Per UW Athletics release: 

MADISON, Wis. -- Head women's basketball coach Bobbie Kelsey announced the signing of Carly Truesdale to a National Letter of Intent today. The San Antonio native joins Mikey Crall, a 6-3 post from Olathe, Kan., and Malayna Johnson, a 6-3 post from Bellwood, Ill., as members of the team in 2013-14.

A 5-9 guard, Truesdale attended Westbury Christian High School where she played for head coach Josh Bailey. Truesdale also played for coach Joe Dean as a member of the D1 Nation Super Regional Team.

Truesdale earned first-team All-State, All-Region and All-District honors, was named Newcomer of the Year in 2009 and 2011 and honored as a Texas Sports Hall of Fame All-Star.

She was a three-time Academic All-State honoree, a member of the Underclassman Honor Society and National Honor Society, and named National High School Scholar Athlete.

Footballscoop.com is a site most of you are or should be familiar with thanks to the coaching search the Badgers went through back in December that landed Gary Andersen. They were one of the best sources of information for us all and on Wednesday they visited Camp Randall stadium and Madison in general. 

With their visit they also were able to capture an inside look at the renovations to Camp Randall and the new toys that the Badgers players have at their disposal. With that we want to thank them and give them a good old fashioned hat tip as the following comes directly from the pictures they tweeted out today. 

Make sure you give @Footballscoop a follow on twitter if you are on the social media site. So, let's go into the tour they took us on today, shall we?

At Wisconsin, Gary Andersen has this message in nearly every room twitter.com/footballscoop/…

— FootballScoop Staff (@footballscoop) April 17, 2013

It's Spring Game Week here at MTB and with it means our look into some of the biggest headlines, position battles, and new things we'll be watching for come Saturday afternoon at Camp Randall. Yesterday we took a look at the wide receivers and the issue of having or not having a secondary option opposite of Jared Abbrederis.

Today, we flip sides of the ball and explore one of the biggest topics and biggest mysteries for most fans - what Dave Aranda has in store for his defense in 2013. 

One of, if not the biggest complaints about Wisconsin's defense over the past four or five years, or hell for most of the past decade or so has been a lack of imagination or a sense of an aggressive nature to it. Well, it's a new era and a new set of coaches and with it comes a lot of intrigue as to what said defense will look like. 

Saturday will be the biggest crowd to see exactly what the defense will look like to an extent and some answers could be gleaned, but what do you we know already about Wisconsin's new defense and what will be looking for on Saturday? 

Back in December the world of Wisconsin football was altered to a great degree with Bret Bielema heading to Arkansas. His move had a lot of people scrambling and that included big time in-state 2014 prospect Craig Evans, who had given his verbal pledge to the Badgers. 

When that happened Evans re-opened his recruitment, but always gave the new coaching staff a chance to win him over once again. On Monday Evans reaffirmed his commitment to the Badgers following yet another visit to the school. 

To say it's a relief to coaches, Evans, and to those fans who were in full freak out mode when Evans de-committed to the Badgers isn't doing it justice. So, what did it? According to reports a lot of it had to do with finally getting to see a Badgers practice in person. Following the practice he gave his verbal commitment to head coach Gary Andersen. 

It's safe to say that to this point this is the biggest get for the Badgers in the 2014 class, although it was always looking like Evans would stay with the Badgers. Just knowing Andersen and his staff could get the re-commitment of one of the most sought after defensive tackles in the country is a big statement in the world of recruiting.

Evans had recently visited a few other schools and had been offered by the likes of Michigan State, Ole Miss, Arkansas, Nebraska, and Pittsburgh. 

With Evans on board once again the Badgers have shot up the recruiting rankings as a team, ranking 18th by 247sports and Rivals and 13th by Scout.com. 

It's just six days away, of course we are talking about the annual Badgers spring football game, and with that a lot of storylines have developed since we previewed each position group heading into spring. So with that, welcome out our 1st annual "Spring Game Week."

We'll be getting you ready for the spring game on Saturday with a look at the biggest storylines unfolding over the course of the past month or so an give a look at what we'll be watching for and what you should be watching for as well. 

First up is a position group that hasn't gotten a lot of play in my discussions with fans. Normally it's all about what's happening with the QB's and who's standing out at running back and the two sets of lines too. However, one of the things that hurt this team the most last season was a lack of development of another option at wide receiver outside of former walk-on Jared Abbrederis. 

