Wisconsin never has won three Big Ten titles in a row, but that will change if it can finish on top again this fall. Still, Bret Bielema’s squad has issues to address this spring. The chief one: assimilating six new assistant coaches. Still, this is a program with lots of momentum that presses on without offensive coordinator Paul Chryst, who left to take the head coaching job at Pitt. The year before, defensive coordinator Dave Doeren left to coach Northern Illinois, so Bielema is used to change.

What were you doing around 1 p.m. ET Monday? Chances are, you weren’t having as much fun as Minnesota basketball player Trevor Mbakwe. In the wake of announcing he will use his sixth year of eligibility and return to the Gophers for the 2012-13 season, Mbakwe went to Twitter (@TMbakwe 32), started a hashtag, #imgetting2old4college, and got to tweeting. The result: Hilarity. See the 23-year-old star’s entertaining series of self deprecating tweets in this post.

The Phoenix Mercury selected Ohio State’s Samantha Prahalis No. 6 overall in Monday’s WNBA Draft. The Big Ten Player of the Year is projected to start for the Mercury. Here’s the complete draft board at WNBA.com and here’s the draft prospects profile page for Prahalis, too.

It’s been expected for a while now, but Trevor Mbakwe announced Monday afternoon that he will use his sixth year of eligibility and return to the Minnesota basketball program for the 2012-13 season.

A look at some top Big Ten football news as the dust settles on spring football at seven schools.

Monday was a busy day in terms of player activity across the Big Ten. It started with good news, that being Trevor Mbakwe would return to Minnesota for the 2012-13 season. Moments later, Purdue announced John Hart was transferring, followed by Ohio State releasing the same news about J.D. Weatherspoon. Watch one of Weatherspoon’s best highlights as a Buckeye now and read about his and Hart’s decisions to leave in this post.WEATHERSPOON TO TRANSFER FROM OHIO STATE J.D. Weatherspoon, a sophomore forward, has been granted a release from his scholarship and will seek to transfer to another school, Thad Matta, head coach of the Buckeyes, announced Monday. Weatherspoon has not determined where he will transfer.Over the last two seasons, Weatherspoon (6-6, 215) appeared in 35 games, averaging 2.7 points and one rebound. He made 59 percent of his shots (37-63) and averaged about six minutes per game of court time.“Coach Matta and my teammates have been great to me at Ohio State,” Weatherspoon said in a school release. “Our fans and the Columbus community have supported me while in high school and at Ohio State. After discussing my future with my family and my coaches, we determined transferring to another school would be the best opportunity for me. My family and I will begin that process immediately.”Matta said he supports Weatherspoon’s decision.“J.D. has done everything we’ve asked,” Matta said. “I can relate to a young man’s desire to play. I was in his shoes during my collegiate career. His teammates and our staff appreciate the hard work J.D. has put in to make our team better. We wish him nothing but the best.”https://twitter.com/#!/SpoonDaKid15/status/191976688391946240HART TO TRANSFER, ELIGIBLE TO PLAY IN 2012-13 Rising senior guard John Hart has elected to transfer from the Purdue men’s basketball program in order to seek increased playing time at another institution. Hart will graduate from Purdue in the summer of 2012 with a degree in Organizational Leadership and Supervision, and will be eligible to play immediately at another NCAA Division I institution should he choose a graduate program not offered at Purdue.“We appreciate the efforts John has put into helping our program over the last four years,” Purdue head men’s basketball coach Matt Painter said. “He is a hard worker and a good student, and will be a quality addition to his future institution.”The Beech Grove, Ind., native averaged 2.6 points and 0.8 rebounds per game in 63-career contests for the Boilermakers. He was an Academic All-Big Ten honoree in both 2011 and 2012.

Like much of the Midwest, Indiana experienced terrible weather Saturday. In fact, it got so bad in the Hoosier State that both Indiana and Purdue were forced to cancel their spring game and scrimmage indoors. The weather affected our broadcasts of the events, to the point where we can’t re-air the games on BTN tonight, as originally scheduled. Instead, we’ll show Purdue’s 2011 win over Ohio State at 7 p.m. ET and Indiana’s 2007 bowl-clinching win over Purdue at 9. Watch our Indiana video now and get a handful of Purdue packages in this post.

It’s April, the NCAA just crowned its latest men’s basketball champion (Kentucky), so that means it’s time for ESPN.com’s Joe Lunardi to post his first installment of 2013 Bracketology. Lunardi has seven Big Ten teams dancing, as of right now, headlined by Indiana, the conference’s lone No. 1 seed. Michigan State and Michigan received No. 2 and No. 3 seeds, respectively. See all of Lunardi’s Big Ten predictions in this post.

Members of the Minnesota football attended former teammate Gary Tinsley’s funeral Saturday in Jacksonville, Fla. Tinsley, 22, was found dead at his campus apartment April 6. According to GopherSports.com, Tinsley was just weeks away from receiving his bachelor’s degree. At the funeral, Tinsley’s teammates and Tim Brewster, the coach who recruited him, posed for a picture where they used their hands to form Tinsley’s old number (51). See the photo in this post.

The Big Ten Conference released its Big Ten Baseball Players of the Week for April 9-15 action Monday. See all the winners and check out what they did to earn the distinctions in this post.

The Big Ten Conference released its Big Ten Softball Players of the Week for April 9-15 action Monday. See all the winners and check out what they did to earn the distinctions in this post.