Wisconsin
Wisconsin's slide continues — what it could mean for the postseason
MADISON, Wis. — The Kohl Center crowd was on its feet, roaring with approval while hoping to push Wisconsin’s basketball team over the hump in a critical late-season home game against Illinois on Saturday afternoon. Badgers guard John Blackwell had just tied the score with a 3-pointer from the right wing to help erase a 7-point deficit, a sign that maybe this would be the jump-start the team needed after a dismal February.
But Illinois guard Marcus Domask quickly popped the swelling decibel level before it could rise any higher with yet another acrobatic and backbreaking bucket. He dribbled into the lane on forward Tyler Wahl, crossed over, picked up his dribble, spun to his left shoulder and then stepped through to finish a left-handed layup to give the Illini the lead for good with 5:25 remaining on his way to a game-high 31 points.
No. 13 Illinois held on for a 91-83 victory over Wisconsin that dropped the Badgers to 2-7 over their last nine games. It also continued to make the team’s midseason run — which resulted in the program’s ascending to No. 6 in the country — feel like a distant memory.
There’s no denying that Illinois presented a difficult challenge for Wisconsin from a matchup perspective, forcing the Badgers to play more small ball with a four-guard lineup than it had all season. Foul trouble to Blackwell and center Steven Crowl didn’t help. But the Badgers once again put themselves in a position to win, only to come up short. And that is a problem that must be solved before it’s too late.
“It could go either way,” Wisconsin guard Chucky Hepburn said. “We’re in control of our own destiny. It can go downhill from here or we can only go up from here. …
“If guys want to come and show up and compete, we’re all there for it. So we’re just going to be ready. We’ve shown some growth. They made their runs, and we came back and responded. But it was just that last run we couldn’t respond to. So it’s just a matter of how are we going to finish games out? We’ve got to figure it out very quick or else, like I said last postgame interview, it’s going to be a quick March for us.”
Wisconsin’s slide began with four consecutive losses to Nebraska, Purdue, Michigan and Rutgers, the last of which was a 78-56 drubbing that gave the Scarlet Knights their biggest margin of victory against a ranked team in program history. Wisconsin coach Greg Gard told reporters amid that skid that he had reminded his players they’d performed at a high level for a lot longer than they had been subpar.
But if you’re looking for where the arrow is pointing on this season as March arrives, it’s hard to find the optimism outside the program at this stage. Wisconsin has beaten Ohio State and Maryland but also stacked up losses to Iowa in overtime, Indiana and now Illinois. In that Indiana game, a 74-70 road loss Tuesday, the Badgers went the last 9:01 without securing consecutive defensive stops.
Wisconsin’s adjusted defensive efficiency, which factors in points allowed per 100 possessions adjusted for opponent, is at 100.4 points. That is the worst mark for the program since the KenPom website began tracking the data for the 2002-03 season. The previous worst, 99.1, came during the 2017-18 rebuilding season in which the Badgers finished with a losing record and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 20 years. Wisconsin has individually strong defenders but has struggled as a collective unit to play with the level of execution Badgers fans have grown accustomed to for decades.
As it stands, Wisconsin (18-11, 10-8 Big Ten) still has a strong enough resume with 12 Quad 1 and Quad 2 wins to be an NCAA Tournament team. But the more Wisconsin slides, the more likely the Badgers will find themselves in the kind of toss-up first-round game that makes it difficult to believe this can be a second-weekend team, something that hasn’t happened under Gard in seven years.
“You just keep working away at it,” Gard said. “You keep pointing out the things that we have to get better at, and it varies from individual to individual. So other than continuing to teach and point out things and help guys get better, I thought in terms of the fight we played with, specifically guys that got the major minutes, it was good. I haven’t had to really worry about that. It’s a matter of the margin for error is so slim.”
Emotions were high as tipoff arrived on a day that honored former Wisconsin player and assistant coach Howard Moore, who received a standing ovation before the game as he made his first public appearance at the Kohl Center since a car wreck five years ago that killed his wife and daughter and left him with serious injuries. Several of his Badgers teammates attended, as did Moore’s son, brother and parents. Wahl said the atmosphere helped to spark Wisconsin early. But it couldn’t carry the Badgers to change their February fortunes.
Howard Moore returns to the Kohl Center during an emotional moment before Wisconsin vs. Illinois. pic.twitter.com/2utJnfqdUJ
— Jesse Temple (@jessetemple) March 2, 2024
“It’s not very often you score 91 against Wisconsin, especially in their building,” Illinois coach Brad Underwood said. “But I thought we took advantage of the opportunities we had today.”
Wisconsin has two regular-season games remaining, at home on senior day against Rutgers on Thursday and then at No. 2 Purdue. That means the Badgers, who are tied for fourth in the Big Ten with Nebraska, face the possibility of closing the regular season 3-8 if they should split and missing out on a double-bye opportunity in the conference tournament.
It’s far from the way this season was supposed to go with so many productive returning players and the infusion of new talent like Blackwell and leading scorer AJ Storr. But the opportunities to fix what ails the team are dwindling.
“We play good basketball at times,” Gard said. “But we’re inconsistent. Some of that’s guys that get themselves in foul trouble. It’s contributions off the bench. We can’t lose water or momentum. I always say when guys come off the bench, we can’t go backwards. When you really get in the real trenches of these type of fights, it exposes those, the grit we need to continue to spread and build throughout everybody that steps on the floor.”