As we enter the final few practices before the spring game, what has gone on? Has there been an option emerging or will it be a mystery unsolved until the fall or even into the season? 

The term "players coach" has been thrown around a ton the past few years, so much so that it's almost become a cliché by now. So, forgive us if we were a bit skeptical when said term was used to describe new head coach Gary Andersen and what he would bring to Wisconsin. 

Skepticism is a healthy thing, but so is keeping an open mind and verifying if you're instincts were correct before burying your head in the sand. So, as the months have ticked off and spring practice has begun to wind down consider this a case of skepticism turned around for this writer. 

Why the turn? Well first off it's the fact that as fans we've been accustomed to associating the term "players coach" with being someone, ala Pete Carroll, who would parade celebs out to his players, make crazy pop culture references, become your favorite tweeter's favorite tweeter, and all sorts of crazy things. The basic gist of it all is that they are hip, cool, and with the times - all of which makes them somehow in-tune with their players and therefore having a special bond that makes their players love them. 

Secondly, it's an article written by Tom Mulhern of the Wisconsin State Journal. Credit where credit is due, this is one insightful and well done look at the program Gary Andersen is in the process of building. In the article Mulhern paints a picture of what it's really supposed to be like for a coach to be a "players coach." Andersen's not some older guy trying to be hip, in fact he readily admits to not being that kind of a guy. 

If you read the Wisconsin State Journal on a daily basis in Madison or check it out on the web you've likely seen a story titled "Gun-toting kicker misses uprights" in the past 24 hours or so. It's a story about kicker Jack Russell and it's headline is supposed to make you think that there is an evil gun loving kicker up to no good.

Congrats Tom Mulhern and the Wisconsin State Journal editorial staff, you got a cheap headline hope you are all happy . What could you possibly be talking about with that headline? I mean seriously, was a Badgers kicker caught on State Street toting a Tommy gun or brandishing a handgun and popping off a few rounds in the air in a drunken stupper?

Nope, instead Russell committed the awful "crime" of posting a picture to his personal twitter account of himself at a gun show holding and I quote from the article "what appears to be an automatic rifle." (see below)

We all know that the annual spring game is set for just over a week away, next Saturday April 20th, but a lot of the details about the game and the events surrounding it were a mystery. Consider the mystery solved then as UW Athletics released all of the details. 

Up first, the actual game details... You know, the reason you, me, and everyone else is here (per UW Athletics press release):

The game itself will pit the offense (White) vs. the defense (Cardinal). The first half will consist of two 15-minute quarters played with normal clock rules. Following a five-minute halftime, the second half will consist of two 10-minute running time quarters (except for the final two-minutes of the fourth quarter). Both teams will have opportunities to score. The scoring system is listed below.

Spring football means different things to different coaches. Some use it as a chance to just practice and get better. Others use it as a way to build their depth chart moving forward. Still others use it as a way to se the tone of the way they want the program to go. 

The best coaches find a way to achieve all of those goals at the same time and for new Wisconsin head coach Gary Andersen it's all about setting a tone of competition that will allow them to get better and build a roster around his philosophy.

"I think that it's (competition) important in football, it's important in life," Andersen said during Thursday's conference call with the media. "We try to hit both of those areas. In the game of football... there is going to be a winner and a loser. There's going to be no days off and at the end of the day they've got to look in the mirror and we played well enough to win today or we didn't play well enough to win today.

"It brings a little bit extra. If you are a competitor - no matter what you are doing, if you are playing checkers or dominoes, you want to win. I want competitors and I want to try to help them to learn how to compete every single day and win on the football field and win in life."

The NBA draft scouting process is already beginning, if you can believe it. I know I couldn't, but that notwithstanding expect UW to have some pretty good representation in the tournament as multiple ex-Badgers will take part in the Portsmouth Invitational, which gets underway today. 

What Badgers are participating? It appears that Brian Butch, Marcus Landry, Trevon Hughes, Jordan Taylor and Jared Berggren will all be in attendance. 

Notable #Badgers alums to attend Portsmouth = @brian_butch, @mlandry11, @nyc2wis & @jmtaylor11

— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) April 11, 2013

Jared Berggren will be tipping things tonight at 8pm Central time and you can watch it all here.

Sticking with the basketball theme - you can take part in the Badgers 2013 NCAA Tournament reception on April 23rd. More information can be found here.