B5Q Blogopean Union: it’s a great day for soccer!

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 Nebraska).

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).

• Are breakfast brats having a moment?

• HUGE matchup in the NCAA Tournament second round for the women’s soccer team. J.J.’s preview will be posted shortly and we’ll be following along as closely as possible on Twitter while working/putting our (read: my) monster children down for a nap.

• Getting Julie Pospisilova back from international duty will definitely help out the Badgers on the offensive end of the court.

• The men’s hoops team will be in Las Vegas for the Maui Invitational (don’t ask, but you already know it’s because of COVID) starting on Monday and it sounds like all systems are go for Jonathan Davis to return. Davis missed the loss against Providence, as did Jahcobi Neath, but it sounded like Davis was being held out more for precautionary measures than the severity of the injury.

• Remember when people were questioning Jonathan Taylor?

• I don’t even really like the Grateful Dead, but these shirts bang. The Badgers take on the Spartans at 8 p.m. CT Friday night (tonight!) on BTN+.

• Nice to see Cole Caufield back in the bigs.

• Maryland men’s soccer fell to Long Island in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
• Rutgers men’s hoops has struggled to open the season and it finally caught up to them with a loss to a bad DePaul team.
• “Northwestern’s Olympic sports are really good. It’s time we take them out of the shadow of football and men’s basketball and give them the respect they deserve.” A nice op-ed on Inside NU.
• Can MSU upset OSU on Saturday?
• Can Nebraska upset Wisconsin on Saturday??
• Purdue men’s hoops coach Matt Painter faces a different challenge with this year’s team.

Men’s Big Ten basketball scores from Thursday night

No. 19 Ohio State 65 - Xavier 71
St. Francis Brooklyn 57 - Penn State 74
Alabama State 82 - Iowa 108
Rutgers 70 - DePaul 73
Fairleigh Dickinson 46 - Northwestern 82

Women’s Big Ten basketball scores from Thursday night

UNC-Wilmington 66 - No. 3 Maryland 108
SIU-Edwardsville 71 - Illinois 62