Wisconsin Badgers men's & women's basketball (and the rest of the Big Ten) thoughts & analysis from
@drewhamm5
. You can find most of my writing at my newsletter
PERSONAL NEWS UPDATE:
I'll be posting Wisconsin Badgers and Big Ten Women's Basketball content on the Badgers Ball Knower Substack again. Tell your friends AND your enemies.
Remembering the Noah Reynolds Era at Wisconsin
When it began:
- No. 1 song in US: “Last Night” by Morgan Wallen
- No. 1 movie in US: The Super Mario Bros. Movie
When it ended:
- No. 1 song in US: “Last Night” by Morgan Wallen
- No. 1 movie in US: The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Some top-tier "inventing a guy to argue with" here
UW fans are excited that UW won a recruiting battle for a blue-chip prospect. They are excited because the program has juice now. No one thinks Nick Evers is a surefire national title QB rn. It's ok to enjoy sports periodically.
Badger fans...."We will never again be fooled by elite QB ratings until we see how they play on the field...what...we got Nick Evers....national title here we come."
A Paul Chryst and Texas marriage is hilarious for many reasons but "offensive analyst" is honestly the perfect job for Chryst. He gets to just focus on ball and leave all of the other nonsense that comes with running a CFB program to others.
He'll probably be great at it.
Not to overreact to one half of excellent basketball, but we are closing in on a Barry Alvarez-esque "they better get season tickets right now" moment for
@BadgerWBB
.
This team is fun, talented, and Marisa Moseley has things trending up with a quickness.
As Wisconsin prepares to face Northwestern in football on Saturday, it is important to remember that, in Jim Leonhard's first game as HC, if the opening offensive play for the Badgers is a run up the middle I will be ritually sacrificing my kids' stuffed Bucky in the backyard.
Like days long twitter arguments about how they couldn't recruit a QB because Mertz is on the roster and Fickell gets 3 sought after QBs in a couple weeks
"Actually, winning a second round game is better than winning a national title" is the most galaxy-brained take I think I've heard from a Wisconsin fan.
Beating Kentucky with Josh Gasser, Kaminsky, Decker, Hayes, Koenig, etc. will always be worth more than winning the title with a group of transfers or one-and-done players. Heck, beating Villanova in the round of 32 was more important to me than possible title w/free agents.
Very sneakily, Holmes sat down during the timeout when no one could see her and the MSU band was playing a song.
Can't teach that kind of awareness.
It's why she was my B1G Player of the Year.
It's amazing to me what can happen to a college football program when you simply modernize the offensive philosophy, exert even a modicum of effort on the recruiting trail, and allocate resources effectively.
Now assuredly if you show up to the game dressed like this after talking shit all season your team won and you didn’t completely disappear in the second half like an enormous piss-baby…right???
With a career-high-tying 20 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks in tonight's game, Johnny Davis becomes just the second rookie in franchise history to amass 20+ points, 5+ rebounds and 2+ blocks in back-to-back games, joining Larry Stewart who did so in 1991.
#DCAboveAll
Well, that was quite the performance from the Wisconsin
#Badgers
women's basketball team tonight!
UW beat Rutgers 88-62 at the Kohl Center and now have more wins than they did last season. 📈📈📈
If you are a UW-Madison student that is 6-foot-3 or taller and weigh more than 250 pounds, please report to Camp Randall immediately as you are now the third string TE and they need to get you a jersey.
Source: N.C. State quarterback Devin Leary intends to enter the NCAA transfer portal. Leary will have one year of eligibility remaining. He's thrown for 6,807 yards and 62 touchdowns, making him one of the most productive portal quarterbacks available.
Zach Edey Fouls As Called By Big Ten Refs Today
- personal foul, 17:56 left in 1st half
- technical foul, 17:56 left in 1st half
- and that's it
This game went into OT, so what the Big Ten refs are telling you is that Edey went MORE than an entire game without fouling.
St. John's transfer wanted A.J. Storr wanted two things from his school.
He wanted to be a priority
He wanted to win
The former Top 100 recruit thinks the
#Badgers
knocked those out of the park.
"Wisconsin was the one I was only considering."
(VIP)
"Freitag" means "Friday" in German so there was only one day of the week he could commit and only one state that has the highest percentage of German Americans in the nation.
I am going to make a spreadsheet of every player in the transfer portal that is taller than 6-foot-8 and have it nailed to the front door of the Kohl Center for when Greg Gard returns from Vegas.
