Here it is in the middle of football season, and I am talking college basketball thanks to the Wisconsin Badgers. They once again are stealing some headlines from my beloved Packers. And it comes in typical fashion.
The preseason Big Ten basketball predictions once again had Michigan State at the top of the list thanks to Tom Izzo and his incredible job of recruiting top players. Second on the list was Purdue thanks to their young team from a couple years ago now coming together. Then Ohio State again due to great recruiting. Where was Wisconsin on the list? Seventh. Behind these three schools and then overrated Minnesota, Michigan and Illinois.
This is an annual tradition. The so-called experts look at the Badgers and see that Bo Ryan has not gone out and found the top athletes. They say that the Badgers have lost their star players (who four years ago were also not considered very good) and that this Badger team will not be as good as last year. And then year after year, Bo goes out and finishes in the top three in the Big Ten.
Well, it looks like it will probably happen again this year. We got a hint of this when the Badgers smoked Top 25 ranked Maryland in the Maui tournament a couple weeks ago. And then this Wednesday was the big one. Wisconsin went out and ran with fifth ranked Duke in the first half and then enticed them into a typical Badger slow-down game in the second half en route to an upset of the Blue Devils. Not only was it a huge win for the Badgers, but it was the first time Duke ever lost in the Big Ten-ACC challenge. And it was the first time the Big Ten ever combined to win the challenge.
I doubt Wisconsin will ever get the credit they deserve especially under Bo Ryan’s non entertaining system, but it’s wins like this that just go to prove that this program is one of the best in the Big Ten and one of the top twenty programs in the country this decade.
On Wisconsin!
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