Wisconsin Basketball is back in the Big Dance after failing to qualify last season. How can the Badgers take down a red-hot Oregon team to advance?
As one of the top programs in the country, Wisconsin is accustomed to making the Tournament year in and year out. Yet, last season was going to be one of the toughest tasks to make the Big Dance. Greg Gard lost four out of five starters from back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances prior and the team ultimately finished three games under .500 and missed the NCAA Tournament. This year was a complete turnaround, though, as everyone was healthy and a year older and the Badgers are back dancing.
Oregon will be the first round matchup as a No. 12 seed against the Badgers’ No. 5. Wisconsin fans know all too well that the Badgers are vulnerable to that upset. Not to mention the Ducks are red hot right now. Oregon was a top-15 team to start the season. By the beginning of December they dropped out and, by Christmas, they had lost their top-10 recruit Bol Bol for the season.
The Ducks had to deal with injuries all season. Top-25 recruit Louis King missed some time. Potential sophomore breakout Kenny Wooten hasn’t been healthy for a while and top-100 recruit Miles Norris hasn’t played a full season. The Pac-12 as a whole hasn’t lived up to its power-conference status for two years now. But Oregon found a way to win four-straight to close out the regular season. The Ducks then won four games in four days and clinched the automatic bid which had to be done because they weren’t going to receive an at-large.
Wisconsin, on the other hand, had a feeling at the beginning of February that they were heading for an at-large bid. They basically sealed the deal on March 2 when they beat Penn State for win No. 20. They had just lost to Indiana in double overtime, but before that, they avoided some bad losses to Illinois and Northwestern.
The Badgers have used multiple different ways to win games this year. The most common obviously comes when they run the offense through Ethan Happ. But Brad Davison has hit some big shots, the bench contributes nicely, and the seniors are giving one last crack at making a run. They better get creative on Friday afternoon so they aren’t done quickly in their first year back in the Tournament.