day for five Badgers. James White was named the Big Ten freshman of the week, again, while Scott Tolzien (Unitas), Lance Kendricks (Mackey), Gabe Carimi (Outland), and John Clay (Doak Walker) were named finalists for their respective position awards. The four awards finalists got some help from Bielema, who called award voters to campaign on their behalf.

Jeff Potrykus reminds us that Northwestern has played spoiler for the Badgers plenty of times in the recent past and looks back at some of the games. He also a scouting report on the Wildcats and writes that their run defense is pretty shitty. It could be a huge day for the Badger tailbacks.

Saturday is senior day for the Badgers and Matt Lepay writes that this year's seniors have a chance for special send off.

Dave Heller hosted another weekly Badgers Roundtable and also looks at where UW was on each AP ballot. Craig James has UW the highest at #4.

Adam Rittenberg shares the skinny on each of the big games this weekend -- UW vs. Northwestern, Michigan @ Ohio St., and Michigan St. @ Penn St.

In his Monday Film Session Adam Hoge at Bucky's 5th Quarter breaks down the blocking on James White's 2nd quarter 61-yard touchdown run.

The Michigan blogs are still discussing Saturday's game. MGoBlog has lengthydiatribe on the coaching situation while Mets Maize acknowledges that UW is clearly the better team.  When is the last time you've heard a Michigan fan say that?

Hoops

In their look ahead to the 2010-2011 Big Ten season the Big Ten Geeks discuss if this is the year the Badgers finally have the below average season the experts annually predict. The answer is no.

Adam Hoge at Bucky's 5th Quarter shares his thoughts on the loss to UNLV Saturday evening. While he saw a lot of negatives he sees a lot upside for the team this year.

Hockey

If you're in need of some satire, Gandalf the Red at Sixty Minutes shares a draft of the apology letter from the WCHA to Mike Eaves for the missed tripping call on Jake Gardiner in Friday nights OT loss to #1 Minnesota-Duluth.

Could Wisconsin Have Three 1,000 Yard Rushers?

The combination of a talented backfield and o-line is resulting in some video-game like rushing stats for the Badgers this season. John Clay, James White, and Montee Ball each have 13 rushing TDs and all averaging over 5.4 YPC.

Could they each exclipse the 1,000 yards rushing mark for the season? Possibly.  Here's their rushing totals with two games left to play (Northwestern and the Rose Bowl).

John Clay:  943 yards

James White:  895 yards

Montee Ball:  686 yards

Clay might miss the Northwestern game but he's going to pass 1,000 as long as he plays in a bowl game. White is in good position too, needed only 105 more yards. It's going to take some work for Ball to hit the mark; although, if Clay sits out Saturday his chances improve.

Let's say Clay stays on the sideline Saturday and watches Ball put up 200  and White another 75 against Northwestern. Sure it's a stretch, but it's definitely possible. That rushing totals heading into the bowl game would look like this:

John Clay:  943 yards

James White:   970 yards

Montee Ball:  886 yards

UW would need 201 rushing yards split perfectly between the three tailbacks, with Ball getting at least 114.

It's a long shot but it will be interesting to see how many carries Ball gets Saturday if Clay sits out and UW builds a big lead on the Wildcats.

Badger News: Can You Smell the Roses?

I'm sure Badger fans everywhere are excited for this weekend. Beat Northwestern on Saturday and UW grabs at least a share of the Big Ten title and likely its first Rose Bowl birth in over a decade. Yeah, there's not going to be a lot of sober Wisconsin fans come Saturday evening. Hopefully it's a happy buzz.

Football

Wisconsin held at #5 in the polls and #7 in the BCS. Despite Ohio State gaining ground on UW, Jeff Potrykus writes the Badgers are sitting pretty for a trip to Pasadena. It's unlikely OSU will pass UW in the final BCS standings  so if there's 3-way tie with MSU for the title UW will be the topped ranked Big Ten team and go to the Rose Bowl.

