The Badgers Will Not Make the 2016 NCAA Tournament | Which Big Ten Teams Will?

In this post, let's take a look at the strengths and weaknesses of each Big Ten team that has, at the very least, a reasonable chance of making the NCAA Tournament. I have six teams listed, and that means that I don't think that the Badgers will make the tournament this year. 

Indiana- The 17^th ranked Indiana Hoosiers are a mild surprise, sitting atop of the Big Ten at the moment tied for first place. This team's strength is guard play, especially from Big Ten player of the year candidate Yogi Ferrell. What concerns me the most is their interior size. The Hoosiers only have one play who is 6'10” or taller. The next biggest are several players tied at 6'8”. I know, I know, George Mason ran all the way to the Final Four without a player over 6'8” years ago. However, they took advantage of some major upsets in their very weak bracket and avoided playing anyone with serious size until they met Florida in the Final Four, and ran up against all those trees on the Gators roster.

Iowa- The Iowa Hawkeyes, currently ranked 3^rd in the AP poll, are tied with Indiana on top of the Big Ten standings. Their strength is the fact that they have an All-American candidate in senior forward Jarrod Utoff who can take over a game. The weakness is the fact that other than Utoff and his sidekick, junior guard Peter Jok, they don't have much else.

Maryland- The 8^th ranked Maryland Terrapins are a dangerous team lurking right below Iowa and Indiana in the standings. The Terrapins are one of the most balanced teams in the nation as they have five players averaging double figures in scoring. They also have really good size which, at the collegiate level at least, usually equates to good interior defense, and in this case, is. The problem I see with Maryland is the fact that they don't have that one player who can take over a game.

Michigan- The Wolverines are tied with the Terrapins right below Iowa and Indiana in the Big Ten standings. Michigan is a guard-oriented team, and have that player, in senior guard Caris LeVert, who can take over a game. The Wolverines also shoot 74% from the free throw line as a team, which is very good. What is going to be their downfall is their complete lack of size on the interior.

Purdue- The 21^st ranked Boilermakers, much like Maryland, are very balanced, with four players averaging double figures in scoring. Also like Michigan, Purdue shoots 74% from the free throw line as a team. They also have one of the most coveted aspects at the collegiate level, a pair of seven footers that are skilled and dominate the paint. So what is the problem with these Boilermakers? The concern is whether or not their guards can do enough as unit to change the outcome of a game.

Michigan State- The 12^th ranked Spartans have fallen on some tough times, having lost three in a row. Their biggest strength is they have one of the best players in the country in senior do-it-all guard Denzel Valentine, who can just take over a game with the best of them. The problem with this team is after Valentine, not much else, which could explain the three losses in a row.

Badgers don't play Michigan State in 2015 & 2016

Just when the rivalry between the University of Wisconsin and Michigan State football teams was getting really good comes the news that it's about to go on a hiatus.

The Big Ten Conference announced on Monday the conference schedules for 2015 and 2016.

The highlight for the Badgers is the return of Michigan following a four-year break. But the downside is the absence of the Spartans from 2013 to 2016.

The Badgers and Spartans have played three highly entertaining games the last two years and met in the inaugural Big Ten championship game last season.

Michigan State handed UW its only regular-season loss in 2010, winning 34-24 in East Lansing, Mich. The Spartans won the 2011 regular-season meeting, also at home, 37-31, on a Hail Mary pass on the game's final play.

The Badgers prevailed 42-39 in the wild title game, securing the win with the help of a roughing-the-kicker penalty on a punt late in the game.

The two teams are expected to be the favorites in their respective divisions during the upcoming season and will face each other at Camp Randall Stadium on Oct. 27. But the next four years, the only way they would play each other is in the conference title game.

Iowa, a traditional rival, leaves the UW schedule again in 2015-16, after returning in 2013 and 2014. That means the Badgers and Hawkeyes will not play each other in the regular season in four of the first six years of divisional play in the Big Ten.

Let's hope when they do meet Bucky comes out on top.

