Wisconsin Badgers news, 8/7: Rounding up Wednesday's practice reports

Wisconsin practices twice on Thursday, with the morning session already in the books. Head coach Gary Andersen will speak to the media at the conclusion of the afternoon session.

A quick update on B5Q's coverage plans this fall: since Rex, Jake and the other guys who cover things on-site for us also have quite a bit going on outside the site, there will be some days where we can't get someone covering practice for us. In those events, we'll do our best to put together a roundup of links and tweets with observations from the beat reports by the nighttime.

We do plan to cover both scrimmages this fall, which is where things start to get really interesting. And we'll of course have games covered, as well as a bulk of practices. We have a few fun plans in the works, such as hopefully providing more video of interviews as well as photo galleries from Grey. As always, feedback is welcomed.

Onto the links...

Football

Rex was at Wednesday's afternoon practice session and has a nice roundup. Updates on Tanner McEvoy, the young receivers and some standout defenders included.

Other practice reports from Wisconsin beat reporters: the State Journal's Jim Polzin says the freshmen receivers are showing promise. The Journal Sentinel's Jeff Potrykus has more on freshman cornerback D'Cota Dixon seeing time at linebacker. Fox Sports Wisconsin's Jesse Temple has more on McEvoy.

The opener vs. LSU in Houston is nearly sold out, the State Journal reports. Fewer than 1,800 tickets remain, and parking lots will now open two hours earlier to accommodate tailgaters.

Taiwan Deal will try to make an imprint as a freshman running back... wearing Montee Ball's number.

Basketball

Phil had a pair of nice hoops posts yesterday: One on whether pressure is mounting on Frank Kaminsky and another updating the Badgers' top recruiting targets.

Hockey

Brian Rafalski and Jeff Sauer headline the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame class of 2014.