University of Wisconsin (UW) was founded in 1848, when WI was admitted as the 30th state to the Union. The Wisconsin Constitution called for the establishment of a state university, at or near the seat of state government... to be governed by a board of regents and administered by a chancellor. Chancellor John Lathrop was the first president of the universities of Missouri, Wisconsin and Indiana. The first class of 17 students met at Madison Female Academy. A permanent campus site of 50 acres was constructed in Madison. Levi Booth & Charles T. Wakeley became the first graduates in 1854. The first PhD was awarded to future university president Charles R. Van Hise in 1892.
Today UW has 938 large city acres, enrollment of 48,557 (34,212 undergrad), $4 Billion endowment, USN&WR No. 39 national university, WSJ No. 58
Famous alumni include 20 Nobel Prize winners, 41 Pulitzer Prize winners, 32 Rhodes Scholars, naturalist John Muir, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, aviator Charles Lindbergh, 46th US VP Dick Cheney, Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell, Earth Day founder/35th governor/US Senator for Wisconsin Gaylord Nelson, former Milwaukee Bucks owner Sen. Herb Kohl, Biochemist Elmer McCollum discoverer of vitamins A, B & D, US Supreme Court Justice Wiley Rutledge (FDR appointee), NYSE chairman Jeffrey Sprecher, TV news anchor Greta Van Susteren, 2x Best Actor Oscar winner Frederic March
UW Athletics: 32 NCAA team championships (8 boxing, 7 women’s ice hockey, 6 men’s ice hockey, 6 men’s XC, 2 women’s XC, 1 men’s basketball, 1 men’s soccer, 1 men’s volleyball, 1 men’s indoor track); plus 16 non-NCAA titles (9 men’s rowing, 5 women’s lightweight rowing, 2 women’s rowing), 201 Big Ten conf titles plus 45 non-B1G conf titles, 53 Olympic medals– 15 Gold, 25 Silver, 13 Bronze
Colors – Cardinal & White, nickname Badgers, mascot – Buckingham U. Badger aka “Bucky Badger”, starting in 1890 it was a live badger, in the 1920s badgers, a black bear, and a bonnet monkey were used until 1949, when use of live animals was discontinued, Fight Song: On Wisconsin
Basketball started in 1898 (1663-1260, .573), 3 pre-NCA national titles, 1941 NCAA Champions, 2015 runner-up, 4 Final Four, 10 Sweet Sixteen, 27 NCAA appearances, 3 Conf tourney titles, 20 Conf regular season titles 4 Basketball HOF’rs (Christian Steinmetz, Walter Meanwell, Harold Foster, Bo Ryan), 6 National POY (last Frank Kaminsky 2015), 9 Consensus All- Americans (last Johnny Davis 2022), 3 retired jerseys 8 Ab Nicholas (1949-52), 24 Michael Finley (1991-95), 44 Frank Kaminsky (2011-15). Eleven 1st rd NBA draft picks, 2 current NBA players (Johnny Davis – Wizards, Micah Potter - Jazz)
Winningest coaches: Bo Ryan 364-130, .642, Bud Foster 265-267, .498, Greg Gard 198-110, .643
Current Greg Gard – 10th yr, 2 Sweet Sixteen, 7 NCAAs, 2016 Nat’l COY, 2x Big Ten COY
Currently: 14-3 (4-2) – W: Holy Cross, Montana St, Appalachian St, #9 AZ, UT RGV, UCF, Pitt, Chicago St, Butler, Detroit Mercy, Iowa, Rutgers, Minnesota, Ohio St; L: Michigan, #5 Marquette, #19 Illinois. SC is currently 11-6 (3-3)
All-time: UW leads SC 1-0 (64-59 in 2022 (Drew Peterson 17 pts, Boogie 15)
UW NET 24, KenPom 22, SC NET 73, KenPom 64
UW Scores: 82.4 ppg (+11.9), 46.4% FG, 34.8% 3FG, 9.3 3’s/g, 85.4% FT. Rebounds 36.2 pg (+2.6), Assists 15.1 pg, TOs 10.2 pg (+0.6), Steals 5.4 pg, Blks 2.2 pg
UW Leaders:
Scoring: John Tonje 18.2 ppg (45.6% FG, 35.4% 3FG, 93.6% FT), John Blackwell 15.4 ppg (48.4% FG, 32.4% 3FG, 82.1% FT), Nolan Winter 10.6 ppg (59.8% FG, 35% 3FG, 82.1% FT), Steven Crowl 10.5 ppg (54.8% FG, 31% 3FG, 83.8% FT), Max Klesmit 10.1 ppg (32.6% FG, 29% 3FG, 85.1% FT)
Rebounding: Winter 6.1, Crowl 5.6; Assists – Klesmit 2.9, Crowl 2.5; Steals – Klesmit 1.1; Blks – Crowl 0.5
SC scores: 77.5 ppg (+5.9), 48.4% FG, 34.9% 3FG, 6.4 3’s/g, 74.4% FT, Rebs 32.7 rpg (+0.6), Assists 16.4 apg, TOs 11.6 pg (+1.6), 15.9 ppg/TO, Steals 6.5, Blks 3.1
SC Leaders
Scoring: Claude 16.4 ppg (50.6% FG, 30.8% 3FG, 77.4% FT), Agbo 12.8 (41.1% FG, 39.2% 3FG, 86% FT), Yates 10.6 (48.2% FG, 37.7% 3FG, 78.1% FT), Saint 10.5 (45.8% FG, 32.7% 3FG, 64.5% FT), Cohen 8.3 (62.8% FG, 16.7% 3FG, 76.2% FT)
Rebounds: Saint 6.2, Agbo 4.5; Assists Claude 4.2, Saint 4.1; Steals Saint 1.4; Blks Knowling 0.7, Agee 0.6
Pregame
Outside Galen, we donate 2 bags of socks / underwear purchased for victims of the Wildfires. Todd Lee makes his 4th appearance. He offers his prayers to those who have been impacted by the wildfires. He says the staff has been impacted as both Poindexter and Conroy had to evacuate and Ops Director Cline had to move into Lee’s house. He hopes everyone is OK.
