Greetings Fellow Badgers! First of all, a big THANK YOU to the Badger fans who supported our Bucky to the Rescue food drive as part of the Homecoming event at Rookies last weekend. Although the 25 pounds of food we collected wasn't massive, Foodshare was grateful for the donation. I expect our donation will eventually be acknowledged at http://www.uwalumni.com/fooddrive (as of this writing, the website had not been updated to reflect the Homecoming events) and any winners of the WAA prizes associated with the event should also eventually be listed there.
The Badger faithful were relieved to see the team gel together once again and pull out a Homecoming win last Saturday against Illinois. In his second start at quarterback, Dustin Scherer put together a much more impressive performance, with a 15-yard scramble for a touchdown and a 49-yard touchdown pass on 3rd-and-17. John Clay had his first start, due to a leg bruise suffered by PJ Hill, and tallied 88 yards. The best turnaround however came from punter Brad Nortman, who averaged 51.7 yards on 6 punts. After two rough games against Penn State and Iowa, his performance on Saturday gained him Big Ten Special Teams Player of the Week acknowledgement. The win came at a price, however. Tight end Travis Beckum suffered a broken left fibula and will miss the remainder of the season. There is a chance that he'll have recovered sufficiently to compete in the spring combine, however. This Saturday the Badgers take on the Michigan State Spartans at noon. The game will be shown on ESPN but if you want to watch it with fellow Badgers, my recommendation is that you join us at Rookies in Cromwell. The offensive line may have a new look as it's being reported that senior Eric Vanden Heuvel will be moved to left tackle from right tackle and senior guard Kraig Urbik will be back in the lineup at right tackle, after being out for the last two games. Plus, it looks like Gabe Carimi may be back from his knee injury. And it looks like John Clay has moved past PJ Hill and will start as tailback on Saturday, with Hill and Zach Brown listed as co-backups. This may give the Badgers an advantage, as the Spartan run defense is ranked 64th in the nation. The question will be whether or not the Badger defense can stop MSU runningback Javon Ringer, who has racked up over 1300 yards for the Spartans this season. On a BASKETBALL note, in case you haven't heard, Madisonian and two-time U.S. Open Champ Andy North donated the money for a new basketball floor at the Kohl Center. The original floor, first used in the 1997 NBA All-Star game in Cleveland, Ohio and then resurfaced before being installed in Madison, was beginning to show signs of wear and tear, as it has been dismantled more than 500 times for hockey games, concerts and commencement ceremonies. But that old floor won't be just thrown away? a number of unique pieces/sections will be auctioned off by the university while other pieces will be offered for sale. The sections to be auctioned include the following: The six pieces of the court that make up the south free throw line and feature the Big Ten Conference logo
The six pieces along the sideline that feature the words "Kohl Center" and the University of Wisconsin crest
The 4'X8' section of court where Alando Tucker recorded his 2,000 career point
The 4'X8' section of court where Jolene Anderson set the UW career scoring mark
The 4'X8' section of court where the clipboard thrown by legendary former Indiana men's basketball coach Bobby Knight landed after Wisconsin's dramatic, come-from-behind 56-53 win over the Hoosiers on March 5, 2000.
For more information, go to: http://www.uwbadgers.com/sport_news/mbb/headlines/story.html?sportid=116&storyid=15341. The Badgers' exhibition season kicks off on November 1st with an exhibition game against Augustana (South Dakota). Edit | 
