WATCH LIVE: Conference tennis championships for men and women. 
Tom Dienhart, BTN.com Senior Writer, June 30, 2015
So, this is gonna be Bo Ryan?s last lap around the Big Ten. That?s too bad. But, it?s not a total shock, is it? I mean, the guy is 67 years old and has taken the Wisconsin program to heights it hasn?t achieved in decades.
Ryan is 357-125, a .741 winning percentage, in 14 seasons at UW. That run includes four Big Ten regular-season titles and no finishes worse than fourth place in the league. The Badgers have advanced to the NCAA tournament in every season under Ryan and have made seven appearances in the Sweet 16 and the aforementioned Final Four runs. Overall, Ryan is 740-228 during 31 seasons. That includes four NCAA Division III national titles while at UW-Platteville.
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The 2015 NBA draft is in the books. So, of course, it?s time to project the 2016 draft. The highest ranked Big Ten player? Michigan?s Caris LeVert going No. 6. Maryland?s Melo Trimble and Diamond Stone are projected to be first-round picks along with Indiana?s Troy Williams.
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Alex Bozich of InsideTheHall.com has ranked the top 10 players of the Tom Crean era. No. 1 on the list: Victor Oladipo. Cody Zeller is No. 2, but I thought he may be on top of this list.
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Nebraska has one of the more intriguing season openers with BYU coming to Lincoln. And this could be a good Cougars team led by dynamic QB Taysom Hill.
Omaha.com notes that Hill returns from a season-ending broken leg and torn ligaments and is the single most important factor to the Cougars? success. He was considered a Heisman candidate before the injury. BYU has nine returning starters on an offense that Hill and Bronco Mendenhall say could be the best in school history. Be ready, Huskers.
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Penn State has a chance to be pretty good on defense once again in 2015. And, it begins with a line led by tackles Anthony Zettel and Austin Johnson. But new ends are needed with Deion Barnes and C.J. Olaniyan gone.
"You could really probably go defensive ends as a whole, rather than list one specifically," PSU defensive coordinator Bob Shoop told Pennlive.com."
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Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh is being accused of pressuring a player to quit.
Defensive lineman Ondre Pipkins told ESPN "that Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, head athletic trainer Paul Schmidt and associate athletic director Jim Minick asked Pipkins about 10 times over a two-month period to sign a medical scholarship form that would have ended his career with the Wolverines before he wanted it to end."
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Is Rutgers ready for prime time? No matter, the schedule will provide opportunities to strut. RU has prime-time tilts vs. Ohio State, Penn State and Michigan State. Hey, this is why the Scarlet Knights wanted to be in the Big Ten, right?
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We all know Northwestern never has been to the NCAA tourney. But InsideNU.com wonders if this year?s slate is a potential detriment to achieving that goal.
The non-league menu is chock-full of cupcakes. Rather than beef up what was already a weak non-conference slate last season, coach Chris Collins went in the other direction. From SIU-Edwardsville to Fairfield, from Mississippi Valley State to UMass-Lowell, he constructed arguably the worst non-conference schedule in college basketball.
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Remember former Indiana star Jay Edwards? Oh, I do. The guy was a special talent whose career never got on track professionally for many reasons. Now, the one-time Hoosier superstar wants to be an NBA shooting coach.
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Some football scheduling info: Minnesota and Fresno State will hook up in 2018 and 2019.
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| About Tom Dienhart | BTN.com senior writer Tom Dienhart is a veteran sports journalist who covers Big Ten football and men's basketball for BTN.com and BTN TV. Find him on Twitter and Facebook, read all of his work at btn.com/tomdienhart, and subscribe to his posts via RSS. Also, send questions to his weekly mailbag using the form below and read all of his previous answers in his reader mailbag section. |
