Rastall Ramblings
Stop me if you’ve heard this tale before, but the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team has solidified themselves as one of the best teams in the Big Ten despite modest preseason expectations.
Behind one of the country’s best offenses, a dynamic backcourt duo of John Tonje and John Blackwell, and probably the best depth of any team during Greg Gard’s decade-long tenure as head coach, the Badgers are an NCAA Tournament lock in mid-February who have reasonable aspirations of a deep March Madness run.
This past Saturday was the finest feather in their cap yet. The day started with the tournament selection committee revealing who would be the top 16 teams in the field at this point in the season. That reveal showed Wisconsin as a No. 3 seed and No. 11 on the overall seeding list. Not too bad for a team picked to finish tied for 12th in the Big Ten in the preseason media poll.
They followed that up with their most impressive win of the season by going into Mackey Arena — historically a house of horrors for the Badgers — and knocking off the Purdue Boilermakers.
That win would be impressive enough on its own, but it was only amplified by Wisconsin losing Kamari McGee for the remainder of the game late in the first half due to a weak flagrant two call.
Shortly after McGee’s ejection, the Badgers found themselves in a 31-22 hole. But instead of spiraling, they seemed to use losing McGee as fuel and unleashed their best basketball of the season.
After getting the deficit down to 37-36 at halftime, Wisconsin erupted for 58 points during a second-half outburst on offense. The Badgers scored a ludicrous 1.87 points per possession in that second half with Tonje scoring 22 of his 32 points after halftime.
On the game, Wisconsin made a nearly unimaginable 20 of 22 two-point shots and finished with 94 points — the most ever scored by an opponent at Mackey Arena in Matt Painter’s 20-year tenure as head coach.
Having won 10 of 12 in conference play since an 0-2 start to their Big Ten slate, the Badgers are now fully in the mix for the conference’s regular season title. They still sit two games back of first-place Michigan in the standings, but Wisconsin has a more favorable remaining schedule than Michigan, Michigan State and Purdue.
The Badgers have a plenty reasonable path to a 15-5 Big Ten record that could certainly be enough for a share of the conference championship. Whether it’s pulling that off or making noise in March, this group has a path ahead to secure their spot in the pantheon of great Wisconsin basketball teams.
