Big Ten Basketball: Week 5 conference power rankings

The Badgers are another team who are struggling after losing some key veterans from last season. Guys like Nigel Hayes, Bronson Koenig, Zak Showalter, and Vitto Brown are gone, and it has been up to Ethan Happ to lead the Badgers as the lone returning starter this year.

The problem is, the Badgers are struggling to find contribution behind Happ, who is currently leading the team in scoring (16.3 ppg) and rebounding (8.6 rpg). Brad Davison (10.9 ppg) and D’Mitrik Trice (9.4 ppg) are the other top scorers on the team but Trice had surgery on Dec. 11.

After a solid road win at Penn State (their lone RPI top-100 win), the Badgers dropped two games last week.  Wisconsin lost at Temple on Dec. 6. They then returned home to face rival Marquette, where they got blown out of the gym 82-63. Marquette’s guard duo of Andrew Rowsey (24 points) and Markus Howard (23 points) was too much for the Badgers to overcome. Brad Davison had a solid game for Wisconsin, supplying 20 points but it was far from enough.

The defense of the Badgers is what has kept them in games so far this season. The Badgers rank tops in the Big Ten in scoring defense, allowing just 62.4 points per game so far this season (CBS sports).

Schedule for this week:

Western Kentucky (6-3) at Wisconsin on Dec. 13