Wisconsin
Preview: No.18 Wisconsin Looks for LA Sweep When It Takes On UCLA
Preview: No.18 Wisconsin Looks for LA Sweep When It Takes On UCLA
No.18 Wisconsin (15-3, 5-2 Big Ten) vs. UCLA (12-6, 3-4 Big Ten)
Date/Time – Tuesday, January 21, 8:30 p.m.
Arena – Pawley Pavilion (13,800)
Watch – Peacock (Ted Robinson and Darren Collison)
Radio – Badgers Radio Network (Matt Lepay and Brian Butch), Sirius 106 or 195, stream online on iHeartRadio.
Series – UCLA leads 5-2 (UCLA leads 2-1 in Los Angeles)
Last Meeting – UCLA won, 72-70, on November 21, 2017, in Kansas City, Mo.
Follow Online: The Badgers’ Den
Twitter: @Badger_Blitz
Betting line: UCLA -3.5
Projected Starting Five (Wisconsin)
Player to Watch: During UW’s seven-game win streak, Crowl is averaging 15.2 ppg & 6.0 rpg while shooting 71.4 percent (7-15 3FGs).
Projected Starting Five (UCLA)
Player to watch: Bilodeau has scored in double figures in 13 of 18 games, having reached the 20-point plateau in three contests. Last month in New York City, he totaled a career-high-tying 26 points in a loss to North Carolina. He is shooting 50.5 percent from the field and 38.8 percent from 3-point distance.
Series Notes
Tuesday will mark the eighth meeting between Wisconsin and UCLA in a series that dates back to 1948, but this will be the first meeting since the Bruins joined the Big Ten.
The Bruins have won the last 5 meetings including neutral wins in the 1995 Maui Invitational and the 2017 Hall of Fame Classic most recently.
UW and UCLA haven’t played at either school’s home site since a 94-53 UCLA win in Los Angeles in 1972.
UW has won 6 straight in Los Angeles, including Saturday’s 84-69 win at USC.
Wisconsin Notes
The Badgers have matched their best 18-game start under Greg Gard, also doing so in the Sweet 16 2016-17 season and UW’s 2021-22 Big Ten championship season.
A win at UCLA would be Wisconsin’s sixth-consecutive Big Ten win, the longest conference win streak since ending the 2019-20 season with eight straight Big Ten wins.
The Badgers are 8-3 against the top 2 quadrants of the NET rankings, including 3 Quad 1 wins and zero losses outside of Quad 1.
Wisconsin is 5-2 away from home.
Including a Kohl-Center record 116 points vs. Iowa (1/3) and the 84 points Saturday at USC, Wisconsin had hit at least 80 points in 11 of 18 games, the team’s most since the 2014-15 season (11 times).
UCLA Notes
The Bruins have gone 8-1 in Pauley Pavilion this season, now in their 59th campaign playing in the longtime UCLA basketball venue.
UCLA has gone 1-4 in January after compiling a 5-1 record through December.
UCLA ranks No. 6 in the nation in turnovers forced per game (17.0) and eighth in turnover margin (+5.1).
The Bruins rank No. 19 in the nation in scoring defense (63.7 ppg), limiting the opposition to 65 points or fewer in eight of 18 games this season.
A Pac-12 All-Defensive team honoree the last two seasons at USC, Johnson has totaled 190 steals in 109 career games (1.74 spg) since traveling this season. The Milwaukee native enters tonight with a team-best 34 steals (Skyy Clark has totaled 23), having registered 1.9 steals per game in 18 contests as a senior
Prediction
USC coach Eric Musselman is new to the Big Ten and new to playing Wisconsin, but he perfectly encapsulated why this version of the Badgers is giving teams headaches.
“It’s really hard to rotate when you have all red shooters out there,” Musselman lamented. “When they go in the first 7 of 15 (from three), you have to stay attached to the shooters … It’s the first team we’ve played, including Iowa, that we felt had five guys who can all make a three whether they had their starters in or their subs. So you give and take something. You can’t take away the three and the dribble drive unless you are a great defensive team in the NBA. You got to decide what you’re going to do.”
