Wisconsin football’s Luke’s Fickell shares his message for team, fans
The Badgers football coach spoke to reporters following the team’s 24-7 loss to Minnesota Saturday at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison.
The year 2024 wasn’t necessarily a banner one for Wisconsin sports fans. Which of these will most stick with you in 2025 and beyond? What’s the biggest disappointment in 2024?
Vote for your pick below.
Luke Fickell and the Wisconsin Badgers football team
Year 2 of the Luke Fickell Era was supposed to push the program a step forward from the 2023-24 team that barely qualified for a bowl game.
Instead, against a tougher schedule and after the loss of starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke, the Wisconsin Badgers took a step backward, finishing 5-7 and missing a bowl game for the first time since 2001.
Fickell fired offensive coordinator Phil Longo, but with another brutal schedule ahead and no clear-cut top option at quarterback, the 2024-25 season looks bleak.
Giannis gets hurt and the Bucks stumble in the playoffs
A late-season calf injury to Giannis Antetokounmpo kept the Milwaukee Bucks star from the playoffs, and Milwaukee was dismissed in six games by the Indiana Pacers in the first round, a second consecutive first-round playoff loss.
Damian Lillard also missed two games in the series and was limited when he played. Though Khris Middleton did what he could, a strange season (featuring a mid-season coaching switch from Adrian Griffin to Doc Rivers) ended in disappointment.
Mets stun the Brewers in the playoffs
A fielding miscue opened the door for a New York Mets win in Game 1 of the National League wild-card series, and after a thrilling rally in Game 2, the Milwaukee Brewers lost Game 3 in the biggest gut-punch imaginable.
With one out in the ninth, Pete Alonso’s three-run homer turned a 2-0 lead to a 3-2 deficit, and the Mets went on to win, 4-2, on their way to the NLCS.
The Brewers haven’t advanced out of the first playoff round since 2018.
Packers drop a heartbreaker to 49ers
The 2023 Green Bay Packers season finished as a success, but there’s the pain of wondering what else could have been.
In the divisional round of the playoffs, Green Bay had a 21-17 lead on San Francisco until the final 2 minutes, when Christian McCaffrey scored a go-ahead touchdown with 1:07 remaining in the 24-21 loss.
Wisconsin, Marquette lose to double-digit seeds in NCAA Tournament
Marquette has to get credit for reaching the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2013, registering an 81-77 victory over Colorado in the second round. But upstart 11th seed NC State, a team that only made the tournament thanks to five wins in five days to claim the ACC Tournament, dispatched second-seeded Marquette at that point, 67-58, en route to a Final Four berth.
Wisconsin had it much worse, garnering a No. 5 seed and losing pretty convincingly in the opening round to 12th-seeded James Madison, 72-61; JMU lost by 38 points in the next game against Duke.
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