Afternoon State Sports Briefs: UW football hires new OC

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MADISON - University of Wisconsin football coach Bret Bielema named Matt Canada of Northern Illinois this afternoon as the Badgers’ new offensive coordinator.

Bielema said Canada has a quote, “terrific history” and he has excelled at developing quarterbacks during his career. Canada led a Northern Illinois offense that was among the Top-12 in the country this past season in total offense, rushing offense, and scoring. And the Huskies joined the Badgers as among the five Bowl Championship Subdivision schools to average 230 yards in both rushing and passing. Canada worked for former Badgers’ defensive coordinator Dave Doeren at Northern Illinois. In Madison, Canada will replace Paul Chryst – who’s now the head coach at Pitt.

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The Milwaukee Bucks will try to go 5-0 at home for the first time since 2007 when they host Denver tonight. George Karl's Nuggets have won three straight over the Bucks, including a 91-86 victory in the Mile High City on January second. Milwaukee is 0-8 on the road this season, and is 4-8 overall. Denver is 8-5, after a 10-point home loss to Utah on Sunday that followed a 13-point home upset of Miami last Friday night. Brandon Jennings, the Bucks' leading scorer, averages 22 points a game at home but only 15-point-six on the road. Jennings shoots 54-percent at home but just 38-and-a-half percent away from the Bradley Center. Danilo Gallinari and Nene each scored 18 points against the Jazz on Sunday. Gallinari is averaging 20-and-a-half points in his last six games, including a 21-point 10-rebound performance against the Bucks 15 days ago.

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The Marquette University women's basketball team will go for its fourth straight Big East victory tonight, when it hosts Georgetown. The Golden Eagles are coming off their first conference road win, an eight-point decision at Saint John's on Sunday. Sophomore Katherine Plouffe was named to the weekly Big East Honor Roll after she averaged 17 points and 11 rebounds in a pair of Marquette wins over Saint John's and Villanova. The Eagles are 3-2 in the conference and 11-6 overall. They'll play a Georgetown squad that's ranked 19th by the AP with an overall mark of 14-4. They're also 3-2 in Big East play. All-conference pre-season pick Sugar Rodgers leads Georgetown with just under 20-points a game.

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Edgewood and Concordia-Mequon will both try to hang onto their shares of first-place tonight in the men's North Division of the Northern Athletics Conference. Both teams are 7-1 in league play. Edgewood hosts Maranatha Baptist, which is 0-5. The Concordia Falcons play in Sheboygan against Lakeland College, which is a half-game back at 5-1. Also, South Division leader Milwaukee School of Engineering plays at Rockford. Milwaukee Engineering is 5-2, a half-game up on Aurora. Also tonight, the Carthage men play at 22nd-ranked Wheaton. And the only women's small college game has Mount Mary hosting Moody Bible College in Milwaukee.

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Sierra Townsend of UW-Milwaukee has been named the Horizon League's female swimmer-of-the-week. Townsend, a freshman from Sturgeon Bay, won all three of her events in a dual meet against Carthage -- the 50-and-100 freestyles, and the 400-medley relay. Meanwhile, Aaron Dillon of UWM was named the Horizon male field athlete-of-the-week. The freshman from Milwaukee won the triple jump with a leap of 47-feet, seven-and-three-quarter inches. That was fifth-longest in Milwaukee history. Also, Moriah Myles of the Panthers won the women's field athlete award for the week. The junior won the shot put at the Carthage Invitational.

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University of Wisconsin goal-tender Joel Rumpel was named the WCHA’s co-rookie of the week. He shares the honor with Ty Loney of Denver. Rumpel earned his first collegiate shutout last Friday night in a 4-0 Badger victory at Minnesota State-Mankato. And then Rumpel stopped 29-of-31 shots in a 3-0 Wisconsin loss to the Mavericks on Saturday night. Rumpel is now 7-5-2 in his freshman year with a .915 save percentage and a two-point-six-six goals-against average.

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Breann Maryanski of Carroll University in Waukesha is the women's basketball player-of-the-week in the Midwest Conference. Maryanski, a freshman center, averaged almost 11 points and 13 rebounds in three Carroll victories last week over Lawrence, Monmouth, and Grinnell. She had 16 boards againt Grinnell. Monmouth guard Kenny Foster was named the top men's player.

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