B5Q Blogopean Union: another Wisconsin only edition of the ol’ Blogopean Union

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 should be noted that the women’s hockey team is back where they belong after having the weekend off.

They now have their biggest series of the season coming up on Friday, in Madison, and you should get tickets and go if it isn’t sold out already.

The No. 2 Minnesota Golden Gophers gave the Badgers their first loss of the season up in Minneapolis back in November and Wisconsin has been waiting for the return date in Madison ever since.

• With the offseason in full swing, J.J. Watt is finding time to binge some Netflix, like the rest of us.

He’s right too. If Jerry doesn’t make mat for Daytona I too am going to freak out. They keep talking about how “famous” this one cheerleader on their team, Gabi Butler, is so I decided to check out her Instagram to see how many followers she has. I figured a cool 50,000 or something...NOPE! She has over 1,000,000 followers on Instagram and her most recent post spoiled the ending of the show for me!

Anyways, Cheer is a good show and their coach is a sociopath that makes people compete while injured and she should probably be fired.

• We may have to do a power rankings of which sketches from the past Watt would be the best in. I think it would be pretty funny to see him as Matt Foley, motivational speaker. Both he and Christ Farley are from Wisconsin, they’re both big dudes...I think it could work!

• ::puts on blinders and noise cancelling headphones:: The future of the men’s hockey team sure looks bright!

• Talented athletes should not also be talented people. IT’S TOO MUCH!

• If you look at this list and think “I wish the Badgers weren’t on it” you are wrong. Look at the top three teams. Think they’re upset they’re on it?

The more early entrants the Badgers have to the NFL Draft, the better recruiting becomes. It’s science.

• Seems like Owen isn’t the only one who thought Zack Baun had a good day.

• B1G wrestling is brutal. It seems like every match you are wrestling a top-10 opponent.

• The Ringer has Jonathan Taylor going in the first round, but has JK Dobbins ahead of him.

B1G basketball scoreboard from the past few nights (losses in bold because we are here to laugh at misfortune):

No. 21 Illinois 79 - Purdue 62
No. 17 Maryland 77 - Northwestern 66
(both ranked road teams were losing at halftime of their respective games, with the Terps being down 14 (!!) to the Cats)