1. Badgers with B1G aspirations

We’re officially past the halfway point in the 2014-15 Big Ten schedule for the No. 5 Wisconsin men’s basketball team. And to no one’s surprise, the Badgers have a healthy lead atop of the Big Ten and are on their way toward their first regular season Big Ten championship since 2008.

After yet another double-digit win under their belts from their drubbing of Northwestern at the Kohl Center Saturday, the Badgers have a 9-1 conference record. After Wisconsin, it’s basically a crap shoot for second place as six teams have four losses in Big Ten play while four teams (Maryland, Ohio State, Indiana, Purdue) sit 2.5 games behind the Badgers with 7-4 conference records.

However, the Badgers have a tough test when they travel to Nebraska Tuesday — a place where they lost the final game of the regular season last year. After the Cornhuskers, Wisconsin still has to play both No. 19 Maryland and No. 23 Ohio State on the road and Michigan State at home.

The Badgers continue to play as one of the best teams in the country. Regardless if the team slips up once or twice over the final eight regular season games, they’ll still be in great shape to win the Big Ten regular season championship and party like it’s 2008.

See, look at how much fun this looks:

Now imagine that picture with Flo Rida’s “Low” (which was the No. 1 song in America in March of 2008) playing over the Kohl Center speakers, and well yeah, you get the idea. It’s been awhile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLwvc5Qywzk

2. Women’s hockey defeats No. 7 UMD, postseason coming soon

The No. 3 Wisconsin women’s hockey team picked up another win this weekend at home, taking down Minnesota-Duluth Saturday on Senior Day. The two teams battled to a scoreless draw in game one of the series Friday.

Wisconsin senior captain, Blayre Turnbull, had a Senior Day to remember, tallying her first career hat trick in the team’s 5-0 win Saturday. She became the first player in program history to record a hat trick on three power-play goals.

Turnbull’s three goals and highlights from the game are below.

With the win over UMD, the Badgers clinched at least the second seed in the WCHA Tournament that begins Feb. 27. Before the tournament begins, the Badgers will take on Ohio State Friday and Saturday in Columbus before closing out the regular season at home against St. Cloud State Feb. 20 and 22.

3. Different weekend, same result, but optimism on the horizon

Welp, here we are again. Another weekend has passed, and the Wisconsin men’s hockey team is still searching for its first Big Ten win of the season. The youthful Badgers fell twice more this past weekend, this time at the hands of Penn State, losing the two-game series by a combined score of 9-3.

BUT, there is hope! The Badgers will travel to Ohio State this weekend which is in second-to-last place in the Big Ten. So if there were ever a time for UW to notch that first conference win, it could come this weekend against the Buckeyes who have a 2-8 record in conference play.

4. Huge crowd at Kohl Center for women’s basketball

In front of 11,428 fans at the Kohl Center Sunday afternoon, the Wisconsin women’s basketball team dropped its eighth Big Ten game of the season. The 11,428 attendance was the largest at a women’s basketball game since 2010. Unfortunately, the large crowd that turned out saw the Badgers lose to No. 16 Iowa 87-75. Wisconsin was down by just four at halftime, 42-38, but was outscored by the Hawkeyes in the second half 45-37.

Sunday’s game was a “Pink Game” at the Kohl Center to raise awareness for Breast Cancer.

The pink foam fingers are very popular! https://t.co/G7UM6WAOQW

— Wisconsin Women’s Basketball (@BadgerWBB) February 8, 2015

The Badgers have two games in the upcoming week, both on the road. Wednesday, Wisconsin will cross the border to take on Minnesota before traveling to Nebraska Sunday.

5. Softball starts 2015 season in Arizona

Yes, it’s hard to believe, but actual outdoor sports are happening right now in warm parts of the country. While students in Madison emerged from their caves Saturday with the 30-plus degree temperatures, the Wisconsin softball team was down in warm, sunny Arizona. The team officially opened its season in the Arizona State Tournament.

The Badgers didn’t fare so well in the warm temperatures; however, losing four of their five games. The lone win came against Virginia Saturday when they defeated the Cavaliers 5-0.

But whatever the results were on the field, the softball team wins in the end because they were in a place where you didn’t have to wear eight layers of clothing just to make it to class.

Seriously look at that:

Great day for softball! #Badgers pic.twitter.com/X3celsAyft

— Wisconsin Softball (@BadgerSoftball) February 7, 2015

Next, the Badgers will head to Corpus Christi, Texas for the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Tournament beginning Thursday. Wisconsin will play three, two-game series against Texas A&M Corpus Christ, South Dakota and Alabama-Birmingham.

Athlete Tweet of the Week: Sam Dekker dropping some existentialism on us 

https://twitter.com/samdek1/status/563070461664567296