B5Q Blogopean Union: big Badgers sports weekend starts tonight

Good morning! This is going to be a daily(ish) post that discusses the goings on of the rest of the Big Ten Conference, and the country as needed. Much like the European Union, the Big Ten is a loosely confederated group of entities that sometimes have the same goals (like free movement of people between countries or not winning national titles in football or basketball) and sometimes accept new members that they later regret (Estonia or Rutgers).

We hope that you will use this post to comment on things happening around the conference and also as a sort of daily open thread to discuss breaking news or argue about Spotted Cow.

• It is Senior Night for the volleyball team on Friday and I did not know that each senior is tasked with leaving an “unconditional gift” to the team as they graduate. It’s nice to hear what each senior wants to leave for her teammates.
• I know this is a graph highlighting how excellent Virginia has been on defense this year, and they have, but it is worth noting that the Badgers are in the correct quadrant as well.

• Beau Allen subscribing fully to the “look great, feel great” mantra.

• Here is the official recap of all of the seven (three forwards, three defensemen, one goalie) prospects that signed with the men’s hockey team this week. There doesn’t appear to be any high-end, first round NHL Draft talent in this class but there are still three draft eligible players that received a middle-round grade from Central Scouting.

• You may remember that men’s hockey head coach Tony Granato was absent from the team right before the season started and it was because he was tending to his sick brother, Don. Well, good news!

• This is obviously not an official team announcement, which will come later Thursday, but it looks like Semar Melvin is feeling better.

• This is an impressive honor for the Badgers center.

• Finally some sports to cover this week! The men’s basketball team is in action tonight. We’ll have your game preview and open thread this afternoon and Belz will be at the Kohl Center covering all the action.

• A great chance to catch the defending national champs if you live in the southeast!

• The Badgers are in Cali and are ready to beat Duke.

• Minnesota CB Antoine Winfield Jr. was named a Nagurski Award finalist. The award is given out annually to the best defensive player in the nation.
• This should come as no surprise, given the previous sentence, but Ohio State DE Chase Young is also a Nagurski finalist.
• I don’t know what is going on with Northwestern basketball but I do know I’ll be watching eagerly to see them beat Michigan State as their only conference win this year, or something equally as crazy.
• How did Nebraska have so much success moving the ball against Wisconsin?
• Here are four things Penn State needs to do in order to beat Ohio State this weekend.
• A nice rundown of the recruiting class that Iowa just signed for men’s basketball.

B1G basketball scoreboard from last night (losses in bold because we are here to laugh at misfortune):

Rutgers 69 - Stephen F. Austin 57
Indiana 79 - Princeton 54
Illinois 85 - Citadel 57 (Illini freshman center Kofi Cockburn had 18 and 17)

• I just need everyone to know that this happened last night. TRUST THE PROCESS BABY!