Evening State Sports Briefs: Golden State interested in trade for Bucks' Bogut

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MILWAUKEE - There’s a report that the Golden State Warriors are interested in trading for Bucks’ center Andrew Bogut. The Contra-Costa Times says a deal could be made by Thursday’s NBA trade deadline.

Bogut might not return this season after he broke his left ankle against Houston on January 25th. The seven-foot center was Milwaukee’s top draft choice in 2005, and he later signed a five-year contract extension in which he’s owed $27-million over the next two years. There also reports that the Bucks want to trade guard Stephen Jackson. He’s officially listed as having a bad hamstring, but the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel says Jackson has had an ongoing battle with Coach Scott Skiles. In either case, he’s been out since February 19th. Jackson used to play for Golden State, but the Contra-Costa paper says the team is not interested in getting him back because he’s owed $10-million next season.

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The field is set for the boys’ state high school basketball tournament that begins Thursday in Madison. Just like a year ago, only four Division-One will play in the Kohl Center instead of the previous eight. But last year’s quarter-final experiment at neutral sites was scrapped for Tuesday night – in part, because bad weather delayed them for up to two nights, and some teams had to scramble to make it Madison to play the next night. This time, the Elite Eight round in D-1 was the sectional finals on Saturday, just as with the other four divisions. In D-5, defending champion Randolph was eliminated Saturday night by the AP’s top-ranked school, Racine Lutheran, 46-27. Lutheran will play Drummond in Thursday afternoon’s quarter-finals in Madison, and Chippewa Falls McDonell will take on Sheboygan Lutheran. The Division 4 semis are set for Thursday night, with unbeaten Cuba City playing Oshkosh Lourdes, and Colfax facing Whitefish Bay Dominican. Semi-finals in the other three divisions will be played Friday. Brillion takes on Lodi, and Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau goes against Marshall in Division 3. In the Division 2 semis, Kaukauna plays DeForest, and Milwaukee Pius XI takes on Onalaska. And in Thursday night’s Division-One semis, unbeaten Germantown faces returning champ Madison Memorial. And Oshkosh North plays Milwaukee Rufus King. Title games in all five divisions are set for Saturday. Madison Memorial is the only defending champ still alive.

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All five defending state champions are still alive after the first three rounds of the girls’ state high school tournament. Only six of the 40 Number-One seeds have gone down to defeat. Six-of-the-eight top seeded teams are still alive in Division 3, and seven-of-eight are still playing in each of the other divisions. And they’ll all have a chance to win their brackets when the sectionals open on Thursday night with the Sweet-16 rounds. Top-seeded Stevens Point, Whitefish Bay Dominican, and Wild Rose lost their regional finals on Saturday. The only other top seeds to lose earlier were Goodman/Pembine, Freedom, and Monona Grove. Among the defending champions, Altoona is 3-0, and the others are at 2-0 – Nicolet, New London, Eau Claire Regis, and Wausau Newman.

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The University of Wisconsin softball team is now 10-7, after pounding Nevada yesterday in Reno, 7-1. Molly Spence homered twice, singled, and walked. Shannel Blackshear drove in two runs and went 1-for-3. Right-hander Amanda Najdek tossed a three-hitter and won her second game of the young season. The Badgers went 4-1 at the Wolf Pack Softball Classic in Reno.

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They should know how to do this by now. The University of Wisconsin ticket office was handling orders today for the Badgers’ 14th straight NCAA men’s basketball tournament appearance. Season-ticket holders and athletic program donors were offered seats first – and any left-overs were to be put online around three this afternoon at UWBadgers.com. The Badgers will play Montana Thursday afternoon at 1:10 in an East Regional game in Albuquerque, New Mexico. If they win, they’ll play either Vanderbilt or Harvard on Saturday in Albuquerque. Meanwhile, Marquette University was handling ticket orders today for a game in which they don’t know their opponent yet. Season-ticket holders and select donors were allowed to place orders in advance for their NCAA games. The Golden Eagles will play either BYU or Iona around 1:35 on Thursday afternoon in Louisville. That winner will face Murray State or Colorado State on Saturday.

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The NFL’s free agency period begins at three tomorrow afternoon. And as veteran center Scott Wells appears to be heading the out the door, the Green Bay Packers might be looking to fill three starting spots. The others are at outside linebacker opposite Clay Matthews to improve the pass rush – and a safety who could replace Nick Collins if he chooses to retire. The 31-year-old Wells is unrestricted free agent. Collins has told the Packers he’ll decide this month whether to retire, after a severe neck injury from last season. And the Packers tried a number of people opposite Matthews at outside linebacker last season, with very little success. Normally, Packers’ GM Ted Thompson would use the draft or his own roster to fill those spots – but even he admits it wouldn’t be easy. Thompson’s last notable free-agent signing came in 2008, when Brandon Chillar moved into the linebacking rotation. But he’s now gone, like most of the other free agents Thompson has signed. In several springs, Thompson has paid a total of $19-and-a-half million in bonuses to 10 unrestricted free agents. Most of that went to corner Charles Woodson and defensive end Ryan Pickett.

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The Milwaukee Brewers’ Spring Training camp has been going at full tilt for three weeks – until today. It’s the first of two off-days in the Brewer exhibition schedule. And manager Ron Roenicke has given all his players a free day except for a couple of pitchers who need to have bullpen sessions. Milwaukee is 4-4-1 so far in the Cactus League exhibition schedule. They’ll have a pair of split-squad games tomorrow against Seattle and Oakland. The next scheduled day off is on March 22nd.

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Steve Stricker of Madison is still at Number-Five in the new World Golf Rankings announced this morning. Stricker tied for eighth at the Cadillac Championships over the weekend in Doral, Florida. Pewaukee native Mark Wilson dropped one place to 25th in the World, after he tied for 45th at the World Golf Championships’ event at Doral. Jerry Kelly of Madison rose two spots to 148th, after he tied for 25th at the PGA’s Puerto Rico Open. Rory McIlroy leads the World Rankings for a second straight week. He also moved into first place in the Fed-Ex Cup season point standings. Wilson dropped one place to fourth, and Stricker fell one spot to 10th. Kelly jumped 17 spots in the Fed-Ex standings to 141st.

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Four anglers from Wisconsin have been named to a 10-member team that will represent the U.S. in next year’s World Ice Fishing Championships. They are Jeff Kelm of Sheboygan, Bill Whiteside of Eau Claire, Doug Bussian of Columbus, and Ray Tiffany of Appleton. Thirty ice fishermen from seven states competed in the U.S. finals this past weekend at the Big Eau Pleine Flowage near Mosinee. The Top-10 were chosen based on the weights of the pan-fish and rough-fish caught yesterday by 20 semi-finalists. Kelm qualified for the U.S. squad for the second straight year. He said there’s a real sense of pride in fishing for their country. The World Ice Fishing meet is expected to be held in the Wausau area next year.

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The Milwaukee Wave advanced to the Major Indoor Soccer League Championship Series with a 9-7 home win late yesterday over Missouri. Marco Terminesi scored twice for Milwaukee, which swept the two-game Central Division Series and improved to 20-6. Missouri ends its season at 15-and-11. The Wave will have a chance to win its second straight MISL crown against either Baltimore or Rochester. Baltimore leads that two-game series 1-nothing – and they play again tonight in Rochester, New York.

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