Morning State Sports Briefs: Bucks lose and Skiles to meet with Kohl about future

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MILWAUKEE - Milwaukee Bucks’ coach Scott Skiles says he’ll meet with team owner Herb Kohl as early as today to talk about his future. That’s after the Bucks ended their second straight losing season last night with an 87-74 loss at Boston.

The Celtics went up by 21 in the first half and coasted from there. Brandon Jennings was the only regular in the Bucks’ starting lineup. He achieved his goal of playing in all 66 games this season, and he scored 12 points. Rookie Tobias Harris led Milwaukee with 17, as the Bucks committed 23 turnovers. Paul Pierce scored 12 points despite missing most of the game with a sprained toe. Rajon Rondo had 15 assists, and he extended his streak to 24 games with at least 10 assists.

Milwaukee ended its lockout-shortened season at 31-35, after a 35-47 finish the previous year. Bucks’ general manager John Hammond said yesterday he expects to be back, but Skiles’ future is less certain. Both have been with the Bucks for four years, and they each have one year left on their current contracts. There’s been speculation on whether Skiles wants to return for a fifth season – but he said at this point that there’s “nothing to talk about.” Skiles was second in the balloting for the NBA’s coach-of-the-year two seasons ago, when the Bucks made the playoffs. But overall, Skiles is 146-166 during his tenure in Milwaukee.

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The Milwaukee Brewers will try to end a four-game road losing streak tonight, when they face the Cardinals in Saint Louis. The Brewers are coming off a 5-4 home-stand, and a victory this evening would put them back at .500. Saint Louis is the only team in the National League Central with a winning record in the early going. The Redbirds are 12-7, while the Brewers are tied with Cincinnati for second place at 9-10. Marco Estrada was planning to start for the Brew Crew tonight. But manager Ron Roenicke decided to have Estrada start tomorrow, so Yovani Gallardo can go with his normal four days of rest. Gallardo hopes to atone for his Opening Day home loss to the Cardinals in which he gave up four homers in the first three innings. Gallardo is 1-8 in 12 regular season starts against the Redbirds, and with a 6.17 ERA in those outings. Jake Westbrook will start for the Cards tonight. He’s 1-3 against Milwaukee in his career, with a 3.08 ERA.

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In golf, Steve Stricker of Madison is tied for third place after the opening round of the PGA’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Stricker birdied four straight holes in shooting a six-under-par 66 yesterday at the TPC Louisiana course. He’s tied with Ernie Els, Daniel Chopra, and Chris Stroud – and they’re all one stroke behind co-leaders Ken Duke and Cameron Tringale. Jerry Kelly of Madison shot a one-over-par 73, and is tied for 102nd.

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Three golfers from Edgewood College were selected to the men’s all-conference team in the Northern Athletics Conference. Brent Quade, Andrew Cobb, and Tyler Cobb were named yesterday. Quade, a senior, was named the player-of-the-year for winning the individual title at the NAC tournament last weekend. He shot a 19-over-par 307 for four rounds on the Irish Course at Whistling Straits near Sheboygan. Gary Oftedahl of Edgewood was named the coach-of-the-year, after Edgewood won the league tournament last weekend. Also named to the all-conference team were Dane Zachman and Colin Winistorfer of the Milwaukee School of Engineering, Cory Ashbeck and Max Richardson of Marian, and Jake Gaudynski of Wisconsin Lutheran.

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In the Midwest League, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers will play in the Brewers’ Miller Park tonight against the Dayton Dragons. Wisconsin is the Brewers’ lower-Class-“A” affiliate, and the Rattlers normally play at least one game a year in Milwaukee. The purpose is to give Brewer fans a look at some of the team’s top prospects. It will be a home game for the Rattlers, who lost to Dayton 3-1 last night in 10 innings at Fox Cities Stadium near Appleton. Wisconsin is tied for second place in the Midwest League’s Western Division, one-and-a-half games behind Quad Cities. The Timber Rattlers are tied with the Beloit Snappers, and both are at 11-and-10. Beloit will host Bowling Green again tonight, on the heels of an 8-3 Beloit victory. Bowling Green enters the weekend in second place in the Eastern Division, three games behind front-running Lansing. Lansing was playing a late morning game at home against Kane County. All of the other action is under the lights. Clinton plays at Great Lakes. Peoria is at Lake County. Fort Wayne hosts Burlington. South Bend is at Cedar Rapids. West Michigan plays at Quad Cities.

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Chad Ebert of UW-Green Bay is one of eight players named to the All-Horizon League men’s golf team. It was the only post-season honor granted to the Phoenix on either the men’s or the women’s side. The Horizon League golf tournaments are getting underway today at Howey-in the-Hills Florida. They continue through Sunday. Green Bay is seeded seventh among eight teams in both the men’s-and-the-women’s tournaments. UW-Milwaukee does not compete in golf. Cleveland State has the top seed for the men, and Butler for the women. Andrew Bailey of Cleveland State has been named the Horizon League men’s golfer-of-the-year, and Michele Nash of Butler received the women’s honor.

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The Midwest Conference men’s tennis tournament is being played in Madison at UW-Madison's Nielsen Tennis Stadium. Team competition began this morning with the semi-finals. North Division champion Carroll of Waukesha is playing Monmouth, the runner-up in the south. And South champion Grinnell is taking on north runner-up Saint Norbert. Those winners will play for the league title this afternoon. Individual play will take up the rest of the weekend. Singles’ titles will be decided tomorrow, with doubles on Sunday. Grinnell of Iowa is going for its ninth straight men’s championship.

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SCORES

In the Midwest League…

Beloit 8, Bowling Green 3

Dayton 3, Wisconsin 1 in 10 innings

Clinton 8, Great Lakes 4

Lake County 7, Peoria 6 in 11 innings

Fort Wayne 6, Burlington 2

Lansing 6, Kane County 0

South Bend 10, Cedar Rapids 1

Quad Cities 5, West Michigan 1

Tags: wisconsin sports, sports, proam