WIAC To Return To Winter Sports February 1st

By Adam Roberts – 1/19/2021

The Council of Chancellors for the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference have unanimously voted to begin their winter athletics season on February 1st, making them the final group of area schools to return to athletics after the pandemic began.

It’s been a long nearly year without sports for the WIAC, but the schools are ready to go albeit with some obvious stipulations. Spectators will not be allowed at WIAC events during the winter sports season. All contests will be conducted in accordance with National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III regulations, as well as institutional, state and local health and safety guidelines.

The men’s and women’s basketball season will be divided into two divisions; UWL will be in the West Division along with Eau Claire, RIver Falls, and Stout, and will play two games against each divisional opponent and two games against a crossover opponent from the East. Indoor track and field will compete in meets until March 6th with no WIAC Championships, while wrestling will compete in a dual-meet schedule until the 19th. UWL IS still scheduled to host the DIII Wrestling Championship March 12-13. Also Swimming and Diving will compete until March 6th with no championship and women’s gymnastics will dual meet until April 3rd with no championship.

A few of the Eagle schedules can be found here:

NFL Draft Combine To Be Decentralized This Season

By Adam Roberts – 1/19/2021

The NFL Draft combine will not take place in Indianapolis this year, another byproduct of a pandemic-altered sports calendar.

The league informed teams Monday the pre-draft player evaluation will be decentralized for the first time since 1987. Instead, this year, the entire process will be done remotely. All workouts will be done on individual pro days on college campuses where the league will work to ensure uniformity of the workouts. The NFL will also work to determine if team reps can attend the workouts as well.

As for the 2021 NFL Draft, things are still scheduled for April 29th through May 1st in Cleveland, Ohio. The Vikings will pick 14th in the first round while the Packers are still determining their first round spot, which will be between 28th and 32nd.

Onalaska BB New #1 Team in D2 Coaches Poll

By Adam Roberts – 1/19/2021

I think it was 247Sports’s Evan Flood that said on Twitter Onalaska center Gavin McGrath was throwing a block party with the entire Menomonee Falls team invited to play. Coaches across the state must’ve taken notice, not just of McGrath’s exploits at the Midwest Players Classic but also of the play of the Hilltoppers in general.

This week in the newest Wissports.net Coaches Poll, Onalaska is the new top dog in Division Two, even with all of the shuffling caused by division realignment this week. The D2 Top 10 is a loaded list, as well; the Hilltoppers are ranked above the previous #1 in Division 1 Wisconsin Lutheran, who’ve moved down to Division 2 as a result of the mixup. The division also includes a 12-3 Peawaukee team, 13-1 Whitefish Bay, 13-1 Medford, 11-1 Plymouth, and undefeated Wisconsin Dells.

The only other area team ranked after the shuffle is Blair-Taylor, #6 in Division 4 after spending last week at #2 in D5.

Bucks Fall To New-Look Nets 125-123

By Adam Roberts – 1/18/2021

There may or may not have been some extra time the Bucks lost out on late in their loss last night to the Brooklyn Nets, but that didn’t change the fact that the defense gave up too many points to a Nets team that despite Kyrie Irving’s continued absence seems up to the task of living up to lofty expectations.

Kevin Durant and James Harden combined for 64 points, and Joe Harris added 20 including five threes in the 125-123 Nets’ win. Khris Middleton made the go-ahead three with 55 seconds left for the Bucks but missed two in-a-row as Milwaukee fell behind. Giannis Antetokounmpo dropped a double-double in the loss with 34 points and 12 rebounds.

As for that clock situation, there should have been about two additional seconds granted to Milwaukee at the end of the game when Middleton called timeout with 5.8 seconds remaining. Somehow, the officials said the technology available indicated that only 3.8 seconds were left. “The dialogue between the officials and our staff [was] something along the lines of ‘that was the best that they could do’ or something to do with technology” coach Mike Budenholzer commented afterwards. “We’ve looked at it…and it was pretty clear that there was significantly more time.” With less time available, Middleton had to force up a three against a double team that nearly fell at the buzzer, but caromed out and was rebounded by Harden to end the game.

The Bucks dip to 9-and-5 and host the Lakers on Thursday.

Winona State MBB Sweeps Upper Iowa With 92-90 Win; Women Fall to Sioux Falls

By Adam Roberts – 1/18/2021

Head coach Todd Eisner and the Winona State men’s basketball team have had to work hard for every game they’ve been able to play this year, both with trying to duck around COVID trying to cancel so many contests and also by virtue of their games being nail-biting affairs.

On Sunday, after an 81-79 win over the Peacocks of Upper Iowa the night before, it would take a 22 point performance from senior Kevion Taylor for a 92-90 that pushes the Warriors to 2-1 on the abridged season. Also popping off was Caledonia’s Owen King, who went 4-of-5 from three.