“When you come into a game, you do have to game plan for their leading scorer. Well, he has zero points. I can’t plug 99 holes in a 40-minute game. I’d love to, but I’m not that smart.”
Tonje was held scoreless for the first time in his Wisconsin career, but the Badgers were leading by 15 points at halftime and calmly rebuilt that lead after the Trojans made things interesting in cutting the deficit to three. Blackwell had 28, Klesmit had 18, UW’s starting frontcourt combined for 22 on 9-for-11 shooting, and the bench contributed 17 points and seven assists. Without Tonje’s 18.2 ppg, the Badgers averaged 1.254 points per possession.
“It shows leadership,” Blackwell said. “When Tonje is not scoring, the next man up steps up.”
The Bruins are offensively comparable to the Trojans. Both are separated by 1.23 points in scoring average and 0.4 points in adjusted offensive efficiency, but the Bruins are far superior defensively. UCLA has the top-scoring defense in the conference at 63.72 points per game and is ranked 12th nationally in adjusted defensive efficiency. Despite ranking ninth in the league in field goal defense and 12th in three-point defense, the Bruins play a slower tempo (260th nationally) to limit possessions. The Bruins held Iowa on Friday to 70 points (the second-fewest of the season for the league’s top-scoring team), only 1.148 points per possession, and 38.1 shooting percentage in the first half, leading to a 33-point halftime edge.
UCLA coach Mick Cronin has made headlines recently with his comments railing against the conference’s scheduling and the challenges his team is having with traveling to road games and unbalanced days off. But Cronin was blunt with his team entering the Iowa game, saying that they haven’t adequately adjusted to the play in the league compared to the old Pac-12.
“We have struggled in Big Ten basketball,” Cronin said. “Our two wins were against teams we were familiar playing against (Oregon and Washington). The truth of it is, Big Ten basketball is different. It’s a much more physical game.”
UCLA has struggled to defend without fouling (295th nationally in fouls per game (18.5)), isn’t great at rebounding, (averaging a league-worst 22.11 per game), and has struggled guarding pick-and-roll actions
This game sets up well for Wisconsin defensively and should allow the Badgers to expose some things offensively. And considering Tonje is too good of a player to get shutout in consecutive games, the Badgers have a great chance to complete the LA sweep.
Worgull’s Prediction: Wisconsin by seven
Record: 15-3 (13-5 ATS)
Points off Prediction: 149 (8.3 per game)
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Two attorneys and an aide who all worked on President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign appeared in court Monday for a preliminary hearing in Wisconsin on felony forgery charges related to a fake elector scheme.
The Wisconsin case is moving forward even as others in the battleground states of Michigan and Georgia have faltered. A special prosecutor last year dropped a federal case alleging Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election. Another case in Nevada is still alive.
The Wisconsin case was filed a year ago but has been tied up as the Trump aides have fought, unsuccessfully so far, to have the charges dismissed.
The hearing on Monday comes a week after Trump attorney Jim Troupis, one of the three who were charged, tried unsuccessfully to get the judge to step down in the case and have it moved to another county. Troupis, who the other two defendants joined in his motion, alleged that the judge did not write a previous order issued in August declining to dismiss the case. Instead, he accused the father of the judge’s law clerk, a retired judge, of actually writing the opinion.
Troupis, who served one year as a judge in the same county where he was charged, also alleged that all of the judges in Dane County are biased against him and he can’t get a fair trial.
Dane County Circuit Judge John Hyland said he and a staff attorney alone wrote the order. Hyland also said Troupis presented no evidence to back up his claims of bias and refused to step down or delay the hearing.
Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the allegations.
The same judge will determine at Monday’s hearing whether there’s enough evidence to proceed with the charges against the three.
