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Bucks Announce Partnership With T’Wolves, Heat, Nets, and MN Lynx For Wright Family Auction

By Adam Roberts – 4/16/2021

Today, the Milwaukee Bucks have announced a partnership with four other pro sports teams to hold an auction for the family of Daunte Wright, the 20-year-old killed by a Brooklyn Center, Minnesota police officer on Sunday.

The partnership is between the Bucks, Timberwolves, Heat, Nets, and the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA. Per the T’wolves website: “Today the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx, Brooklyn Nets, Milwaukee Bucks, and Miami Heat will auction off signed, player-issued shirts to benefit The Daunte Wright Memorial Fund, which has been designated as the official fund to support the Wright family.

Fans will have the opportunity to bid on the “WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL” warm-up shirts from this week’s games played at Target Center in Minneapolis.”

Bidding begins today and is open at www.timberwolves.com/auction

Former Wisconsin AD Barry Alvarez Weighs In On Transfer Portal; NIL Rules

By Adam Roberts – 4/16/2021

Notre Dame head football coach Brian Kelly was on #Greeny this morning on ESPN La Crosse 105.5, and the two spent a good deal of time discussing the changes coming to college sports. Most of the discourse was over whether or not it’s avoiding a potentially challenging situation by transferring out of a university for a different opportunity, as is now allowed with the transfer portal allowing for athletes in all sports to transfer one time before graduating without having to sit out a year.

What outgoing Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez is concerned with most is not the transfer portal, which he believes is a fine option for players, but with the potential for athletes to be taken advantage of by lessened restrictions on players capitalizing on name, image, and likeness. “It’s using NIL to recruit, and the school’s doing it and using it as enticement” Alvarez said on his monthly Badger Sports Network/Learfield IMG College radio show. “I think there’s gonna be rules that you have to be an enrolled student and maybe you have played a year before you can capitalize on this, but it can be workable”.

Referring back to the changes coming to the transfer portal, which now has over 3,000 football and basketball athletes within it: “It’s a coaches responsibility to build rapport with a student athlete [so] that [they] want to please the coach, [they] want to play hard for that coach, and if they’re not happy they should have a right to leave. I put that on the coach.”

The newest edition to Wisconsin men’s basketball comes via the transfer portal; Jahcobi Neath is a three-star Canadian prospect who just completed his sophomore season at Wake Forest. The 6’3″ 200 pounder saw his floor time dip from year one to two at Wake along with shot percentages.

Hank Aaron To Replace Confederate General’s Name On Atlanta School

Hank Aaron To Replace Confederate General’s Name On Atlanta SchooBy Adam Roberts – 4/15/2021

Former Milwaukee/Atlanta Brave and Milwaukee Brewer Hank Aaron’s name will replace a confederate general’s name at an Atlanta high school. The city’s school board voted unanimously to name the school after the baseball great over Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was also a leader of the Ku Klux Klan. The Forest Hill Academy will be renamed the Hank Aaron New Beginnings Academy.

Four other schools that honored historic figures who held racist views have been renamed in Atlanta in the last few months.

Aaron passed away from natural causes back in January.

2022 Midwest Players Classic Lineup Updated

By Adam Roberts – 4/15/2021

We already knew that the Midwest Players Classic was getting a big buff for 2022, expanding to a two-day schedule at the renovated La Crosse Center. Now we know the full schedule for the 2021 event, and it includes the MPC’s first foray into Nebraska!

Both days will begin with the hosts from Aquinas, as the boys take on Black River Falls Friday evening and the defending state runners-up ladies challenging Minnehaha Academy. Two boy’s programs will play each of the two days, with Minnehaha and Caledonia facing off Friday and then playing different schools the next day. The event wraps up Saturday evening with La Crescent and West Salem doing battle. Four schools will be making the MPC debut next year: Bradley Tech, Omaha Burke, Eau Claire Memorial, and Council Bluffs Abraham Lincoln.

Check out the full schedule here.

Corbin Burnes Is A Unit

By Adam Roberts – 4/15/2021

While at home recovering from my second COVID shot yesterday, I hopped on Twitter for a little bit to follow along with the Brewers-Cubs series finale for a bit, mostly because I, like many of us, can not get the Brewers on my tv thanks to the lovely television situation keeping the team off many of our screens. But I wanted to follow this game in particular, since I have joined the chorus of Brewer fans and analysts hoping for a Cy Young-season out of pitcher Corbin Burnes. So far, he has absolutely delivered.

Yesterday, Burnes was once again dominant, striking out 10 while yielding just two hits over six innings of work, during which he also drove in a couple of runs in the sixth in the team’s 7-0 win. So far in 2021, Burnes is arguably the hottest pitcher in baseball (18 1/3 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 30 K). With regard to those final two numbers, Burnes is now just the fourth pitcher in league history to start a season with at least 30 strikeouts and no walks (#1 is Kenley Jansen, who back in 2017 struck out 51 pitchers before his first walk).

Other than the debate over replay, Burnes and his rise is the talk of baseball in our neck of the woods. ESPN did a great write up on Burnes you can read here, and in it they discuss Burnes’ transition from a four-seam fastball to the cutter. Many people associate that pitch with former Yankees’ closer Mariano Rivera, and it could easily become the dominant pitch in Burnes’ arsenal to compliment his five other offerings.

