B5Q Blogopean Union: freshmen Braelon Allen and Braxton Amos continue to dominate

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).

• One would have to assume that RB Braelon Allen will be receiving a lot more postseason freshman all-America honors as those are released.

• Honorary captain Alec Ingold incoming???

• You could kind of tell that PG Jahcobi Neath wasn’t operating at full strength over the past couple of games and, well, that’s because he wasn’t!

• Hey, here’s a name you may not have heard in a while! Kobe King is going to make his season debut on Tuesday night (that’s tonight!) for Valpo.

• What a stat line for Micah Potter in the G-League!

• After being released by the Toronto Raptors, Sam Dekker is heading back to Turkey to play out the rest of this season.

• Ticket info for this Thursday’s Sweet 16 action at the Field House.

• God the Flyers (who lost this game 7-1 on Sunday, their eighth loss in a row, and then fired their coach on Monday) suck so hard. Good game for Ryan McDonagh and Brian Elliott though!

• The Badgers were so far ahead of everyone else that despite going 0-1-1 last weekend against Minnesota they remain No. 1 in the country.

• With 13 of the Badgers’ top wrestlers competing in the Cougar Clash hosted by Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville (SIUE) over the weekend, seven UW wrestlers earned first-place finishes in their weight classes, while an additional three placed in the top three of the brackets.

1st place finishers: Eric Barnett (125 pounds), Kyle Burwick (133 pounds), Joseph Zargo (141 pounds), Garrett Model (157 pounds), Dean Hamiti (165 pounds), Braxton Amos (197 pounds), Trent Hillger (285 pounds)

2nd place finishers: Ethan Rotondo (133 pounds), Chris Weiler (184 pounds)

3rd place finisher: Andrew McNally (174 pounds)

5th place finisher: Aidan Medora (149 pounds)

6th place finishers: Cody Anderson (165 pounds), Tyler Dow (184 pounds)

Amos earned three of his four victories on the day through tech falls — 18-1 over Little Rock’s Brooks Sacharczyk, 18-2 over NIU’s Matt Zuber and 24-7 to place first over SIUE’s Ryan Yarnell. Sheesh!

Some Badgers also went to Kenosha to compete in the Jim Koch Wisconsin Open. True freshman Graham Calhoun (174 pounds) and junior Peter Christensen (285) led the way for the Badgers with each bringing home second-place finishes in their respective weight classes. Christensen won all three of his matches by fall — pinning Max Villnow of Minnesota State Mankato in 0:29, Greyson Stevens of Northern Illinois in 0:32 and Tristan Ruhlman of Purdue in 1:18.

• Some brief thoughts from our SB Nation Sun Devil cousins on our upcoming bowl game.
• The four Heisman Trophy finalists were announced on Monday night and MSU’s star RB Kenneth Walker III was not on the list.
• The Iowa/Iowa State wrestling match on Sunday was INTENSE.
• A recap of the Big Ten title game from Iowa’s perspective. It, uh, wasn’t pretty.
• I didn’t know that Purdue men’s hoops had never been ranked No. 1 in the nation before, but that all changed on Monday with the new AP Poll. Here’s what the Boilermakers have to do to make it a special season.
• Northwestern women’s hoops outlasted Wisconsin in the Big Ten opener for both teams. Here is what we learned about the ‘Cats.
• Michigan had a hell of a football season, man. They are Big Ten champs and DE Aidan Hutchinson is a Heisman finalist. The Wolverines are trying to turn all of this success into immediate recruiting wins as well.
• Rutgers women’s soccer fell to No. 1 Florida State in the Final Four.
• Maryland men’s basketball and head coach Mark Turgeon parted ways over the weekend. Danny Manning will serve as the interim coach and here are some preliminary ideas about who might take the job permanently.
• The Gophers came into Wisconsin and recruited an offensive lineman with the last name Beers?!?!? This is worse than losing the Axe! Did the bowl selection process screw Minnesota?

Men’s basketball scores from Monday

Illinois 87 - Iowa 83

Women’s basketball scores from Monday

Penn State 40 - No. 6 Indiana 70
Nebraska 70 - Minnesota 67