B5Q Blogopean Union: on Tuesdays we wear white

Plus: spinach artichoke dip rankings; UW wrestling gets a new state champion commitment; and Wisconsin swimmer Jake Newmark wins the 500 free.

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).

• The Wisconsin state wrestling tournament concluded on Sunday and local lad, Nicolar Rivera of Stoughton, held up a Badgers wrestling t-shirt to commit to Chris Bono after winning his third state title.

• Mark Johnson’s Badgers now have the Minnesota Ms. Hockey winner in their recruiting class as Vivian Jungels of Edina, Minn. won the award this weekend.

• Important basketball advanced analytics from the State Journal’s Abby Schnable.

• Our friends at Area Red, the official Wisconsin student section group, mentioned to us last week that they were planning a White Out for the Purdue game on Tuesday. They told us that it was just for the student section but that others were encouraged to wear white too. Well, after winning at Rutgers on Saturday the men’s basketball team decided to make the Purdue game an official all-arena White Out. The Kohl Center men’s basketball crowd gets a bad rap, but I know they can get loud, like game-changingly loud, for big games. And, quite frankly, there hasn’t been a much bigger home game for the Badgers in years so……let’s make Purdue’s life hell for two hours on Tuesday night.

• Wisconsin Badgers defender Aidan McConnell scored in the first match of the Concacaf Women’s U-20 Championship for the U.S. Under-20 Women’s Youth National Team.

• Look at that defense in the second picture! Perfection! Halle Douglass with the verticality and Brooke Schramek with the block. It doesn’t get any better.

• After the women’s swimming and diving team finished in fourth at the Big Ten Championships last weekend, the men were up this weekend and…also finished in fourth! Jake Newmark won the 500 free, the first time a Badger has done that in seven years.

• The indoor track and field Big Ten Championships were also this past weekend and both the men’s and women’s teams took fifth in the conference. Distance star Olin Hacker won the 5000 meter with a time of 13:55.39 and he also won the 3000 meter with Badgers finishing second AND third too. The Badgers also dominated the women’s throw event, placing first and second in the event.

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• Minnesota men’s hockey wins the Big Ten title. Minnesota women’s indoor track and field also won their second straight Big Ten title.
• Xavier Johnson has a bounce back game and leads IUBB to a win over Maryland.
• Michigan State men’s hockey snaps a 13-game losing streak over the weekend!
• Iowa women’s hoops wins the Big Ten title…but shares it with Ohio State. The Buckeyes get the tiebreaker and are the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten Tournament.
• Caleb McConnell of Rutgers seems to have figured out a strategy for defending Johnny Davis.
• Purdue women’s basketball loses to Wisconsin again.

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Men’s basketball results from over the weekend

Northwestern 60 – Penn State 67
No. 25 Iowa 88 – Nebraska 78
No. 4 Purdue 65 – Michigan State 68
No. 15 Illinois 93 – Michigan 85
No. 22 Ohio State 60 – Maryland 75
Indiana 84 – Minnesota 79
Nebraska 93 – Penn State 70

Women’s basketball results from over the weekend

No. 10 Indiana 64 – No. 13 Maryland 67
Minnesota 94 – Penn State 83
No. 17 Ohio State 61 – Michigan State 55
Rutgers 66 – Illinois 56
No. 6 Michigan 80 – No. 21 Iowa 104
Northwestern 59 – Nebraska 73