Milwaukee is off today before beginning a three-gamer against Pittsburgh tomorrow at American Family Field. In injury news, outfielder Lorenzo Cain is on the 10-day IL with a left quad strain and Christian Yelich remains out with a sore back.

NFL Pushing For Team Employee COVID Vaccinations

By Adam Roberts – 4/13/2021

The NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero is reporting that the NFL is making a strong push to get team employees vaccinated against COVID-19 while not going so far as to directly mandate them.

In a memo released today, the league said that “any team employee who refuses a COVID-19 vaccination without “bona fide medical or religious ground” will be barred from Tier 1 or Tier 2 status, and thus have restricted access within the team facility and not work directly with players, per sources.” The memo also says that teams must report their number of vaccinated employees weekly as the league and players’ association continue to figure out when teams can relax their COVID protocols.

This comes the same day that the Denver Broncos became the first team in the league to protest in-person team activities, which the players’ association has encouraged teams to boycott.

You can read the full memo here.

UWL Football Releases 2021 Schedule

By Adam Roberts – 4/13/2021

The NFL Draft is just over two weeks away, which is excellent news for those who can’t turn off the football switch in their brain after the Super Bowl. Similarly, many people around here can’t wait for UWL football to return to Roger Harring Stadium. The feeling is amplified this year with last year’s season getting cancelled. Today we know where Matt Janus and the 2021 Eagles will play each of their 10 scheduled games.

The season begins on Saturday, September 4th when the Eagles visit Dakota State in the first all-time meeting between the two schools. The home opener follows on the 11th against Dubuque; while the Spartans lead the all-time series five game to four, the Eagles won the most recent meeting back in 2014 24-8. The nonconference slate concludes on September 18th at Grand Valley State in Michigan; the Lakers were NCAA Division 2 champions four times over a five year window from 2002 to 2006, and have won the only other meeting against UWL, a 24-14 win in the 1978 NAIA Playoffs.

The WIAC games begin following a bye week Oktoberfest weekend, with UWL up in River Falls October 2nd. Recall the 2019 meeting, which featured 112 combined points in a 63-49 Falcons win. October 9th the Eagles are home against Oshkosh, the 2019 D3 runners up. The Pioneers of Platteville are next on the docket October 16th before Homecoming on the 23rd against Stout. Then its back on the road to face Stevens Point and Whitewater October 30th and November 6th respectively, before the season wraps up at home against Eau Claire. UWL leads that all-time series 56-28-2 and dominated in 2019 42-7.

UWL will return seven All-WIAC players in 2021, including possibly the best punter in the conference in Sean Parker and workhorses such as running back Joey Stutzman, linebacker Rusty Murphy, and wideout Jake Simuncak.

Check out the full schedule below:

9/4 @ Dakota State
9/11 vs University of Dubuque
9/18 @ Grand Valley State
10/2 @ River Falls
10/9 vs Oshkosh
10/16 @ Platteville
10/23 vs Stout
10/30 @ Stevens Point
11/6 @ Whitewater
11/13 vs Eau Claire

Twins-Red Sox Postponed Following Deadly Police Shooting

By Adam Roberts – 4/12/2021

The Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox won’t be playing baseball today following a deadly police shooting just outside Minneapolis.

The Twins released a statement saying “it is in the best interests” of many including players and fans to postpone the game. The team says the league was consulted in the decision making process. The Twins also expressed their condolences to Daunte Wright’s family; Wright was shot and killed by police yesterday following a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center. The police chief said he believes an accidental discharge led to the shooting.

Protests took place in the Minneapolis suburb yesterday evening, a metro area which dealt with massive protests and riots in the wake of the George Floyd shooting last May. We’ll keep an eye on if the situation impacts the scheduled Bucks-Timberwolves game on Wednesday.

Caledonia, La Crescent BBB Post Six All-Conference Athletes

By Adam Roberts – 4/12/2021

While the season didn’t end the way Caledonia boy’s basketball would have liked Saturday in the Twin Cities, they had a heck of a run to the AA title game where they very nearly brought down the top-ranked team in Minnesota. On top of just making it to that point, they did so without the services of Eli King, lost to injury earlier this season.

The Warriors did lead the Three Rivers Conference in All-Conference athletes, with Sam Privet, Andrew Kunelius, Austin Klug, and Jackson Koepke making the list. The La Crescent-Hokah boys had some representation as well, with the Lancers’ Parker McQuin and Carter Todd receiving honors.

Viterbo W. Volleyball Wins NSAA Tournament; Will Face Madonna (Mich.) In NAIA Tournament

By Adam Roberts – 4/12/2021

The 20th-ranked Viterbo women’s volleyball team needed five sets to do it, but with their 3-2 comeback victory Saturday over #17 Bellevue, they secured a NSAA Tournament championship.

That’s now seven NSAA Tournament titles in a row for the V-Hawks, who were led by senior Maya Roberts with 19 kills and Winona freshman Grace Rohde with 13. Holmen sophomore Kenzie Winker added nine kills while Caledonia junior Adrianna Renhart contributed 20 digs for Viterbo.

WIth their automatic berth, the V-Hawks were granted a home game to start the NAIA Tournament, and they will host Madonna (Mich) in the opening round. The tournament begins this Saturday.