Badgers play at Iowa tonight

The No. 16/15 Wisconsin men’s basketball team (9-5 Big Ten, 20-7 overall) looks to get an important road win against Iowa (6-8, 14-13) in Iowa City on Thursday.

Although Iowa delivered the Badgers a shocking defeat at the Kohl Center at the end of December, no one considers it a revenge game.

“They exposed us a little bit. We obviously didn’t play our best game when they came down here and it kind of set the tone for the Big Ten that we didn’t want, obviously,” sophomore guard Josh Gasser said. “We think we’re back on track here and ready to go. We’ll take it to them again. I wouldn’t say revenge, but we’re playing to get a win.”

Though the Badgers will not call it a revenge game, they will certainly want to play better against the Hawkeyes this time around.

In their loss earlier this year to the Hawkeyes, the Badgers gave up a season-high 72 points, including 14 points off the fast break. The Badgers also struggled on the offensive side of the ball, turning in one of their worst shooting performances of the year.

Wisconsin shot just 35 percent from the field and missed 25 of their 28 three-point attempts. Missing those outside shots not only hurt Wisconsin’s shooting percentage, but exacerbated the Badgers’ troubles in transition as well by allowing the Hawkeyes to grab the long rebounds and run.

A game with an up-and-down pace that the Hawkeyes like to play does not suit Wisconsin’s slug-it-out style, so it will be very important for the Badgers to slow the pace down this time.

One way to stop the Hawkeyes from getting in transition is by making shots. In order to do that, the Badgers must find an inside presence that has been somewhat absent in their last two games. In those games, Wisconsin was outscored by the Spartans and Nittany Lions in the paint by a combined 42 points.

“We’ve got to work the ball in the post a little bit more. I think we’ve got to establish a strong inside game, especially with [junior center] Jared [Berggren],” junior forward Mike Bruesewitz said. “I think we’ve got to get him back going on the block because he can be really dominant down there.”

Getting the ball in the paint also gives the Badgers more free-throw attempts, slowing down the Hawkeyes’ transition game even further.

“Getting to the line obviously slows them down. It just changes the pace of the game,” Bruesewitz said. “It kind of makes the tempo more of what we want it to be, a little more of a ground-it-out game than trying to get it up-and-down and run with those guys.”

Thursday’s game could be a big one for Wisconsin’s momentum and possible NCAA Tournament seeding moving forward. If the Badgers are able to slow down Iowa and get a road win in a tough environment like Iowa City, it could give them a boost of confidence they could use when they visit Columbus, Ohio. to battle the Buckeyes on Sunday.

Thursday’s showdown with the Hawkeyes is scheduled for 8 p.m. at Carver-Hawkeye Arena and can be seen on ESPN2.

Let's hope Bucky wins so they help themselves with tournament seeding.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Badgers Looking to Beat Hawkeyes

Bo Ryan and Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery have plenty in common. In addition to both being at the helm of their representativeBig Ten men's basketball programs, Ryan and McCaffery are also both proud Pennsylvania natives.

McCaffery grew up in Pittsburgh, Pa., nearly 300 miles away from Ryan's hometown of Chester. Despite this distance, Ryan has gotten to know McCaffery quite well both as an athlete and coach.

"[Fran] was a heck of a player, tough competitor—kind of a playground guy too," Ryan said. "He's a very competitive guy so coaching seems to fit him."

McCaffery's Hawkeyes (3-8 in Big Ten, 10-13 overall) are coming off back-to-back Big Ten wins, and will be looking for their first three-game winning streak of the season when UW visits Carver-Hawkeye Arena Wednesday night.

Hovering around the .500 mark, the Hawkeyes have been a Jekyll and Hyde team, especially on the defensive end of the floor. In Iowa's ten victories this year, their opponents are averaging 53.1 points and shooting 35 percent from the field, including 24 percent from three. However, the Hawkeyes are also 0-12 when opponents shoot a better field goal percentage and 0-9 when out-rebounded.

Still, Iowa has won two straight games and is certainly peaking just in time for the Badgers' arrival.

