Long Time Between All-Senior Starting Fives At Wisconsin

 Recently noted that this year's Wisconsin Badger men's basketball team is regularly starting five seniors and wondered when the last time that happened in program history -- not counting, of course, senior night games.

Well, you need to go back to the 2000-2001 season for it, when seniors Mike Kelley, Roy Boone, Maurice Linton, Andy Kowske and Mark Vershaw. That was Dick Bennett's sixth season with the Badgers, and he left after the third game due to burnout, saying he "simply was drained."

Brad Soderberg coached the final 26 games and the club (which included sophomore Kirk Penney from New Zealand, along with freshmen Freddie Owens and Mike Wilkinson) finished 18-11 on the season, 9-7 in the Big Ten; qualified for the tournament but fell to Georgia State, 50-49, in the opening round.

Bo Ryan got the head coaching job the next season and, well, the rest is history. A very successful history from Bo to Greg Gard. Let's face it, Badger fans, we're pretty spoiled!

The Detroit Lions dropped the axe on Coach Matt Patricia right after the team was embarrassed yet again in a Thanksgiving Day game. Also hitting the unemployment line was General Manager Bob Quinn. This franchise hasn't been all that relevant in years.

Last time Detroit won an NFL Championship? Go back to 1957, when they knocked off San Francisco in the Western Conference playoff (31-27) and then mauled the Cleveland Browns, 59-14, for the title. Since then? Nada. Zip. Zilch. In fact, only one playoff victory, and that came in 1992.

I was a bit surprised Detroit pulled the plug before the end of the season, but at least it gives Wisconsin Badger alum Darrell Bevell his first shot as a head coach, even if "interim" is part of the title.

So, The Ohio State Buckeyes had another Big Ten football game cancelled due to Covid-19, their second. Three strikes and they won't have enough games to qualify for the Big Ten title.

Or not.

Seems the Big Ten has a new proposal in mind, something about the average of games played, the full moon and maybe UFOs? No, seriously, they have a plan in place to adjust from the original -- one that will, no doubt, assure Ohio State of a place in the Title tilt.