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Tressel Quits, Russell Wilson Rumored to be a Badger, and More

I thought it was going to be a very quiet holiday weekend for Badger news. So much for that.

Football

The biggest news this weekend didn't directly involved the Badgers. If you haven't heard by now, Jim Tressel resigned as coach at Ohio State. While the move itself isn't a huge surprise the timing is. Hopefully the mess in Columbus benefits the Badgers on the football field this fall, and possibly for the next few years is there are scholarship restrictions.

If you want to read more than you care to about the move, including potential replacements, check out Adam Rittenberg's Big Ten Blog.

Sam at Big Ten Rant shares his thoughts on what Tressel's resignation means for the Badgers and wonders if the OSU program will end up in a similar situation as Michigan.

Jeff Potrykus looks at how Tressel did against the Badgers. UW handed Tressel four of his 14 Big Ten losses at Ohio State.

Before the Tressel news broke the big story to watch was the Russell Wilson sweepstakes. Dave Heller rounds up what people on the Internets are writing about where Wilson will end up -- Auburn? Wisconsin? Asheville? I think the biggest issue will be Wilson having to pay back a large chunk of his $250K signing bonus to the Rockies if he leaves baseball early. That's a lot of coin for a 5'11" QB.

Over at Buckyville, a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy posts in this thread that Wilson to Wisconsin is all but a done deal. That's an Internet message board rumor I'd love to be true.

If you start hearing rumors about UW selling beer at Camp Randall, don't get too excited. Barry says he wouldn't even try to do it. That's probably a good idea.

Tom Lea at BadgerBlitz writes about the ultimate waiting game Scott Tolzien is playing right now. After going undrafted in last month's NFL draft, Tolzien is trying to stay sharp playing working out with former teammates, including Isaac Anderson, David Gilreath, Lance Kendricks and Maurice Moore.

Mike Lucas has a "where are they now?" piece on Tim Krumrie. After coaching in the NFL for 15 years Krurmrie is sat out last season and is looking to get back into the action. He doesn't have any interest in coaching college, in case you had hopes of him returning to Madison someday.

Hoops

Teddy Greenstein of the Chicago Tribune wrote a column about his golf outing with Bo, Bielema, and media relations director Patrick Herb. I reommend giving it a read, if for nothing else than to pick up some new lingo to use in your next round of golf, like the mother-in-law shot.

Jon Leuer is busy preparing for next month's NBA draft. Jeff Potrykus had a chance to catch up with Leuer while UWBadgers.com recaps Leuer's performance at the pre-draft combine (he did well) and rounds up some links and video interviews with the former Badger.

Hockey

The unofficial start of summer is here but Chuck at B5Q is already thinking ahead to next winter. He posted his late May edition line projections for next year's team.

Another UW Basketball Walk-on

Hoops

UW Basketball rounded out the class of 2011 with another walk-on, Zach Bohannon. Zach is the brother of Jason Bohannon, the former Badger guard.  Zach previously played at Air Force and will now sit out the 2011 season due to NCAA rules.   Yesterday we reported Jordan Smith was added to the class as a walk-onand be immediately eligible. Coach Ryan commented on the additions here.

As the NBA draft approaches, Jon Leuer has been touring the US for NBA boot camps.  Patrick Herb caught up with him and what analysts are saying about him.

Football

The 2011 season hasn't started and already awards nominations are coming in for the Badgers.  Peter Konz was added to the Rimington Trophy watchlist, awarded to the top center in Division I (or FBS if you prefer).

Looking ahead even further NFLMocks.com has a nice article about the top future NFL badgers in 2012 and beyond.

We're Back After a Short Hiatus

Apologies for the lack of posts the last few days. The BadgerFans.com "staff" was busy attending a bachelor party over the weekend and needless to say we're a little slow moving.

Hoops

The big hoops news is still UW playing at UNC in the ACC-Big Ten challenge later this year. Bo tells UWBadgers.com he's excited about the match up while Tom Oates discusses some rumored back stories to the pairing.