"In scheduling, it's always about when you play a team and where you play them," Ryan said. "And if there's a team playing with more confidence than Iowa I don't know who that would be, other than Ohio State."

The all-time series between Iowa and UW is tied at 76-76, although the Hawkeyes hold the advantage at home 48-25.

Despite winning four of six in Iowa City, this time around won't be as easy whenlooking at Iowa's 10-13 record.

"You ask a lot of coaches; they would tell you they would much rather have played Iowa a month ago," said Ryan. "But that happens a lot in our league."

That said, the Badgers are playing with a bit of confidence of their own. UW has won five of six, with two of those victories coming against teams then ranked in the AP Top 20.

Junior guard Jordan Taylor and senior forward Jon Leuer, arguably the best duo in the Big Ten, have no doubt led the recent charge. The tandem is averaging a conference-best 39.6 combined points per game, and Taylor owns the nation's best assist-to-turnover ratio at 3.9.

Despite Taylor's emergence as one of the elite guards in the nation, he was absent from Monday's Cousy Award finalists, given annually to the nation's top point guard, another indication of just how under-the-radar the Bloomington, Minn. native has gone this season.

But Coach Ryan noted that while the ten finalists are all deserving of the honor, his focus has always been on the team and its maturity throughout the season.

"I never worried about what lists anybody's on or what awards or anything else," Ryan said. "I'm still one of those old coaches that never gives out any individual awards at any of our functions because I always thought it had Wisconsin on the front of the jersey."

Through it all, Ryan knows this disappointment will not deter Taylor from remaining one of the league's top performers.

"Jordan will be okay," Ryan said with a smirk. "He'll recover from that."

With a confident Iowa team up next on the docket, he'll have to recover quickly if the Badgers hope to continue their winning ways and head back home on a good note.

Badger Basketball looks like they are on a roll.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Scott Tolzien is the Man

The two biggest roadblocks on the Wisconsin Badgers’ schedule heading into this season were going to be, without question, the Ohio State and Iowa games. The consecutive tests loomed large after the results of that two-game stretch in 2009.

Now, after the dust has settled, the Badgers can reflect on two monumental victories with pride and satisfaction. A definite reason for their success in the two contests was the play of senior quarterback Scott Tolzien.

Just one season ago, the story was completely different when the Badgers suffered two crippling defeats in consecutive weeks at the hands of the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes.

In the two losses — the first a 31-13 defeat in Columbus and the second a 20-10 disappointment against the Hawkeyes at Camp Randall — Tolzien went a combined 42-70 for 393 yards with no touchdowns and five interceptions.

“As a competitor, you’re frustrated by having performances like that, but it’s just motivation to get better in the offseason and throughout camp, and in the season, you want to maximize each opportunity you get,” Tolzien said.

But in 2010 against those teams, he completed 33 of 42 attempts for 357 yards with one touchdown and only two interceptions.

“It’s important that you have a short memory as a quarterback,” Tolzien said. “It’s really how you respond that makes a difference.”

Despite the stark contrast in statistics against the two opponents over the past two seasons, there is no magic formula for success that Tolzien followed — the Badgers have just produced higher-quality games.

In the Ohio State game last season, Tolzien threw two passes that were intercepted and returned for touchdowns. In the 2009 Iowa game, one of his three interceptions led directly to a touchdown for the Hawkeyes in a game Iowa won by merely 10 points.

“The big thing for me, individually, is you see what a big difference turning the ball over makes,” Tolzien said. “You see how that kills the momentum and really puts you in a hole.”

Beyond that, Tolzien simply attributed this season’s success against the Buckeyes and Hawkeyes to better team performance.

Another key factor is the difference in quality of protection Tolzien received over the two seasons. Against Ohio State and Iowa last season, he was sacked a combined 10 times. This year, he was sacked just once total in the two games.

“I would have to say protection,” senior left guard John Moffitt offered in explanation for Tolzien’s improved play. “On top of that, Scott’s a good quarterback. He knows what he’s doing out there and makes the right decisions and executes the right way.”

