The 10 Wisconsin sports moments of the year

When it comes to Wisconsin sports, the year 2022 was mostly disappointing, especially when compared to a 2021 season that featured a Milwaukee Bucks championship and strong performances from the Milwaukee Brewers and Green Bay Packers that simply weren't replicated this year.

The Bucks were edged by Boston in the 2022 Eastern Conference semifinals. The Packers struggled mightily. The Brewers missed the playoffs. The Badgers football team had to scratch and claw to be bowl eligible and underwent a stunning coaching change, and the surprising UW basketball team was ousted in the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, even while playing in Milwaukee. The Marquette men reached the tournament but took a lopsided loss to eventual national runner-up North Carolina in the first round. Even the Winter Olympics didn't go as well as the last cycle did for Wisconsin athletes.

This is a year that might be remembered more for went wrong (Trading Davante Adams and Josh Hader? A fight between coaches at a Badgers basketball game? A five-game Packers losing streak?) than what went right.

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It's not all bad, of course. These are the moments that we'll remember from the 2022 calendar year in Wisconsin athletics.

A stunning fire, a stunning hire

The Wisconsin Badgers football team started out just 2-3, with an upset loss to Washington State at Camp Randall Stadium and lopsided losses to Ohio State (understandable) and Illinois (less understandable). Still, it stunned everyone when a day after the loss to the Illini and former Badgers coach Bret Bielema that UW announced football coach Paul Chryst had been fired, a bold move from second-year athletics director Chris McIntosh.

In his place, defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard took the helm on an interim basis, with most assuming that he'd be appointed to the full-time gig by season's end. Instead, shortly after UW lost the chance to regain Paul Bunyan's Axe with a dispiriting 23-16 home loss to Minnesota, McIntosh announced he was hiring Cincinnati's Luke Fickell for the job. For a program that seldom goes that far outside the box in its maneuvers, it caught everyone by surprise.

Two unforgettable trades

Which major Wisconsin sports trade caught you more off guard? Which one had greater consequence?

In March, the Packers announced they were dealing wide receiver Davante Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders for a first- and second-round draft pick, a move that reunited Adams with his former college quarterback, Derek Carr, and satisfied his preference to leave Green Bay even with a better financial offer to stay. Without Adams, the Packers offense has failed to match the elite performance that enabled the team to go 13-4 last year, though Adams and the Raiders are also headed toward a disappointing season outcome.

In early August, the Brewers traded all-star closer Josh Hader to the San Diego Padres, a move that backfired when the Brewers quickly fell out of postseason standing and ultimately missed the playoffs altogether. Hader also struggled in San Diego for a month before finding his groove, and the Padres wound up advancing to the National League Championship Series. For the Brewers, it was the first time missing the playoffs since 2017, and a suspect bullpen showing down the stretch exacerbated the frustration over Hader's departure.

Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns, who admitted the trade hurt the team more than he anticipated, then shockingly announced he was stepping down from his post in late October, leaving general manager Matt Arnold atop the player personnel food chain. Stearns oversaw an unprecedented run of Brewers success, leading the franchise to four straight postseason appearances.

Blocked punt in the snow

The Packers' nightmare 2022 really began in January, when Green Bay fell to the San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round of the playoffs at Lambeau Field, 13-10, bringing a promising season to an end as snow fell.

San Francisco scored one touchdown in the game, when the much-maligned Packers special-teams unit made its biggest mistake on the biggest stage. Defensive lineman Jordan Willis burst through the Packers line to block Corey Bojorquez’s punt near the goal line, and safety Talanoa Hufanga scooped it at the 6-yard line and ran it into the end zone with 4:50 left in regulation.

The Packers expected to bounce back with another huge season in 2022, but they lost five straight games and opened the year 5-8.

Jrue Holiday makes Marcus Smart a meme

OK, it wasn't all bad news, right?

In May, the Bucks staged a remarkable rally to top the Boston Celtics at TD Garden in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, taking a 3-2 lead in the series.

Down by 14 points in the fourth quarter, Jrue Holiday and Bobby Portis provided the heroics. First, Portis assisted on a Holiday three-pointer to tie the game at 105 with 41 seconds left. Then, after Jayson Tatum gave the Celtics a 107-105 lead with a pair of free throws with 31 seconds to go, Portis came to the rescue of Giannis Antetokounmpo by putting back a missed free throw to make it 108-107, Milwaukee, with 11.4 seconds left.

Off the ensuing inbound, Holiday literally took the ball out of Marcus Smart’s hands for a block as the Boston guard tried to shoot. That led to a Bucks timeout and two Pat Connaughton free throws to make it 110-107 with five seconds remaining. Holiday then clinched it by stealing the ball from Smart, leading to a deluge of perfect memes.

There's a bittersweet tinge to the moment, though. The Celtics stormed back to win the series, 4-3, keeping the Bucks from defending their NBA title.

Chucky Hepburn banks it in

Facing talent-rich Purdue, the Wisconsin men's basketball team won a thriller at the Kohl Center in a massively hyped March contest, with Chucky Hepburn's long 3-pointer banking in with 1.2 seconds left to break a tie moments after Purdue had just knotted the game at 67.

