Wednesday Sports Roundup: Wisconsin predicted to finish fifth in men's hoops

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CHICAGO - A media poll says the Wisconsin men’s basketball team will finish fifth in the Big Ten Conference this season.

Twenty-four beat writers who cover the conference have made Indiana as their pre-season favorite, followed by Michigan and Ohio State. All three schools are also in the national pre-season Top-Five in the USA Today coaches’ poll. Wisconsin has never finished below fourth place in coach Bo Ryan’s 11 seasons in Madison. The Badgers lost point guard Jordan Taylor. But they still brought back players who had 71-percent of their scoring from a year ago, plus 84-percent of their rebounds.

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University of Wisconsin men’s basketball senior Mike Bruesewitz expects to be ready for the Badgers’ regular season opener on November 11th. At the team’s Media Day yesterday, Bruesewitz talked about his right leg injury during an informal scrimmage on October ninth. He was trying to dunk when he was fouled by teammate Josh Gasser. Bruesewitz dived over Gasser to avoid landing on top of him – and his right leg hit the basket standard. Bruesewitz said he could see a bone near his ankle after a deep, seven-inch cut that needed 50 stitches to close. He had surgery, and is expected to be out for another 2-to-4 weeks. Bruesewitz says the main concern is infection, so he’s not hurrying things. He was able to ride a stationary bike yesterday, and will have about half his stitches removed today. The rest will be removed by the weekend.

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The Marquette University men’s golf team finished last among 12 schools at the Pine-tree Inter-collegiate tournament in Kennesaw Georgia. The Golden Eagles had a combined score of 947 over three rounds – 87 strokes behind first-place Kennesaw State. Pat Sanchez was Marquette’s top individual. He was tied for 34th at 231. Senior Ryan Prickette, who graduates in December, played as an individual and he tied for 62nd in his final collegiate event.

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The Milwaukee Admirals will try to go above .500 tonight, with a victory at Texas. The Admirals have split their first four American Hockey League games of the season – and they’re coming off an overtime win at Houston last Sunday. The Texas Stars are 2-and-3. They’re on a three-game losing streak in which they’ve given up 14 goals. Texas only kills 60-percent of its penalties, the worst rate in the league. Milwaukee has had slow starts in its games, scoring just once in the first period.

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Lots of Milwaukee Brewer fans will certainly cheer for Prince Fielder and the Detroit Tigers, as they open the World Series tonight at San Francisco. But fans might not realize that the Giants also have a star who spent time in the Milwaukee organization. Second baseman Marco Scutaro was traded to the Brewers from Cleveland in 2000, as part of a seven-player deal that brought 2002 All-Star Richie Sexson to the Crew. Scutaro did not get much publicity in that trade, because he was a “player-to-be-named-later” from the Indians. He spent over a year in Milwaukee’s minor league system, and never made it to the big club. The New York Mets claimed Scutaro off waivers in ’02 – and the Oakland A’s were the first to bring him to the Majors in ’04. Scutaro said he thought he might have had a future in Milwaukee, but it didn’t happen. He was injured in Game-Two of the National League title series while sliding into second base – but he still had six games with more than one hit, and was named the MVP of a series in which the Giants ousted last year’s champion Saint Louis.

Tags: wisconsin sports, sports, proam, badgers, marquette