All other considerations aside, the value of experience and maturation can’t be understated.

“He’s a year older,” offensive coordinator Paul Chryst said. “He’s just a different quarterback. He continues to improve and when he has opportunities he makes the most of them. Scott’s tremendous at continuing to learn the game. It’s not just those losses that help him; it’s everything that he experiences, from practice to games.”

A final factor that impacted Tolzien’s performance was the play of the Badgers’ receivers. Senior receiver Isaac Anderson noted that the receivers exhibited less chemistry last season in the two games compared to this season.

“Last year in the Ohio State game, we weren’t on the same page as far as running our routes,” Anderson said. “That wasn’t Scott’s fault…as receivers, we have to be there for him; when he’s putting trust in us and throwing the ball out there, we’ve got to make plays.”

According to Tolzien, it wasn’t just his performance that helped to make this year’s games against the Big Ten’s top teams Badger wins.

“I think we flat-out executed better,” Tolzien said. “I think a little bit of that is experience. But I think it’s just playing better on Saturday.”

Lets hope that the Badgers can continue recruiting QBs that will make a difference.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Badgers prepare for Iowa

In head coach Bret Bielema's weekly news conference Monday, he addressed some of the keys in the victory over  No. 1  Ohio State, as well the team's preparation for this week's game, and battle for the Heartland Trophy against Iowa.

Bielema began press conference by giving thanks to those who support the team off the field.

"I just wanna say thanks to all the people who were in Camp Randall on Saturday, especially our student section," Bielema said. "I thought, coming out of the tunnel, there was a huge difference, and I really thought they [the fans] were into it the whole game, and the way we started it you'd think to believe it had an effect on our players as well."

Bielema also gave recognition to his players.

"In that game you can't give enough recognition to guys that made things happen."

The Badgers' offensive MVP honors went to junior running back John Clay and freshman running back James White. This dynamic duo of power and speed combined for 179 rushing yards and three touchdowns against a team who had not allowed a 100-yard rusher in 29 games.  The offensive line also received recognition for this dominant running performance, especially senior tackle Gabe Carimi and senior guard John Moffitt.

The Badgers' defensive MVP was spread around as well.

 Senior linebacker Blake Sorensen was one who received high regards. Sorensen totaled up ten tackles for the Badgers, as well as an interception to all but end the game.

Junior defensive end J.J. Watt also received recognition. Watt was in quarterback Terrelle Pryor's face all night, and had four tackles, three of which were for loss, including a pair of sacks.

The last defensive MVP was junior cornerback Antonio Fenelus.  Fenelus played solid coverage all night, breaking up a pass and recording six tackles.

The special teams MVP this week went to return man David Gilreath, who electrified the Camp Randall crowd, returning the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown. Gilreath also earned conference honors as special teams player of the week.

Bielema realizes though that the team's focus now needs to be on the next oponent at hand.

"[Iowa is] a very talented football team that is playing very, very well," Bielema said. "A lot of the same keys to victory against Ohio State, at least offensively, will be very, very similar."

 Iowa, 5-1 iscurrently ranked No. 15 in the BCS standings, and is coming off a 38-28 victory over Michigan. In that game, senior quarterback Ricky Stanzi completed 17 of 24 passes for 248 yards and three touchdowns, all of them to senior wide receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos. Despite this vaunted pass offense, Bielema expects to see a strong dosage of the run game from Iowa.  This mostly comes from the success of sophomore running back Adam Robinson, who averages 4.8 yard per carry and has eight touchdowns.

This game between the Badgers and the Hawkeyes will be their 86th meeting, with Iowa leading the series just slightly, 42-41-2. But good news for Badger fans. Wisconsin has won seven of the last 13 meetings.  This game will be just as big for the Badgers as the game against Ohio State because if the Badgers lose, they can likely say goodbye to a possible BCS bowl and a chance at a Big Ten conference title.

Lets hope Bucky can keep it rolling.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!