Shooting guard Jordan Smith has reportedly turned down a scholarship offer from St. Louis and will stick with his original plan to walk-on at UW next fall. Smart move Jordan.

In his hoops recruiting update, Phil at B5Q looks at some high school juniors who could be in line for the next scholarship offer from UW.

Hockey

While things are slow for football and basketball, there's a lot of hockey news going on. Chuck at B5Q recaps several stories in his news and notes update. If you missed it, Chuck also has a notes and quotes on each of UW's 5 newly signed recruits.

Andy Baggot reports that UW wants a one-and-done, neutral site Big Ten playoff format when the hockey conference begins play and opines that other UW hockey players are more deserving of being elected to the UW Hall of Fame than Chris Chelios.

UW to Play North Carolina, Zach Brown Transfering

For what is supposed to be a quiet time for Badger sports news it sure was a busy day yesterday. Let's get to it.

Hoops

The big news of the day was the announcement that UW will play at North Carolina in next year's Big Ten-ACC Challenge. I'll admit I'm surprised that some Badger fans are complaining about the match up. Sure UW needs to replace Jon Leuer and Keaton Nankivil but the expectations are relatively high for UW. If Badger fans want UW to be recognized as an elite program we should welcome these types of match ups.

Many "experts" have put UW near the top 10 in their preseason rankings. Ben Worgull at BadgerNation.com notes that UW is likely a top 10 team but that the match up with UNC feels a lot like UW's 2007 game at Duke, which the Badgers lost by 24.

Phil at B5Q recaps some of the changes to the UW roster in the past couple of months. He writes that reports that Jordan Smith is walking on at UW may be a little premature. Smith visited St. Louis and supposedly came away with a scholarship offer.

Football

Zach Brown has decided to leave the UW program.  The 5th year senior was unlikely to get much playing time and since he's on track to graduate this August, he can play immediately at any D1 school. Best of luck Zach. You can read more about the announcement at the JSOnline and Madison.com.

Adam Hoge at B5Q notes that Brown's departure doesn't necessarily open the door for Russell Wilson to come to Madison. With Brown leaving UW is now at the maximum number (85) of scholarship athletes.

Adam Rittenberg is at the Big Ten spring meetings at reports that it looks like the options for Big Ten championship game is down to Chicago and Indianapolis. It's also possible that the game could rotate between the two cities.

UW plays UNC in Chapel Hill in 2011 ACC/Big Ten Challenge

Courtesy of Jeff Potrykus at the Journal Sentinel. Badger fans can't complain about getting hosed in the pairings this year.

Madison – Wisconsin will face perennial power North Carolina in the 13th annual ACC/Big Ten men's basketball challenge.

UW, which must replace three starters from the team that reached the Sweet 16 last season, play the Tar Heels at Chapel Hill on Nov. 30.

The pairings were announced Tuesday. Information on start times and network coverage is to be announced.

North Carolina reached the Elite Eight last season before losing to Kentucky, 76-69, to finish 29-8. The Tar Heels were ranked No. 8 in the final ESPN/USA Today coaches’ poll.

The Tar Heels return most of their key players, including forwards Harrison Barnes (15.7 ppg, 5.8 rpg) and John Henson (11.7 ppg, 10.1 rpg) center Tyler Zeller (15.7 ppg, 7.2 rpg) and point guard Kendall Marshall (6.2 ppg, 6.2 apg).

In addition, McDonald's All-Americans James McAdoo and P.J. Hairston are expected to join the program in the fall.

UW and North Carolina have met just once, in the 2005 Elite Eight in Syracuse. North Carolina defeated UW, 88-82, and went on to win the national title.

UW returns its starting backcourt – Jordan Taylor and Josh Gasser – from a team that finished 25-9.

The Badgers routed visiting North Carolina State, 87-48, last season to improve their record to 6-6 in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.

