It's another edition of Saturday Scorecard, a favorite with fans Bay View to Beijing. (Or was it Shorewood to Shanghai?)

We can revisit that another time. Here are some notes on the scorecard:

Best ever: The University of Wisconsin will formally retire Ron Dayne's uniform number 33 at halfitme of a game today against Michigan.

That begs a question:

Didn't that already happen?

On Nov. 13, 1999, Dayne broke Ricky Williams' all-time collegiate rushing record with a 31-yard run that was a spine-tingling highlight in a 41-3 victory over Iowa. The Badgers, who clinched a second straight Big Ten title that day, immediately unveiled Dayne's number on the façade of the stadium.

Apparently, that wasn't the "official" retirement. The honor certainly is deserved. Dayne's record of 6,397 yards should come with an asterisk because it was set when the NCAA did not include bowl games in career stat totals. Add in the bowls, and Dayne had 7,125 yards and 71 touchdowns in 1,220 carries.

Earlier this week, UW athletic director Barry Alvarez talked about watching Dayne as a high school player.

"When I watched Ron on tape as a high school player, they lined him up at fullback, they'd hand him the ball, he'd disappear into the pile, you'd see the pile move for about five yards," Alvarez said. "But, in a few plays, they deepened him up at tailback. You could see his vision and patience and -- when he got into the secondary -- nobody in the secondary wanted to tackle him and then he would outrun guys. He was really a unique combination of size and speed."

Despite a somewhat lackluster NFL career, that combination of speed and brut force put Dayne at the top of our all-time Badgers list. The next four: Alan Ameche, Billy Marek, Joe Thomas and Elroy Hirsch.

Trivia time: Dayne is the sixth UW player to have his number retired, joining Alan Ameche (35), Elroy Hirsch (40), Pat Richter (88), Dave Schreiner (80) and Allan Shafer (83).

Tough times: Alvarez played college football at Nebraska and coached at Notre Dame, two powers who have struggled this season. Naturally, there are people wondering if either school had / would contact Alvarez about a job.

"They've got enough to worry about," Alvarez said. "Those are tough situations."

Alvarez said he hasn't stayed close to Notre Dame since leaving to take the Wisconsin job, but feels badly for Nebraska, which is coached by his former assistant, Bill Callahan.

"You hate to see that program as it is," Alvarez said. "The guys running it are my friends and former colleagues. That's really sad to see. What they're going through, I wouldn't wish on anybody."

Globalization: A generation ago, pro athletes in the US could screw up a play, cost their team a game and take solace in the fact that one billion Chinese people could not have cared less.

That still may be the case, but there were 250 million people in China who watched Yao Ming and the Rockets handle Yi Jianlian and the Bucks, 104-88.

Yao, a five-time all star, scored 28 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished three assists. Yi, a 20-year-old rookie, had 19 points and nine rebounds.

Yao predicted that Yi would someday surpass his skill level and it's not hard to imagine five games into his NBA career; Yi looks like a good player who is going to keep getting better

Hot ticket: Marquette held a tipoff luncheon on Thursday and it was revealed that the basketball program has 8,000 season ticket holders and 4,300 students, giving it a baseline of more than 12,000. Games against Notre Dame and Georgetown already are sold out.

Silver slugger: Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder, who won the Hank Aaron Award at the World Series, was named recipient of the 2007 Silver slugger Award for National League first basemen. The honor is voted by managers and coaches and is given to the top offensive player at each position. At age 23, Fielder became the youngest player in history to hit 50 homers.

Stay put: Talk in Green Bay said the Packers were contemplating a change at the guard position this week. It turned out to be untrue, primarily because the team doesn't have many viable options behind Darin College and Jason Spitz.

Enchanted evening: Dick Bennett, Fred Miller, Herb Kohl, Buddy Melees and Cecil Cooper were honored during the Wisconsin Sports Hall of Fame Induction Dinner Friday night at the Midwest Airlines Center.

Awards programs tend to drag out a bit, but emcee Marc Marotta kept things moving smoothly. Highlights of the night included Bennett's introduction by his daughter, Kathy, and Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig doing the honors for Kohl, his boyhood friend and former roommate at Wisconsin. His longtime agent, Alan Nero, presented Cooper.