I think it's important to remember that if Wisconsin had just beaten Wazzu, OSU, Illinois, MSU, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan in the B1G Title Game, & TCU in the semifinals that the Badgers would've given Georgia a much better fight in the national title game.
Food for thought.
"Minutes after talking to Chucky about this I was already pursuing another talented point guard" reeks of "my girlfriend goes to another school, you wouldn't know her!" Lmaooooooo
More from
#Badgers
Gard: We're dedicating all our energy right now into finding the next fits for our program. In fact, minutes after talking to Chucky about this I was already pursuing another talented point guard who is in the portal. This is the reality of college basketball.
While it is an important football weekend in terms of, you know, hopefully winning a game, there are also key men’s basketball recruits on campus, not the least of which are 4-star PG Daniel Freitag out of Minnesota.
#Badgers
Rivals released their final boys basketball rankings for the 2023 class & there are now two
#Badgers
in the top-150:
- No. 110, 4-star Gus Yalden, down six spots
- No. 139, 3-star Nolan Winter, new addition to list
If those two guys can provide some bench minutes...
A few weeks ago I asked
@JJWatt
what he wanted to do in his next career. His hilarious answer amounted to “everything” but most importantly he wants to go to college football games, park in the regular parking lot and drink a beer and play cornhole with fans. This was so great.
Drinking beer can now help the Boise State collective support its athletes👀
Last week, Western Collective brewery started "The Horseshoe Golden Ale."
The brewery will give $0.10 per pint to The Horseshoe Collective, which supports Boise State players.
@AndyWittry
with more:
Greg Gard has a LOT of work to do this offseason. There will be plenty of interesting options in the transfer portal and he can't whiff on bringing in a big guy.
The
#Badgers
have now received commitments from two 4-star QBs in as many weeks. As a lifelong Wisconsin fan I, quite frankly, didn't even think that was allowed!
The vibes are shifting in Madison and I am excited.
Keeanu Benton should go down as one of the best Wisconsin players of the past decade. He is an absolute monster and I can't wait to watch him in the NFL.
My sister, who went to Duke, just got home from the store, looked at the score of the Badgers game and said “oh, do they play quarters in men’s basketball now too?”
The
#Badgers
had Aubrey Galvan (
@aubtheballer1
), a 2025 PG from Deerfield, Ill., on campus this past weekend.
Let's break down this passing wizard's game and how she'd fit with
@BadgerWBB
.
I'm sure Iowa fans are going to be like "well we didn't have Ahron Ulis or Kris Murray and things will be different next time!"
Yeah...they will. Wisconsin will have Jahcobi Neath back.
It was a sad, but hopeful, postgame press conference.
Both seniors and Moseley mentioned how this was the end of the season, but the beginning of something bigger for UW.
Welcome to
#Badgers
vs. Boilermakers Basketball Bonanza
- WBB: 10-seed Wisconsin vs. 7-seed Purdue, BTT, 5:30 p.m. CT, BTN
- MBB: Wisconsin vs. No. 5 Purdue, Senior Night, 8 p.m. CT, FS1
A sweep would make this one of the bigger days in recent Wisconsin hoops history. Let's go!
Look...a lot of Big Ten teams have been losing in hilarious fashion since the last time the
#Badgers
played a basketball game and UW plays Western Michigan (No. 319 KenPom) tonight so I'd like to say to the team:
please don't lose so I get my comeuppance.
BREAKING: Five-Star QB Dylan Raiola has Decommitted from Ohio State.
The 6’3 225 QB from Chandler, AZ had been Committed to the Buckeyes since May.
Raiola is ranked as the No. 1 Recruit in the 2024 class on all four major recruiting media services.
AJ Storr going to the transfer portal? Eh, that's the cost of doing business in today's game
Chucky Hepburn going to the transfer portal? I will be posting increasingly unhinged screeds against Greg Gard and whichever team Hepburn ends up on
Interesting to see that once Michigan played their first real team of the season they lost. Gotta think their B1G East schedule didn’t do them any favors ahead of this one.
We like to crack jokes and poke fun at our rivals but at the end of the day it’s just basketball.
I hope Patrick McCaffery gets the help he needs and can resume doing activities that he loves. It’s brave of him to step away from the game, and team, he loves. Be well, Patrick.
Iowa’s Patrick McCaffery will be taking an indefinite leave to address anxiety.
One of my favorite kids I have ever been around. Take care of yourself,
@patrickmccaff22
. Hoops is secondary to your health.