The Warrior men are scheduled to face Augustana on the road this Friday evening.

The Warrior women meanwhile were dealt a 73-67 loss by Sioux Falls despite a career-best 30 point from Emma Fee. Fee’s outing ties the best single-game outing in the NSIC, matching St. Cloud State’s Lydia Haack’s 30-point game against Upper Iowa on January 2nd according to the WSU website. The Winona State women get Augustana at home Friday night.

Wisconsin Down One Spot to #10 in AP Poll

By Adam Roberts – 1/18/2021

The gritty Big Ten schedule continued last week for the Wisconsin men, who find themselves one spot lower in this week’s AP poll but still in the Top 10.

The drop one spot from ninth follows a week including a 23 point loss at #7 Michigan followed by a hard-fought 60-54 win at Rutgers highlighted by a strong second half for D’Mitrik Trice.

This week, the Badgers will have their hands full once again; Wednesday they take on a Northwestern team eager to end an absolutely brutal stretch against seven ranked teams with their first win since a 71-70 victory over Ohio State on December 26th. Then on Saturday the Badgers host the 15th ranked Buckeyes who have won three straight after falling to Minnesota.

Packers To Host Fans Again For NFC Championship Game

By Adam Roberts – 1/18/2021

The Packers officially had 8,456 season ticket holders, frontline healthcare workers and first responders in attendance for Saturday’s 32-18 win over the LA Rams. Afterwards, a number of players including both Aaron Rodgers and Davante Adams noted the impact that playing in front of fans had on them, particularly in the second half.  “To run out on the field with fans was unbelievable,” Rodgers said after the win. And with one game under their belt, team president Mark Murphy and Lambeau staff apparently feel comfortable doing it again next weekend.

Per the team, that home-field advantage should once again be a part of the game on Sunday for the NFC Championship Game. Roughly 6,500 tickets will be available for purchase, with information sent to season ticket holders later tomorrow.

As with last weekend, masks will be required of all in attendance and no tailgating will be permitted. You can find more information from the team website here.

Brewers Ink 1-Year Deals with Hader, Woodruff

By Adam Roberts – 1/15/2021

No arbitration necessary for the Brewers and Josh Hader.

Today the team avoided another hearing with the reliever by agreeing to a one-year, 6.65 million dollar deal for 2021. You might remember the NL’s saves leader had to have his 2020 salary decided by an arbitration panel last winter.

In addition, the Crew agreed to a pay raise for starter Brandon Woodruff, from around 633,000 dollars last year to 3.275 million this season. In his Brewer career so far, Woodruff has 47 starts, a 19-11 record, 3.66 ERA, 1.137 WHIP and 313 strikeouts.

WIAA Adjusts BBB and GBB Division Assignments for Postseason

By Adam Roberts – 1/15/2021

A big shakeup is coming in Wisconsin high school basketball this year due largely to the number of teams oping out of the postseason this year or being unwilling to host playoff games against teams from too far away.

Per Wissports.net, the WIAA is moving up a bunch of its schools by a division to make up for 38 boys programs opting out and 37 girls programs. The move will split the five divisions into fairly equal sizes, and will have many programs suddenly preparing to face schools they wouldn’t normally face come postseason time. Wissports says that this change moves a total of 21 currently ranked boys basketball teams up a division, which could completely shake up seeding as well.

Also, all regionals will be split into five- or six-team pods with the higher seeded teams hosting games February 16th through the 20th. After that weekend, the four remaining teams in each division will be re-seeded with the higher seeded squad again hosting at the sectional level on February 25th and 27th.

The breakdown of area teams on the move looks like this:

 

New Division 1 teams

Holmen, La Crosse Central

New Division 2 teams

Black River Falls, West Salem

New Division 3 teams

Aquinas

New Division 4 teams

Bangor, Blair-Taylor

Jared Goff Starting Against Packers

By Adam Roberts – 1/14/2021

In game prepping for this weekend’s NFC Divisional Round game against the Rams, Packers coaches until today needed to prepare for the possibility of three different quarterbacks potentially starting for LA. John Wolford started for the Rams last week in the Wild Card round against Seattle, Jared Goff was considered despite his thumb injury, and Blake Bortles was at least partially rumored to start on Saturday if Goff couldn’t go and the coaching staff wasn’t satisfied with Wolford’s abilities. Well today it seems they’ve made their decision.

LA will be going with its primary starter this weekend after Wolford was taken to the hospital following a blow to the head last week. Goff, who had surgery on his right thumb after a Week 16 loss, replaced Wolford in the wild-card win over the Seahawks and was 9-of-19 for 155 yards. Bortles will be Goff’s back up this weekend.

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