North Carolina is also 6-6 in the series. The Tar Heels suffered a 79-67 loss at Illinois last season.

via www.jsonline.com

Some Badger News to Help Warm You Up

Well, it already feels like football season in Wisconsin. Maybe we should just skip summer and get right to the UNLV opener at Camp Randall.

Football

Adam at B5Q talked to a NC State blogger about Russell Wilson. It looks like Wilson left NC State because he was going to be the backup QB next year because he was going to skip spring practice and summer workouts to play baseball.

Iowa site HawkeyeNation ranks the top Big Ten QBs heading into the summer. Jon Budmayr ranks 11th. I know he had a rough spring game but I don't think he's as bad as some people think. Compare Budmayr's stats to Tolzien's from last spring game and they're pretty much the same.

The Badgers are included in two of Adam Rittenberg's 5 poll choices for can't miss Big Ten games for 2011. You can vote for the UW-Nebraska or UW-Ohio State games here. OSU @ Nebraska is currently winning with 47% of vote.

The Nebraska game at Camp Randall is one of the Orlando Sentinel's 10 games that could change the BCS.  Man, that's going to be a good game.

If you want to know what Michigan State fans think of the Wisconsin football program, check out Spartan Ave's "Know Thy Enemy" post on the Badgers.  The blogger predicts a 20-17 win for MSU next fall. By the way, one thing you won't see on BadgerFans.com is B1G Ten.  I hate that logo.

Hockey

Chuck made the move from 60 Minutes to B5Q and his hockey blog posts are still good shit. He has the stats for all the former Badgers participating in pro hockey playoffs this season, lead by The Polish Prince and Dany Heatley of the San Jose Sharks.

Etc

Congrats to the UW softball team, which beat Ohio State Sunday for its 30th win of the season. UW had it's best season since 2005. You can watch the game highlights below.

2011 Wisconsin Football - Year of the Night Game

Football

Wisconsin has landed four night games in prime time for the 2011 season.  All games will be played at 7pm.  It all starts with the previously announced season kick-off, Thursday September 1st against UNLV  on ESPN.  Next up is the Big Ten opener and Nebraska's first Big Ten game at home, October 1st.  The final two are back to back road games against Michigan State on October 22nd and Ohio State October 29th.  The last three night games will be played on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2.  You can read more at Madison.com, JSOnline.com

Jeff Potrykus at JSOnline.com questions the Badgers ability to win the division and a title with the the tough schedule, especially two road night games.  I have to agree the exposure is excellent however this is a tough task, especially with a inexperienced quarterback.

Getting back to Nebraska, Off Tackle Empire has a nice letter to Nebraska fans with a breakdown of all that is important in Wisconsin Football. 

Is Russell Wilson a Badgerfans.com Reader?

Football

It appears as if the campaign to get Russell Wilson is off to a good start as Jeff Potrykus reports.  The big question is that whether he would be able to win the starting job with a limited amount of time to learn the offense.   The Sporting News also covered the story.   As Behind the Numbers highlighted, the talent is there so we are still behind the campaign even if Stewart Mandel doesn’t think it will be a good fit.

Dave Heller had some good links as usual.  Most interesting for me was the ESPN college football analysts’ discussion of the Badgers.  All agreed that we can be considered a Big 10 power.  He also noted that Jordan Taylor is getting a lot of attention this offseason.

We all know about who got drafted, but the bleacher report sums it all up.

Bryan Fischer lists an impact freshman for each of the preseason top 25 and picks Austin Traylor for the Badgers.

Adam from Bucky’s 5^th Quarter sat down with Windy City Gridiron to do an interview about future Bear and former Badger Gabe Carimi.

Basketball

Rob Shultz had more details about UW’s second big walk-on this week, Zach Bohannon after originally posting the story.  It sounds like he will be a great fit in the Swing Offense, so lets hope he can duplicate his brother’s career.

