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Bracketology Winners: Louisville rising, Michigan continuing dominance

By Lukas Harkins

LOUISVILLE, KY - NOVEMBER 27: Chris Mack the head coach of the Louisville Cardinals gives instructions to his team during the 82-78 OT win over the Michigan State Spartans at KFC YUM! Center on November 27, 2018 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LOUISVILLE, KY - NOVEMBER 27: Chris Mack the head coach of the Louisville Cardinals gives instructions to his team during the 82-78 OT win over the Michigan State Spartans at KFC YUM! Center on November 27, 2018 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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IOWA CITY, IOWA- NOVEMBER 30: Head coach Gard of the Wisconsin Badgers watches. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images)
IOWA CITY, IOWA- NOVEMBER 30: Head coach Gard of the Wisconsin Badgers watches. (Photo by Matthew Holst/Getty Images) /

Wisconsin Badgers

After returning every major contributor from last season, in addition to the healthy returns of D’Mitrik Trice and Kobe King, many expected Wisconsin basketball to return to prominence this year. Having said this, though, I don’t think that many people saw the Badgers as a fringe top-10 team by early December. Yet, that is exactly where we stand after eight games. Wisconsin performed extremely well at the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament, even though they lost to Virginia in the championship game, and the team only padded its resume this week.

For starters, Wisconsin notched a big-time win over NC State at home. The Badgers struggled tremendously during most of this matchup and had plenty of opportunities to lie down and take a loss. But the team showed great mental toughness to fight back in the closing stretch of the game to come away with a win over the Wolfpack. Then, Wisconsin followed that performance up with a road victory over Iowa. And while it is reasonable to state that the Hawkeyes were greatly overrated heading into that game, winning on the road in Carver-Hawkeye is never easy.

To this point in the year, it is clear that Ethan Happ is the offensive leader of the team. Just about every Wisconsin possession goes through Happ and that much is obvious in his per game averages: 17.4 points (55.3% FG), 11.6 rebounds, 5.3 assists, and 1.9 blocks. Additionally, sophomore guard D’Mitrik Trice has exceeded all expectations with his shooting (58.3% from deep) and scoring (17.4 points).

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