The former Trump aides face 11 felony charges each related to their roles in the 2020 fake elector scheme. In addition to Troupis, the other defendants are Kenneth Chesebro, an attorney who advised Trump’s campaign, and Mike Roman, Trump’s director of Election Day operations in 2020.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice, headed by Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul, brought the felony forgery charges in 2024, alleging that the three defrauded the 10 Republican electors who cast their ballots for Trump in 2020.
Prosecutors contend the three lied to the Republicans about how the certificate they signed would be used as part of a plan to submit paperwork to then-Vice President Mike Pence, falsely claiming that Trump had won the battleground state that year.
The complaint said a majority of the 10 Republicans told investigators that they were needed to sign the elector certificate indicating Trump had won only to preserve his legal options if a court changed the outcome of the election in Wisconsin.
A majority of the electors told investigators that they did not believe their signatures on the elector certificate would be submitted to Congress without a court ruling, the complaint said. Also, a majority said they did not consent to having their signatures presented as if Trump had won without such a court ruling, the complaint said.
Federal prosecutors who investigated Trump’s conduct related to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot said the fake electors scheme originated in Wisconsin.
The Trump associates have argued that no crime took place. But the judge in August rejected their arguments in allowing the case to proceed to Monday’s preliminary hearing.
Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020 but fought to have the defeat overturned. He won the state in both 2016 and 2024.
The state charges against the Trump attorneys and aide are the only ones in Wisconsin. None of the electors have been charged. The 10 Wisconsin electors, Chesebro and Troupis all settled a lawsuit that was brought against them seeking damages.
___
This story has been corrected to show that the attorneys who are charged formerly worked on Trump’s campaign, but are still practicing attorneys.
The Wisconsin Badgers are facing off against the Texas Longhorns in the Elite 8 on Sunday evening, looking to make their way back to the Final Four in Kansas City next week.
Wisconsin pulled off an impressive win over the No. 2 Stanford Cardinal on Friday, as it out-hit the latter in a thriller behind strong efforts from Mimi Colyer (27 kills) and Charlie Fuerbringer (61 assists).
Now, they’re facing a team that they were swept by earlier in the season, as the Longhorns thrived off Badger errors during their first matchup.
Texas has cruised through its competition so far in the NCAA Tournament, beating Florida A&M, Penn State, and Indiana en route to the Elite 8.
If Wisconsin can win, it would face the No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats on Thursday in the Final Four, with the No. 3 Texas A&M Aggies and No. 1 Pittsburgh Panthers being the other two teams still left in the field.
Can the Badgers get a huge upset and break the Texas streak of wins on Sunday? Join us as our game thread is officially active.
Data centers proposed in our area pose multiple threats to our water, wildlife, and wallets. We all can take action by asking our senators and representatives to back SB729.
Fly over the Microsoft data center construction site in Mount Pleasant
Take a flight around the Microsoft Corp. data center campus construction site in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin as construction continues.
The data centers proposed in our area in Mount Pleasant, Port Washington, and Beaver Dam pose multiple threats to our water, wildlife, and wallets. The centers will require vast amounts of water to cool their equipment. Plus, 70% of the water consumed each year in Wisconsin goes to electric power generation, so the water needed for energy production adds to the millions of gallons these centers will need on peak days.
The massive energy infrastructure required to build and operate the data centers is expensive and threatens to burden customers for years with the huge costs. Also, at a time when the impacts of climate change make it clear that we should be transitioning to clean renewable energy sources, utility companies are using data centers as justification for building new fossil gas power plants, thereby keeping us from achieving the zero emissions future that we so desperately need.
Take action by backing Data Center Accountability Act
The Data Center Accountability Act, bill SB729, was introduced recently in the Wisconsin legislature. If passed, the bill would stipulate that:
- Data center must meet labor standards and use at least 70% renewable energy.
- All data centers must be LEED certified or the equivalent.
- Data center owners must pay an annual fee that funds renewable energy, energy efficiency, and a low-income energy assistance program.
We all can take action to prevent the worst impacts from data centers by asking our senators and representatives to vote for SB729. To find your legislators go to https://myvote.wi.gov/en-us/My-Elected-Officials.
Jenny Abel, Wauwatosa
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