UW, Virginia will square off
The Wisconsin men’s basketball team will travel to Virginia to play coach Tony Bennett’s Cavaliers in the 2017 Big Ten / ACC Challenge, the Big Ten announced Thursday.
UW coach Greg Gard and Bennett, the son of former Badgers coach Dick Bennett, served together as assistant coaches on Bo Ryan’s 2001-’02 and 2002’03 Big Ten championship teams.
UW and Virginia last met in the Challenge in a home-and-home series in the 2012-’13 and ’13-’14 seasons. The Cavaliers won at the Kohl Center, 60-54, in 2012, and the Badgers won, 48-38, in Charlottesville the next season.
The Badgers, who won Big Ten / ACC games against Syracuse the past two seasons, are 9-9 alltime in the event.
Virginia has won three straight Challenge games and is 11-6 all-time.
The date, time and television will be announced at a later date.
NFL
Former NFL wide receiver James Hardy was found dead in a river in northeast Indiana.
The Allen County Coroner’s Office said the 31year-old’s body was identified Thursday, but that the cause and manner of death are still being investigated. His body was discovered Wednesday in the Maumee River in Fort Wayne.
The coroner said the former Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens player was reported missing a few weeks ago by relatives.
The former Indiana University star was drafted in the second round of the 2008 NFL draft by the Bills. A series of injuries limited him to 16 games over two seasons in Buffalo. He also played for Baltimore before being released in 2011.
Buffalo receiver suspended: The NFL suspended Buffalo Bills backup receiver Walt Powell for the first four games of the season for violating the league’s policy on performance enhancing substances.
Without revealing the substance, Powell issued a statement through the team saying he mistakenly used a product that led to the positive test. SOCCER
Rose Lavelle scored in the second half, lifting the U.S. women to a 1-0 victory over host Sweden.
A perfectly timed run from the midfield by Crystal Dunn led to a through-ball for Lavelle inside the 18-yard box. Lavelle, 22, calmly put it home in the 56th minute for her second international goal in her fifth international appearance.
Earlier, Dunn had a semi-breakaway, but her shot was saved by Hilda Carlen. TRACK AND FIELD
Wisconsin junior Brenna Detra fell during the 400-meter hurdle semifinals at the NCAA outdoor championships in Eugene, Ore.
She clipped the third hurdle, tumbled across the track and was carted off on a stretcher with a brace on her left leg.