Varsity Magazine Vol 2 No 25
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IN FOCUS GETTING A STOP Hoops is his calling, but Minnesota native Mike Bruesewitz also grew up on the ice. He joined UW men’s hockey players Justin Schultz and Derek Lee this week for some pond hockey that will air as a segment on “The Journey” at 7 p.m. Sunday on BTN. PHOTO BY PATRICK HERB FULL HOUSE An NCAA record crowd of 10,668 packed the Kohl Center to watch the No. 1 Badgers take down rival Minnesota in last year’s “Fill the Bowl” game, a mark UW Athletics hopes to top Saturday. Admission is just $1 to watch the Badgers take on Bemidji State at 7 p.m. FILE PHOTO BY DAVID STLUKA IN FOCUS JANUARY 26, 2012 CONTENTS VOLUME 2, ISSUE 25 24 MAN IN THE MIDDLE Jared Berggren’s growth has helped spur the Badgers back into a wide-open Big Ten race 42 DEPARTMENTS » NEXT IN LINE 10 LUCAS AT LARGE Mike Markuson gets a strong by Mike Lucas recommendation from Barry Alvarez as he looks to carry 12 BEHIND THE DESK on Wisconsin’s strong tradi- by Barry Alvarez tion on the offensive line. 14 BADGER BRIEFING News and notes 18 BY THE NUMBERS Facts and figures on UW 20 5 THINGS TO WATCH 22 BADGERING... 34 Carolyne Prévost » SIZE MATTERS 56 THIS WEEK IN HISTORY Brianna Decker’s big contri- It’s Tucker time butions have the Badgers on 58 THE VOICE the road to another NCAA by Matt Lepay championship. EDITOR’S NOTE Go ahead, take us with you Varsity is published weekly by: Wisconsin Athletic Communications pple sold 37 million — yes, million — iPhones over Kellner Hall, 1440 Monroe St., the final 14 weeks of last year. And, despite that mind- Madison, WI 53711 Ablowing number, the device lags behind the ever- growing number of Android-powered smartphones in terms of Subscribe to Varsity market share. The fact that the iPhone can sell at an average rate of nearly View All Issues 38,000 per day and still not rule the land speaks to just how mobile our society is becoming when it comes to accessing data on the go. Don’t forget the 15.4 million units of the iPad Brian Lucas that Apple moved over that same span, all on the way to post- Director of Athletic Communications ing a staggering quarterly profit of $13.1 billion — yes, billion. I understand that you’re here for a breakdown of the Bad- Brian Mason gers’ new coaching staff and not new quarterly earnings Editor reports from the Fortune 500, but there’s a point to all this. Consuming information on a mobile Mike Lucas device is becoming less of a convenience Lead Writer and more of an expectation. Content pro- ducers who aren’t packaging their work Matt Lepay in a mobile-friendly manner are increas- Columnist ingly less likely to reach their audience. Drew Scharenbroch That certainly applies to Varsity, Video Production which was created in the first place to BRIAN provide a concise package for Badgers Drew Pittner-Smith MASON coverage that a website simply can’t. Advertising Mobile devices — especially the ever- growing lineup of tablets — offer a fantastic platform for mag- Contributors azines. There are even a number of news aggregator apps that Karl Anderson, Paul Capobianco, cull information you specify from the web and covert it into a Charlie Healy, Patrick Herb, custom, constantly-updating magazine layout (I can vouch for Ross LaDue, Diane Nordstrom, Flipboard as a must-have app if you own an iPad). Anna Poulter-Hendrickson One of the major leaps we made for Volume 2 of Varsity — besides implementing a new design and greatly expanding the Photography amount of content in each issue — was changing the page size David Stluka, Greg Anderson, to better fit mobile screens and moving to a new, more mobile- Neil Ament, Ross LaDue, friendly publication platform. Patrick Herb The faster-loading framework we use is much better suited Icon SMI, Associated Press for consumption on mobile devices, allowing readers to zoom, access a text-only reading mode and, perhaps most impor- Problems or Accessibility Issues? tantly, view the videos we embed in every issue. You can even [email protected] download a static version of the magazine for offline reading. If you haven’t taken advantage of this mobile capability, give it a try. Varsity travels well. © 2011 Board of Regents of the Speaking of mobile, we’re in the process of developing a University of Wisconsin System. mobile app for Varsity. What would you like to see included? All rights reserved worldwide. What would be useful to you? Send me your suggestions. LUCAS AT LARGE MIKE LUCAS • UWBADGERS.COM Tough to find the bottom in deep Big Ten question about Murray Ryan. “The Big Ten Network gets Despite two conference losses, State and where a poten- into so many homes nationally that the Buckeyes continue to loom Atially undefeated Ohio the people out there know how as the favorite to win the Big Ten Valley team might be seeded in the tough it is, 1 through 12.’’ championship, though they still NCAA men’s basketball tourna- Michigan State (4), Ohio State must go on the road to Wisconsin, ment led to a testimonial on an- (9), Indiana (20), Illinois (28), Michigan and Michigan State. other league’s depth and strength. Michigan (29), Wisconsin (33), It’s going to be challenging to Michigan State’s Tom Izzo quali- Northwestern (38), Minnesota (47) get any separation from the pack, if fied his remarks on Monday’s Big and Purdue (50) were all ranked they do. Ten teleconference by professing Addressing the mid-to-late “incredible respect’’ for successful January gridlock, Izzo said, “When programs that carry the “mid-ma- Nebraska beat Indiana you still have eight or nine teams jor’’ label (and/or burden). but still opened the that are legitimately playing for But he also questioned what NCAA spots and a couple of others kind of records — and ultimately week tied for 11th. that can beat those teams … what kind of seeding — some of “I don’t think there’s a “And maybe are playing for these teams might have “if they bottom of the Big Ten NCAA spots but definitely play- had a steady diet of 18 games in an ing for a postseason tournament, ACC or Big Ten schedule.’’ this year,’’ countered I think you’re stating why the Big Izzo cited a football example — Ohio State’s Thad Matta. Ten is the best conference in the Boise State — to support his con- “It’s quite amazing.’’ country from top to bottom.’’ tention. It would be understandable if “I love them and they were a Ryan had a flashback to the 1978- great story,’’ he said. “But you can among the top 50 in RPI. 79 Big Ten season, when he was win (to the degree Boise State has “When you have Carolina and a UW assistant coach and three during the regular season) when Duke, the ACC looks phenomenal teams tied for the league title: you’ve got to plan for only a couple because of those two teams,’’ Izzo Michigan State, Purdue and Iowa. of games a year. But that steady said. “Right now, the Big 12 has Each had 13-5 conference re- diet normally affects you. three teams ranked in the Top 10 cords. Ohio State (12-6) was one “I’m a big fan of Murray State,’’ (Missouri, Kansas and Baylor).’’ game back of the leaders, while he continued. “Could that team Izzo was not diminishing the Indiana (10-8) was fifth. survive in any league? Yes. Would quality of any of those programs. The Magic Johnson-led Spartans it mean they’d win the ACC, Big On the contrary, he stressed, “Con- went on to win the national cham- Ten or Big East? No. ference strength should be ranked pionship, with their last defeat “Just the record alone is not the by the bottom of the conference coming at the hands of 6-12 Wis- criteria that should determine that more than the top.’’ consin in the regular-season finale (seeding).’’ Nebraska beat a ranked Indiana at the UW Field House. Coming into this week, the Big team, but they still they opened the The Badgers were near the bot- Ten had the No. 1 RPI ranking in week tied for 11th. “I don’t think tom of the Big Ten. college basketball. there’s a bottom of the Big Ten this Such was the depth of the con- “Our league has proven that we year,’’ countered Ohio State’s Thad ference then, and now, 33 years can compete,’’ said UW coach Bo Matta. “It’s quite amazing.’’ later. 10 » VARSITY JANUARY 26, 2012 LUCAS AT LARGE BEHIND THE DESK BARRY ALVAREZ • UW DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS Getting to know Paterno was a pleasure fter I retired from coaching, know how to win — and apply it to fat (bleep) and he was too slow.’’ Joe Paterno wanted to sit what you’re doing at Wisconsin.’’ Any time we beat Penn State, it Adown and talk. He thought I asked him, too, how he had was very gratifying for me because maybe we could get together for survived as a head coach for all of my roots in Pennsylvania and my dinner at his house when our bas- those years in Pennsylvania. Foot- family and friends in Burgettstown ketball teams played at Penn State. ball is so important for the people and Langeloth. It meant bragging We never did get that chance to in the state that they take it to a rights for a year.