The Badgers are back!

On January 13^th of this year, things were bleak at the University of Wisconsin. On December 15, long-time head coach Bo Ryan had retired and Greg Gard had been named interim head coach (with no assurance of a promotion). At that time the team was 9-9 and had lost four of their last five games, the final straw being a loss at lowly Northwestern. Not only did it appear very unlikely that they would continue Ryan’s streak of never finishing worse than fourth in the Big Ten, but the chances of their reaching the NCAA tournament seemed hazy, at best.

Then something happened. The Badgers since then are 11-1, with their only loss coming at Michigan State – a brutal place to play this season. They seem to be almost certain to make the Big Dance and are tied for second place in the conference. What was a very “wrong” situation suddenly became very “right.” Their statistics still do not overwhelm you, but they are now keeping control of games where they would have lost control in the first half of the season. Leading scorer Nigel Hayes is not a great shooter – not even a very good one – but he is making 73.9% of a team-leading 222 free throw attempts. (By contrast, the Trojans’ leader in FTA is Roger Woods with 115.) Super-frosh Ethan Happ is averaging 11.8 points/game and 7.9 rebounds. (Yes, he redshirted last season – naturally.)

So, UW opponents, the brief respite is over. The Badgers are back, with a vengeance! And to make things every more depressing to their foes, not one player in their rotation is a senior.