B5Q Blogopean Union: eat it, Minnesota

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.

• The football team is already back and lifting heavy things. Belz is going to have a post soon talking about who on the squad could benefit most from a good winter conditioning session.

• The NHL All-Star game is also going to feature a 3-on-3 20 minute tournament between the best women’s hockey players from the USA and Canada. Annie Pankowski will be representing the USA. I think we got this.

• Madison, Wisconsin is an excellent city. We all know this, and now The Washington Post knows it too. If you take a close look at the picture in this article of the bar at The Old Fashioned you’ll even see Rock’s mom. This, uh, isn’t a “your mom” joke. Rock was my freshman year roommate and I know what his mom looks like. The woman in the red and white striped shirt is his mom. (Also...Rock texted me and said his mom was in the picture)

• Wisconsin’s women’s basketball team has had a rough B1G season so far, but the other night they beat Minnesota in Minneapolis and that is a victory you can hang your hat on for the rest of the year.

Imani Lewis has been having a stellar season and she saved one of her best games for the Border Battle against the Gophers. 10 of her rebounds were offensive and this was her conference-leading ninth double-double of the season.

As always...eat butt, Minnesota.

• “Why did you go for two, coach?” “Because we couldn’t go for three.” The Badgers be running it up, y’all!

• Another former Badger has entered the TRANSFER PORTAL!

• Awwwwwwwwwww, that’s nice.

• The athletic department at Wisconsin is very good in terms of being competitive in a lot of sports, but it’s crazy how far ahead Stanford is from every other school.

• This is a tough question. I own a pair of the red shorts but I’d like to own a pair of the white ones too. Which fit is cleaner?

• I don’t know if y’all saw this on Thursday, but Bob is going to have to take a step back from contributing here.

Bob did, and will do, a great job here at B5Q. I will never begrudge anyone for wanting to write less on this site. This is a second job for every single person here and it should be treated as such. While I always want to provide #good #content for the readers here, it will never come at the expense of the writer having a good time while writing.

I am sad to see Bob step away from B5Q but I’m also excited to welcome him back whenever he wants to write a post about Graham Mertz. He just discovered that tweeting about Mertz gets him more clout, so expect to see a lot of Mertz content on his Twitter feed.

• Purdue vs. Wisconsin preview from a Purdue perspective.
• Wisconsin beat Ohio State in basketball and since then the Buckeyes have forgotten how to play the sport.
• Smart Penn State person John Urschel named to CFP committee.
• Dumb Iowa person Gary Barta also named to CFP committee.
• Michigan sucks at basketball now. Why?
• Michigan State does NOT suck at hockey. Why?
• Illinois will probably suck again now that their favorite bar is back.

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

Penn State 72 - Michigan 63
No. 24 Rutgers 80 - No. 19 Iowa 85
Minnesota 62 - Ohio State 59
No. 11 Michigan State 63 - Indiana 67