Lee says #24 UW is a 6-seed in Joe Lunardi’s bracketology. They are skilled, physical, well coached, with a pair of 7-ftrs they use high-low or with pick n rolls. They run ball-screen motion. UW leads the NCAA in FT% at 85.4% (on pace to break record). We need to defend w/o fouling. Crowl is very effective in the post. Need Agee and Josh to step up, we may use Harry. This is a tough matchup. They have no shot blockers so we need to drive to the rim.
Today is Armenian Heritage Day to recognize SC’s first ever Armenian player Avond Dorian a 6-3 walk-on G from AGBU private school in Winnetka (K-12, 977 total enrollment). Dorian scored 1678 career pts (23.7 ppg, 9.3 rebs, 2.7 assts), was CIF All-State and 3x All-CIF SS. He graduated with a 4.7 GPA and his jersey was retired. He played for Armenia when they defeated Ireland in the 2024 Los Angeles Int’l Cup. He is in Marshall school and has a non-profit which donates new socks to the LA Mission. There are 100, sign holding, Armenian flag waving Dorian fans in Galen, who chant “We want Avand” throughout the game in hopes he makes his debut.
Dorian’s parents are a few rows in front of me and reporter Luca Evans chats them up and gets a photo, so I’m expecting an article.
DJ Chaotiki subbing for Malski. Caleb is here w/ bestie JJ3. Ethan Anderson also here.
I am trying to get used to the large numbers of fans from opposing schools, due to SoCal being the largest concentration of B1G alums outside of the Midwest, but I still get upset with our fanbase.
A moment of silence for USC HOF’er Gus Williams who passed at 71. He was a Parade AA out of Mt Vernon HS (NY) in 1971, AA at SC in 1975 (21.2 ppg, 5.4 asst, 4.6 rebs), 2nd rd draft pick by Golden State and NBA ROY runner-up. For the Supersonics Gus “the Wizard” Williams was 2x All-NBA and scored 30-plus in 7 of 17 playoff games to win the 1979 NBA Championship. NBA career stats: 14,093 pts, 4597 assts, 1638 steals, 19.5 ppg in 99 playoff games. His USC No. 10 jersey was retired in 2016.
The Game
Starters – Saint, Cohen, Claude, Yates, Agbo. Yates puts SC up 2-0 at 18:16. Saint’s jumper at 17:29 gives SC the 4-2 lead, unfortunately that was the only lead of the half, as the Badgers went to work and outscored SC 40-23 to take their biggest lead 42-25 on Blackwell’s FTs at 0:26. Saint’s tip in at :01 sent SC into the locker room 42-27. It was a terrible first half for SC. Claude who at 22.0 ppg had been leading scorer in B1G play, didn’t score at all in the half. He missed all 3 shots he had at the rim and did not get to the line.
Clarke Slajchert got in for 3 mins and finally hit his first 3FG, making him 1-9. Harry got in, but showed in his 2 mins why he doesn’t get more time. When you are a good shooter and your team is struggling you need to pull the trigger when you get open looks! That’s why you’re in, you got 1 job!
For the half:
UW shot 58.3% FG (14-24), 46.7% 3FG (7-15), 87.5% FT (7-8)
SC shot 40% FG (10-25), 25% 3FG (2-8), 63.6% FT (5-9)
Second Half
After a halftime tongue lashing by Muss, how would SC respond? Claude scored SC’s first 5 pts of the 2nd half but took only 4 2nd half shots, finishing the game with a lackluster 9 pts, 3-7 FGs, 3-4 FT in 31 mins. He had 1 reb, 2 assts, FIVE TOs, no steals or 3FG atts. Muss didn’t like his effort, especially on defense and that goes for Yates as well. Muss felt only Saint and Agee were bringing the necessary energy.
After a 3 by Klesmit at 17:54 gave UW their largest lead of 19 pts (51-32), SC had had enough. SC would go on a run (led by Saint - 10 pts) to cut the lead to 55-52, but UW answered with a 8-2 run and cruised to victory. Blackwell’s dunk at 0:39, capping off his game-high 28 pt game ended the UW scoring at 84. SC got 4 pts in the last :30 on a Yates layup and a Saint dunk to give SC 69 pts. They lose this 84-69 and the Magic 75 rule still holds. In every SC win this season we have scored 75 or more, in every loss less than 75.
SC was outshot and outperformed in most every stat. The things they did well were to take UW’s leading scorer Tonje completely out of the game. He was scoreless in 22 min. UW took 28 threes and converted on 9 of them (32.1%). They made up for this by going 22-27 81% on 2-pt shots and held a 38-28 edge on pts in the paint.
Looking at this game realistically, UW was the better, more complete team. SC would need our best players to play like the best players and they did not get that from Claude and Yates. They need Agbo to be on every game and he is very streaky hitting only 1-5 on threes.
This was just another lost opportunity to bring the fans (attendance 6938) back to Galen.
For the game:
UW shot 56.4% FG (31-55), 32.1% 3FG (9-28), 86.7% FT (13-15)
SC shot 49.1% FG (26-53), 40% 3FG (6-15), 64.7% FT (11-17)
SC falls to 11-7 (3-4) and Wisconsin goes to 15-3 (5-2).
Next Up: at Nebraska (Lincoln) Jan 22nd, 6 pm PST, B1G Network
Fight On! Beat the Cornhuskers!
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