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B5Q Blogopean Union: ENTER THE COAN ZONE

Plus: Cole Caufield is playing better for the junior national team; Brevin Pritzl played great off the bench; and Zack Baun is getting draft hype.

By Drew Hamm
NCAA Basketball: Wisconsin at Tennessee Bryan Lynn-USA TODAY Sports

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.

  • Gonna need some of these t-shirts sent to the B5Q offices.
  • It’s nice to see Jake doing a takeover of the official football Twitter account.
  • New preferred walk-on for the women’s hoops team is a local kid.
  • The Badgers lost a heart breaker to Rutgers at the Kohl Center over the weekend.
  • Brevin Pritzl was huge off the bench against Tennessee on Saturday.
  • The bottom-five here are Alaska, Vermont, Maine, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

I understand the first three...there just aren’t that many kids playing high school football in those states and of those few kids, even fewer are being recruited. But for Minnesota and Wisconsin, two states I’ve lived in, to be in the bottom five is a little shocking. I think, and correct me if I’m wrong, this means that high school football players in Minnesota and Wisconsin are being undervalued. There are good players up here, good enough to build the two best teams in the B1G West this year, but other schools aren’t offering kids in the two states. Maybe that’s why Wisconsin is always able to get such useful contributors out of the walk-on program...maybe I should shut up about all this!

  • Zack Baun is getting a lot of NFL Draft hype. I hope he has a big game against Oregon because that could catapult him into the second day of the draft.
  • Are the Badgers back on the NCAA Tournament bubble? Who know?!? But, it’s exciting that they could go on the road and actually win a game!
  • Team USA bounced back from losing to Canada and beat Russia (who beat Canada). I’m assuming it’s because of the Alex Turcotte and Cole Caufield reunion. Caufield did have an assist on the first goal of the game soooo, not entirely untrue!
  • Speaking of the men’s hockey team, they’re back in action on New Year’s Day with an exhibition contest.
  • And finally, in regards to the men’s hockey team, they got a new commit over the weekend.
  • It’s crazy that’s there is only one song about the boys being back in town.
  • The Packers are 2-0 against the Lions this year and have led for zero seconds against them (lolololol) and the Badgers owned the state of Michigan as well this season so, without further ado:
  • Can you imagine Pat Fitzgerald coaching an NFL team?!?!?! Now that would be a team that Alabama could beat, I bet.

B1G basketball scoreboard from over the weekend (losses in bold because we are here to laugh at misfortune):

Central Michigan 62 - Purdue 97
FIU 62 - Minnesota 89
Bryant 70 - No. 13 Maryland 84
No. 22 West Virginia 67 - No. 2 Ohio State 59
Cornell (ever heard of it?) 59 - No. 20 Penn State 90
UMass-Lowell 60 - No. 11 Michigan 86
North Carolina A&T 64 - Illinois 95
Texas A&M Corpus Christi 52 - Nebraska 73
Kennesaw State 51 - No. 25 Iowa 93
Hartford 67 - Northwestern 66
Arkansas 71 - Indiana 64
Western Michigan 62 - No. 14 Michigan State 95

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