Potrykus also reminds UW fans should to savor the fact that Wisconsin's team is superior to Michigan.

Dave Heller at the JSOnline Badgers Blog shares some post game notes and links to what others are saying about Wisconsin's win over Michigan.

Adam Rittenberg writes that UW is in the right state of mind and its all coming together for the Badgers. Rittenberg also posted videos of his post-game interviews with JJ Watt and James White.

According to Mike Lucas, Saturday's game is going to feel a lot like 1998's final game against Penn State at Camp Randall. Lucas looks back at how that day played out for the Badgers. Hopefully history repeats itself this week.

Rich Rodriguez said Michigan didn't quit even though they didn't play well, tackle well, catch the ball well,or execute well on either side of the ball. At least Robinson got his yards, right?

Hoops

Things didn't go as well for Bo and company in Vegas as the Badgers lost to UNLV 68-65. It's pretty impressive the Badgers were in the game considering Jon Leuer didn't play well and overall they made a ton of mistakes.

The most obvious mistake was Mike Bruesewitz getting his inbounds pass to Leuer under UNLV's basket stolen with 8 seconds left and UW trailing by one. Leuer had several inches on his defenders but Bruiser tried a bounce pass instead of lobbing it up to Leuer.

The Las Vegas Review Journal writes that UNLV's speed and quickness won out over UW's size and strength., in large part because of Lon Kruger's last second change to put two smaller players on Leuer, which lead to UNLV's game-cliching steal.

As you'd expect from a Bo Ryan team, or any college or pro team for that matter, the players say they'll learn from experience and it'll help them down the road.

Hockey

It was an even worse weekend for the hockey team, which dropped both games to #1 Minnesota Duluth.  To make things worse, both games went into overtime. Want an ugly stat? UW is now 0-8-17 in overtime since the start of 2007-08.

Walking the Line - @ Michigan

This segment will "air" every Friday throughout the season.  I will breakdown the upcoming game and give a prediction as it relates to the betting line.  Sure, this is aimed at our degenerate gambler fans but I think it will be informative for the non-betting folks as well.  Feel free to post a comment regarding your thoughts.  This segment is meant to be unbiased as the only color that matters here is green - as in US currency.

Agree to disagree?  Leave your predictions for this week's game in the comments for this blog.

Season Record (ATS):

13-8

Last Week Recap:

Another 2-1 week for Walking the Line so we keep on with our winning ways.  I guess I was a bit off in the Wisconsin/Indiana game as I took the UNDER.  Yikes.  I guess it goes without saying that I didn't see that one coming.  Michigan kept up with her giving ways and continued to put out more like a whore just before dawn.  UT backed me up that they are, indeed, Texas Toast and got worked over by OSU (UT had a nice 4th quarter but the bet was never in jeopardy).

  Offense:

With Clay's participation in question this week, UW may have to turn to the two backs that did the damage against Indiana in White and Ball.  Bucky has shown that they are deep enough and talented enough at that position to succeed should Clay be ruled out.  Wisconsin needs to stay balanced and continue to ride the arm of Tolzien in situations outside of 3rd and long.  Balance and guts will be needed to get out of the Big House with a W.  Conservative/Play Not To Lose will get UW beat this weekend.  Michigan features a do-it-all in Denard Robinson.  He will run it and he will pass it.  He has big play ability and Michigan will look to utilize that by first showing run and then breaking out long pass plays out of those running formations.  Inside the Numbers on badgerfans.com sums it up pretty well.  Robinson is the main artery of the Wolverines.

Defense:

Another all around solid performance will be needed on Saturday.  In an ideal world, your front 7 will contain Robinson and allow the DB's to concentrate on pass coverage and containing the big plays.  If the front 7 struggles, it will force UW to "stuff the box" and then you will see Robinson's arm go to work.  The gimmick offense is what Michigan runs and UW has had trouble in the past with said offenses.  As for Michigan's D, they are just screwed.  They suck and they will feel the wrath of a running game that they have never seen but fear.  The Wolverine D is among the worst in the country.  If they can't stop the run, they are in for a long day.

