B5Q Blogopean Union: an all-Wisconsin update for the past week

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 Malta 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 (which we NO LONGER DO).

• The new USCHO hockey rankings came out on Monday and the women’s team moved back into the No. 1 slot after sweeping previously top-ranked Minnesota out of the arena. The men’s team, who also recorded a sweep, stayed put at No. 12.

• Freshman goalie Cameron Rowe earned Big Ten 3rd Star of the Week for his performances against Arizona State. He finished the series with 34 saves, a .944 save percentage, two wins, a shutout and a 1.00 goals-against average.
• One other men’s hockey note, forward Roman Achan is suspended for the first game of the upcoming Penn State series due to his major penalty for contact to the head and a game misconduct in the series finale against the Sun Devils.
• Jordan Taylor, probably my all-time favorite Badger point guard, is still doing work in Japan. As far as I can tell, and my Japanese is admittedly rusty, it looks like he was selected to the all-star game!

• Speaking of former Badgers playing well overseas, Sam Dekker is helping his squad qualify for the basketball Champions League!

• Out of state preferred walk-on S Dante Caputo is putting his name into the transfer portal. He had not seen much of the field and will probably be looking for somewhere that he isn’t buried on the depth chart.

• Former Badger midfielder and 2018 first team All-America selection Victoria Pickett was selected in the second round of last week’s NWSL Draft by Kansas City (who will be playing their innaugural season this year). The two-time first-team All-Big Ten selection collected five goals and 11 assists during three seasons playing for the Cardinal and White.

• Look at the salad on our man Craig Norwich!

• The No. 21 Wisconsin wrestling team opened their season this past weekend against No. 24 Illinois and No. 7 Ohio State. The Badgers fell in the tri-meet team duals 25-9 against Ohio State and 21-9 against Illinois.

Redshirt junior Garrett Model led the Badgers with two wins for the weekend while fellow redshirt junior Trent Hillger recorded a pin against Ohio State’s Tate Orndorff in 6:39. Not an ideal start for UW, but the Big Ten is going to give them plenty of opportunities for marquee wins.

• Good start for the indoor track and field season featuring record breaking shot put!