A Place of Brightness: Made in Wisconsin: The 2014-2015 Wisconsin Badgers Men's Basketball Team

Monday, April 6, 2015

Made in Wisconsin: The 2014-2015 Wisconsin Badgers Men's Basketball Team

As I write this, Wisconsinites await something that has not happened since 1941--the Badger Men's Basketball team plays tonight in the National Championship Game.

I'm proud to have been born and raised in Madison, WI. I'm proud to be a three degree alumnus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

And, win or lose, I'm proud of what this basketball team accomplished this season.

But I'm precisely proud of them because, more than most teams that compete at that level, a significant portion of this basketball team are actually from Wisconsin!

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm well aware that without the contribution of Frank Kaminsky (from Lisle, IL), we simply wouldn't be there tonight!

But note the following comparison of the teams.

Of the sixteen players on the UW's roster this year, seven of them are actually from Wisconsin! Another five, including Kaminsky, are from states that border on Wisconsin.

Compare those facts to the composition of the Duke team we will face tonight. Of the eleven players on Duke's roster this year, only one is from North Carolina. And not a single other player is even from a state that borders North Carolina.

Bo Ryan may not have been born in Wisconsin, but he has lived and worked in Wisconsin since 1976, so we're proud to claim him too!

I'll add the final point that athletes at the University of Wisconsin have a graduation rate well beyond most schools that play at this level.

Good luck tonight, gentlemen. Win or lose, you have made us proud of our State and Our School.

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In Saecula Saeculorum, the 4th Novel in the Valquist Series

In this fourth novel of the Valquist Series, Andrew Valquist is retired (?) from the National Security Agency and teaching Latin at a Classical Academy in the Washington DC area. But in the world of espionage, looks can be deceiving. He's not necessarily happy with the role he has played in all this, but the school was actually a joint NSA/MI-6 Project in which four young people have been unwittingly prepared for a mission to travel back in time to ancient Rome to retrieve information from a library that may save the modern world from certain destruction. They know they have to at least try to save humanity, but can they also save each other?

Next Stop: Spanish, the 3rd Novel in the Valquist Series

This third novel in the Valquist Series can be read as an espionage action-adventure in its own right, but also you can use it as a way to either brush up on your Spanish or learn functional Spanish for the first time! John Valquist needs to learn Spanish. But he's in luck, since his uncle Andrew is a language expert and a former (?) spy who is taking him on a vacation to Spain so he can study the language. In Next Stop: Spanish, you have the chance to see and study the words John studies, and then watch him add more and more Spanish into his dialogue as the story progresses. During this vacation, they get pulled into espionage intrigue (why do these things always happen to the Valquist family?). In the dramatic conclusion, John will need to put together everything he has learned to save his uncle!

Amor Vincit Omnia: the 2nd Novel in the Valquist Series

In this second novel of the Valquist Series, Keith Massey takes you into the halls of the National Security Agency, where he himself worked for four years after 9/11 and an Arabic linguist. You follow our hero Andrew Valquist, as he starts work as a new recruit at the NSA. Little does he know that on his first on the job, he's about to fly off on an unexpected overseas assignment. He'll be even more surprised when he learns that his background in ancient Latin will be crucial to the mission!

Monday, April 6, 2015

Made in Wisconsin: The 2014-2015 Wisconsin Badgers Men's Basketball Team

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