Another Reminder that Badgers are Bad Ass

It’s Not too Early to Look Ahead to Next Fall

Before we get to the links, I need to do a shameless plug for my day job. I'm working on a brand spanking new group photo sharing website called HippiePix that makes it easy to gather all your friends' pictures from a party in a single place. I'm sure you've all been to a party, say a Badger tailgate, where a bunch of your friends were taking pictures. You'd like to have all the photos in one place for everyone to see but it's a pain in the ass to do it. HippiePix solves that problem and the cool thing is you don't need to sign up for an account to use the site. If you were with a bunch of family paparazzi for Mother's Day, it's worth checking out.

Now, onto the links.

Football

With spring practices over and fall camp still a few months away there's not much to do but speculate about next season and Adam Rittenberg does just that. Rittenberg forecasts Montee Ball to lead the Big Ten in rushing TDs next season with James White having the 3^rd most. That's a safe bet going with Ball, who finished 2^nd in the league last year despite limited playing time early in the season. He also expects one of UW DBs – Antonio Fenelus, Devin Smith, or Aaron Henry – to challenge for the league lead in interceptions.

Rittenberg puts UW 4^th in his post-spring power rankings, behind OSU, Nebraska, and Michigan State, and writes in a post on QB recruit Bart Houston that Bret Bielema told him that the Badgers are receiving more calls from more top-level recruits who live far from Madison after last season's Rose Bowl run.

Jeff Potrykus notes in a few blog posts that UW lost out to Florida for a highly touted TE prospect, Athlon put UW 23^rd in its 2011 football preseason rankings, and UW will get some airtime on ESPN's College Football Live on Tuesday after being ranked 14^th in ESPN's preseason rankings.

The NFL draft is a week old but Mike Lucas has some UW notes on the draft. Did you know in the last decade UW has the 2^nd most 1^st round picks amongst Big Ten teams and for the 4^th time in school history two Badgers were picked in the first round? Impressive.

Scott Tolzien and David Gilreath were among a handful of Badgers that didn't get drafted. Lucas talked to Tolzien and Gilreath about what they're planning to do between now and the end of the lockout, when teams can contact them about free agent contracts. Working out with Travis Beckum isn't a bad way to stay prepared.

The draft really didn't go well for John Clay, who left school a year early. Dave Heller links to an article where Clay tells SI.com he's wondering why he didn't get drafted. Clay says he has the awards and numbers and didn't have any off-field problems.

Tom Mulhern writes that the lockout hurts Scott Tolzien more than most college free agents. Tolzien, whose biggest strength is what's between his ears, isn't able to start mastering a NFL playbook because he's unable to sign with a team. Even with the lockout I would think Tolzien has a good chance to stick as a 3^rd string QB or practice squad player for some team.

Mulhern also discusses the impact UW's success in the draft and Bielema's appearance on the NFL Network could have on recruiting. Let's hope all this hype about UW being in a better recruiting position eventually pays off on the field.

Hoops

The big hoops news last week was high-scoring shooting guard Jordan Smith announcing he'll walk on at UW this fall. Smith went to the same high school as Jon Leuer. Madison.com reports that Smith averaged 22 points as a senior while making more than 40 percent of his 3-point attempts. Phil at B5Q notes that the Badgers have been following Smith for a few years also has a video interview with Smith after his team won the state title this season. Seems like a high value walk on.

Etc

With the school year winding to a close the Daily Cardinal looks back the 2010-2011 UW sports season. Sports Editor Mark Bennet reminds Badger fans to appreciate that UW is an elite athletic program and hope the UW program doesn't pull a Rich Rodriguez move. The sports staff also names its UW athletes and moments of the year, with the Rose Bowl being the pinnacle moment.

Not to be outdone, UW-student radio station WSUM strung together a 2010-2011 Badger highlight package complete with calls from Matt Lepay, UW students, and some copyright infringements. You can listen to the package here.