(Photo of Tyler Wahl and Marcus Domask: John Fisher / Getty Images)
Residents can attend the July 16 meeting in Sheboygan or submit written comments by email to NOAA.
Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary has 36 shipwrecks
Discover the history, shipwrecks and impact of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, established to protect maritime heritage in Lake Michigan. This video was created by the Wochit AI tool.
Wochit
SHEBOYGAN – Residents can attend or comment on an upcoming meeting of the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council scheduled for July 16 in Sheboygan.
The gathering will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Sheboygan County Museum, 3110 Erie Ave., according to a community announcement. Members of the public are invited to attend and observe discussions.
The agenda includes routine council business, updates from working groups, community reports and briefings from NOAA staff on sanctuary programs, research and upcoming events.
Public can provide comments during meeting
A public comment period is planned for about 7:50 p.m., giving attendees a chance to share feedback directly with council members.
Those unable to attend may submit written comments by email to jean.prevo@noaa.gov, according to the announcement.
Council shares updates on sanctuary programs
NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries will provide updates tied to the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, including research initiatives and community engagement efforts.
More information about the council and its activities is available online at sanctuaries.noaa.gov.
This story was created by reporter Nida Tazeen, NTazeen@usatodayco.com , with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct.
Wisconsin
A Wisconsin family is suing Target after their 10-month-old died from swallowing a water bead
A Wisconsin family lost their ten-month-old daughter after she swallowed a water bead. They blame Target and the water bead manufacturer for her death.
This week, Taylor and Tyler Bethard filed a lawsuit against Target in Hennepin County, claiming that the company failed to warn them and other customers about the dangers of a water beads product that used to be sold exclusively at Target.
Water beads are marketed as toys that come with sensory kits or craft sets, but data shows the products are prone to injuring young children. The polymer material is extremely absorbent, allowing water beads – which are often colorful – to expand around 100 times their original size when they interact with water or liquid. This presents a hazard for kids; the United States Product Safety Commission states that between 2017 and 2022, there were 6,300 water bead-related ingestion injuries that required treatment from emergency departments across the country.
In 2023, a 10-month-old girl died. Her name is Esther “Jo” Bethard. According to court filings, Taylor Bethard found her daughter unresponsive in her crib on the morning of July 7, 2023, after she had suffered symptoms of a stomach illness overnight. Medical examiners told the family that her death was caused by swallowing a single water bead.
The Bethards had purchased a Chuckle and Roar water bead set in the spring of 2022 for Esther Jo’s older siblings, never intending for the infant to interact with the water beads.
Target and the Chuckle and Roar manufacturer, Buffalo Games LLC, mutually agreed to pull the product from the shelves in November of 2022. Court records show an email exchange between Buffalo Games and a product safety employee at Target where the manufacturer noted that while their water beads had met safety standards at the time, they wanted to “avoid any future unintended misuse of the product.”
That conversation was prompted after Buffalo Games was informed that an infant required surgery after ingesting a water bead from the Ultimate Water Beads kit. Target agreed to end sales, indicating that this would be classified as a “safety removal.”
The Bethard’s lawsuit alleges that Target clearly knew how dangerous these water beads could be, but failed to warn them or other customers. Target stopped selling the product about eight months before Esther Jo died. Daniel Mann, a personal injury attorney representing the Bethards in this case, said that Esther Jo would still be alive if Target had acted.
“With all this information Target didn’t do anything to reach out to the family or other consumers to let them know about this problem,” Mann said, “I think 10/10 people would say Target had a responsibility to do more than what they did, which was nothing.”
A spokesperson for Target said that they would not comment on ongoing litigation, but the company had already responded to an identical complaint filed by the Bethards in the State of New York. In 2025, the Bethards sued both Target and Buffalo Games in Erie County, N.Y., because that was where the manufacturer was based. In response to the lawsuit there, court filings show that Target denied the allegations that they knew of an extraordinary danger posed by the water beads and failed to notify customers.
The complaint was dismissed against Target in New York, Mann explained, due to jurisdiction. This lead to them refiling in Hennepin County this week.
In a statement to WCCO on the new legal action, a Target spokesperson said “We extend our deepest sympathies to those affected by this tragedy, and we worked closely with the manufacturer of the product at the time the incident occurred.”
Taylor Bethard, Esther Jo’s mother, has lead the charge to ban water beads entirely. Her efforts lead to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commision recalling the more than 52,000 Chuckle and Roar Ultimate Water Beads Activity Kits that were in circulation. The recall took effect in September of 2023. Target, Walmart and Amazon announced that they would stop marketing water beads to children.
Bethard is also working with Wisconsin U.S. State Senator Tammy Baldwin to establish federal legislation to permanently outlaw all water beads. This past spring, the CPSC established new legal guidelines that restrict the size of water beads to try to ensure high safety standards.
(WLUK) — Wisconsin State Patrol troopers are teaming up with truckers to better spot dangerous driving behaviors.
The annual Trooper in a Truck initiative kicks off next week in Wisconsin.
Troopers will ride along with with semitruck and bus drivers to use the higher vantage point to spot dangerous driving behaviors, especially near commercial motor vehicles.
Troopers will be looking for risky driving behaviors, including distracted driving, speeding, following too closely and seatbelt violations. When an officer identifies a violation from the truck or bus, they will radio to patrol cars in the area for appropriate enforcement action.
Drivers can expect to see Trooper in a Truck enforcement in the following areas:
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