The win, marking a season sweep over the Boilermakers, meant the Badgers had secured at least a share of the Big Ten regular-season title after coming into the season picked to finish 10th.

"I knew we were about to be Big Ten champs after I released it," Hepburn said, a quote only outmatched by the reaction from rapidly ascendant star Johnny Davis. "I'm not going to lie. That was some (expletive), but it went in."

But alas, the joy was short-lived. Wisconsin suffered a stunning home loss to Nebraska, in which Davis was injured, meaning UW had to settle for a Big Ten tie with Illinois.

Then, after fighting to beat Colgate in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Milwaukee, UW fell to Iowa State, coached by Wisconsin native T.J. Otzelberger, 54-49. This time, it was Hepburn who left the game with injury.

Juwan Howard vs. Badgers coaches

Before Hepburn's bank shot, by far the biggest story of the Badgers basketball season had been what happened a little over a week earlier, when Michigan coach Juwan Howard slapped Badgers assistant Joe Krabbenhoft in a postgame scuffle after UW's win over the Wolverines.

Howard had been unhappy with a late Badgers timeout in the 77-63 victory and started exchanging words with Badgers coach Greg Gard during the postgame handshake, leading to players from both teams getting involved.

Victor Caratini on the Fourth of July

There's a lot to unpack from this midseason game between the Brewers and Cubs.

In the ninth inning, Josh Hader surrendered an inside-the-park home run to Seiya Suzuki, among the first indications that Hader wasn't quite himself (which would come into play when the team elected to trade him after the month). It also gave Chicago the lead, but Christian Yelich drew a two-out walk against Cubs closer David Robinson with the bases loaded to tie the score at 2-2.

In the 10th, backup catcher Victor Caratini — who had struck out four times in the game — belted a three-run homer off Scott Effross for a walk-off, 5-2 winner. At the time, the Brewers moved to 47-35, still up three games in the National League Central.

But as fun as it was, things faded from there. Milwaukee lost four of its next five games and eight of 11. Hader continued to wobble, and the Brewers were treading water for the rest of the year.

Falling down in London

The Packers finally played a regular-season NFL game overseas in taking on the New York Giants, but what was supposed to kick off a favorable stretch in Green Bay's schedule turned into a nightmare.

Not only did Green Bay fritter away a lead and lose in London, 27-22, but it marked the first of five straight losses and turned what was supposed to be a competitive season into a playoff longshot.

Cavallini helps U.S. women take silver

Arrowhead High School alumna Alex Cavallini saved 25 of 26 shots as the United States women's hockey team beat Finland to lock up a spot in the championship battle at the 2022 Winter Olympics, though U.S. ultimately fell to Canada, 3-2.

It was a silver medal, though it couldn't replicate the gold-medal performance of 2018. Numerous members of the Wisconsin women's hockey program were involved for both the U.S. and Canada, including Madison native Amanda Kessel and Dousman's Brianna Decker, who was injured early in the Olympics and missed most of the games.

More:Meet the 2022 Olympic athletes who have ties to Wisconsin

Giannis breaks Kareem's record

Naturally, Giannis Antetokounmpo became the all-time leading scorer in Bucks franchise history … on a 3-pointer?

It was a big one, too, helping the Bucks tie Brooklyn with 18 seconds left in the game, on the way to a 120-119 Milwaukee win in overtime at the Barclays Center. The achievement had become an expectation at some point, but it was still a notable achievement for a player who has become so important to the team and the city.

Others

• Former Packers safety LeRoy Butler is inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

• The Wisconsin men's and women's basketball teams play a game at American Family Field before a crowd of more than 17,000, with the men beating Stanford and women falling to Kansas State.

• "Ladder Gate" in Philadelphia after Giannis has a strange exchange with a 76ers player and then pushes over a ladder after a loss.

• Khris Middleton's MCL injury in the first round of the playoffs looms large when the Bucks ultimately can't get past Boston.

• Brett Favre's involvement in a Mississippi welfare fraud scheme sours his reputation.

• Patrick Baldwin Sr. is fired as UW-Milwaukee men's basketball coach after a season in which the team struggled despite the presence of Baldwin's blue-chip prospect son, who battled injury and bouts in a tough season. Baldwin Jr. was still drafted by the Golden State Warriors in the first round, and UWM hired Bart Lundy in Baldwin Sr.'s place.

• Aaron Rodgers is awarded his fourth NFL MVP.

• Lorenzo Cain is designated for assignment after struggling to open the 2022 season.

• Members of the Golden State Warriors with Milwaukee ties, including Jordan Poole, Kevon Looney and Juan Toscano-Anderson, celebrate an NBA title.

• Wisconsin's Johnny Davis caps off a meteoric rise, getting taken No. 10 overall by the Washington Wizards in the NBA draft.

• Wisconsin volleyball takes down No. 1 Nebraska and ultimately sweeps the Cornhuskers on its way to a conference championship, top seed in the NCAA Tournament and nearly a spot in the Final Four for a fourth straight year before a 3-2 loss to Pittsburgh in the regional final. Head coach Kelly Sheffield is named Big Ten Coach of the Year. Wisconsin graduated several key figures from its 2021 championship team but maintained an elite standing.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The 10 most memorable sports moments in Wisconsin in 2022