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B5Q Blogopean Union: USA/Canada hockey games can pretty much just be Badgers scrimmages

Plus: some football news, some soccer news, and some news from around the whole conference.

United States v Switzerland: Group A - 2021 IIHF Women’s World Championship
Hilary Knight is one of the best American hockey players ever.
Photo by Derek Leung/Getty Images

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).

  • Folks who have been reading this site for a while may remember that we used to do a post every morning (during the week) that contained updates from around the Wisconsin athletic department and the Big Ten in general. Now that it is fall (by sports being played, NOT by weather) we’ll be doing it again. You can expect this post to go up (just about) every weekday morning between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. CT.
  • While we are doing some site announcements, let me list all of the writers’ Twitter accounts so you can harass them over there too. Matt Belz, Tyler Hunt, Owen Riese, J.J. Post, Bremen Keasey, Jake Dicker, Ryan Mellenthin and Kevin O’Connell. You can find my Twitter handle at the top of this post and, as always, you can reach us @B5Q.
  • You should also follow us on Instagram @buckys5thquarter and subscribe to Bucky’s 5th Podcast on Spotify, Apple and Stitcher. You can also like us on Facebook. Once Tyler finally learns how to dance, you’ll be able to find us on TikTok too.

  • Chez Mellusi’s old teammate at Clemson, and current Jacksonville Jaguars running back, Travis Etienne (who is sadly out for the season with an injury) gassed up Mellusi for earning the RB1 distinction for the Badgers.
  • Miss you both, mean it.
  • Canada vs. USA in ice hockey. Does it get any better? Only if a bunch of former Badgers are involved and...would you look at that, there are 13 former, current and future Badgers potentially playing for the gold medal on Tuesday!

Canada’s roster features five former Badgers in Kristen Campbell, Emily Clark, Ann-Renee Desbiens, Sarah Nurse and Blayre Turnbull. While Team USA has former Badgers Alex Cavallini, Brianna Decker, Hilary Knight and Abby Roque; current Badgers Natalie Buchbinder, Britta Curl and Lacey Eden; and one future Badger, Caroline Harvey.

  • I forgot to mention this in Monday’s edition, but Knight is now the all-time leading scorer for Team USA, surpassing Cammi Granato. That’s awesome!
  • The men’s soccer team...might not be very good this year. The loss to Green Bay is disappointing for sure, but how they lost is even more discouraging. Wisconsin was up 1-0 for the entire second half, until the 88th minute when Green Bay equalized...and then the 89th minute when the Phoenix took the lead.

Just zero composure from the Badgers. Losing games like this makes it just about impossible for them to even think about making the NCAA Tournament unless they make a miracle run in the Big Ten Tournament.

  • The women’s soccer team, on the other hand, were clicking on all cylinders on Sunday, scoring the most goals in a game since they scored six against Hofstra in the 2018 NCAA Tournament.
  • We know that the Big Ten released the men’s hockey schedule on Monday. We’ll have a post on it later today!
  • Same thing with the volleyball rankings!