Intangibles:

Wisconsin has only won 3 of the last 10 meetings against the Wolverines and have been a complete mess in the Big House.  A huge concern is the betting public (who is usually wrong - hence the bright lights in Vegas) as they are 94% on the Badgers.  Weather shouldn't be an issue...40 degrees and sunny.  Michigan is 0-7 ATS in conference play this year.

Walking the Line:

UW -4   O/U 67.5

Wisconsin is notorious for dropping the ball in these types of games but there is just something that feels different about this team than those of the recent past.  This team seems more confident and more clutch.  BB and staff have done an excellent job of not letting the playbook get too stale vs. weaker opponents and did an amazing job of opening it up during the OSU and Iowa games.  I like where their head is at and I think Wisconsin's early conference loss to MSU is a key factor as to why they have been so focused.  Michigan has been a bettor's redheaded stepchild this year.  Although these trends can't go forever, I'm going to stand by my principles and hit that shit until she makes me pay and thus far this season it has been more like match.com than an escort service.

I like UW-4 with a "Don't let the door hit you in the back" cover.

D DOGG Daily Double:

Below are 2 picks that I really like this week:

Oklahoma -7: Oklahoma is a really, really good team and can really light up a scoreboard.  After a stumble two weeks ago @ Texas AM, they rebounded nicely to wipe out Texas Tech.  Although the Sooners have struggled on the road this year, I think they will have their 6 shooters loaded for their trip to Baylor.  The Bears are beat down.  After a nice start to the season, the Bears have gotten their teeth kicked in the past two weeks by OK St and A&M.  The Bears have one foot in the cave, waiting for hibernation season to start.

Here is my "Take me to Pasadena" play of the week:

Iowa +3 : What is the one thing that UW needs to have happen to go to the Rose Bowl?  You said it, OSU to win out.  This is simply an insurance policy.  Answer this question....  How much would you be willing to pay to have OSU go undefeated and send UW to the Rose Bowl?  Well, here is your chance.  Should Iowa pull the upset, at least you have money in your pocket to buy the beers to take away the tears.  This line even gives you a 3 point middle where you can win the bet and have OSU win.  Therefore, this is a must bet for Badger fans.  Insurance?

Friday Badger News

Another big weekend for Badger Athletics should keep fans on their toes.  Badger Football takes on Michigan , 11am at the Quiet House. Badger Basketball goes to UNLV on Saturday night with tip set for 6pm.  Finally UW Hockey hopes to bounce back from last weeks sweep with a big series against Minnesota-Duluth.  Badger fans get your Liquor cabinet stocked!

Football

With game day fast approaching the injury situation at running back is coming into focus.  BadgerBlitz.com and BadgerNation.com both are reporting that John Clay will sit on Saturday.  Lucky for the Badgers they have two "backups" that might be better than the starter.

Buckys5thquarter.com has its weekly guest blog interview, this week it is Dave from Maize N' Brew.  Maize thinks the Wolverines have a chance but a more likely scenario is a two TD win for Wisconsin. I am not going to lie I like the sound of a two TD win at The Big House.  Let's make it happen Badgers.

Basketball

While I am sure all Badger fans are glad that Tim Jarmusz is feeling better this year after some nagging injuries, I am happy to hear that Rob Wilson is back at practice and should be ready for action Saturday against UNLV.  The Badgers are going to need as many guards as possible this year and I am not convinced TJ is ready for more than spot minutes.

Keeping with Saturday's big game at UNLV, SHETOWNBUCKY has another stellar breakdown of the contest. 

Hockey

Sixty Minutes, No Alibis, No Regrets is reporting that the Wisconsin State Building Commission approved a new hockey practice facility which will also house a 2,400 seat women's hockey arena.  This should be a big coup for both teams from a recruiting standpoint.