The end of the semester in December brought the usual rush to students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. With everyone packing their things, cramming for finals and bombing them, saying goodbye to friends and preparing for a month with mom and dad, it was easy to lose track of other things.

If you paid attention to the men’s basketball team at the end of last semester, you would have noticed one thing: turmoil. Before the season even started, last year’s leading scorer, Avery Smith, and coach Rob Jeter mutually agreed that Smith would leave the program. This year’s leading scorer and rebounder, Torre Johnson, punched a woman at a party during exam week and got booted off the team. Roman Gentry, a shooting guard who started several games for the Panthers this season, got homesick and left UWM to be with his newborn daughter in Sioux City, Iowa.

>> Full Story

As the first half of the season, according to games and not the All-Star break, winds down, the Bucks have had some bright stars, average performers and some real stinkers.

The Bucks have been healthier so far this season, and some of their players are starting to take it to the next level. The main improvement has been by third-year big man Andrew Bogut. Bogut has taken his game to a higher level with better defense, more assertiveness on the offensive end of the floor, and mixing it up in the lane while grabbing more rebounds.

>> Full Story

All year you’ve heard it: the Green Bay Packers are the youngest team in the National Football League.

You’ve heard how a 38-year-old quarterback named Brett Favre has guided a bunch of recent college graduates from relative unknowns to a 13-3 record and a substantial postseason run.

>> Full Story

It seems that everyone has an opinion about the Bowl Championship Series and how it is run: Either you hate it, or you really hate it.

It’s not that the concept of a series of four bowl games and a National Championship is a bad idea; it’s just that the rules are complex and the way they (or a computer) pick who goes to what bowl game is insane and, dare I say, erroneous.

>> Full Story

New Year’s resolutions are often arbitrary and completely ignored. Promises like “I’m going to lose weight” or “I’m going to be a better person” or “I’m going to stop writing such crappy articles for this newspaper” are rarely fulfilled.

Still, such resolutions do serve a purpose, albeit a small one. What they can do, even if they are forgotten on Jan. 2, is remind us of our shortcomings and what we feel we need to improve on or change in our lives.

>> Full Story

Falling just short of a National League Central Division crown, the Milwaukee Brewers looked to fix the holes that cost them their first chance at the postseason since 1982.

Everyone from Doug Melvin to the drunken guy in the bleachers knew they had to solidify the very porous bullpen to dethrone the Chicago Cubs. After wisely letting Coco "Wants More Dough" Cordero walk to cellar-dwelling-candidate Cincinnati and losing Scott Linebrink to the better team from Chicago, it appeared the Crew was moving backwards.

>> Full Story