Badgers Basketball 2012-2013 Season Preview

The Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball team will begin to the season as one of five national ranked teams in the Big Ten Conference. Indiana checks in at #1 nationally in almost every preseason poll. Ohio State will begin the season ranked #4 nationally in both the Associated Press and Coaches polls. Next up is Michigan and they check in at #5 nationally in both the AP and Coaches polls. It's very rare that the Big Ten has three teams in the top five to begin the season, especially when one of those team's is not Michigan State who ironically are next up checking in at number 14 in both the AP and coaches polls. Finally, last, but certainly not least, are our Wisconsin Badgers, who check in at #23 in the AP and #21 in the Coaches poll. Sporting News believes the Badgers are a little better than this, as they have the Badgers ranked at #17 nationally. Basically, simple math tells us that the Badgers are picked to finish 5^th in the Big Ten this year.

Josh Gasser Out For The Season

Before the season even begins, the Badgers got some devastating news. Junior guard Josh Gasser, who was going to be the team's starting point guard this season, has suffered a torn ACL and is out for the year, he will become an assistant coach which in all likelihood leads us to believe his playing days have officially come to an end. Two players to look for now at the point guard position will be redshirt freshman George Marshall and sophomore Traevon Jackson, who have talent, but are raw and unproven.

This means the Badgers will have to rely on their always good front-court more than ever. Luckily they have two really good talents up front in senior wingman Ryan Evans and Senior center Jared Berggren. Evans is a second-team preseason All-Big Ten selection and Berggren is a fourth-team preseason All-Big Ten selection. How far the Badgers go this year will largely depend on the play of these two. 

So how does this all add up? Well, they should be able to make the NCAA tournament but the lack of stability at the point guard position may prevent them from going anywhere once the reach the dance.

Badgers look forward to Michigan St.

Last week might have been the border battle, but if you are looking for two schools with a lot of recent history, look no further than Wisconsin and Michigan State.

Looking beyond the memorable battles on the gridiron last fall, the Badgers and Spartans have needed overtime to decide two of their last three meetings on the hardwood, the most recent coming back on Jan. 3 at the Kohl Center when junior forward Ryan Evans’ 3-point shot at the end of overtime was infamously wiped off the board upon video review.

While that tough defeat came during a stretch of three straight early season losses for the Badgers, the rematch is going to be played under far different circumstances.

No. 15/17 Wisconsin (8-4 Big Ten, 19-6 overall) has won eight of 10 since that loss, while Michigan State’s 58-48 defeat of Ohio State Feb. 11 has put the No. 7/8 Spartans (9-3, 20-5) in a virtual tie with the Buckeyes at the top of the Big Ten standings. However, both the Badgers and Michigan State lurk just one game back in the loss column, each controlling their own destiny over the final two and a half weeks of the regular season.

Simply put, there is plenty on the line Thursday night at the Breslin Center.

“It’s definitely a good feeling [to control our own destiny] but we kind of knew someone was going to lose eventually,” sophomore guard Josh Gasser said. “We just have to take it one game at a time and it starts Thursday with a big one against Michigan State because they are right up there with us.”

In order to maintain control of that destiny, Wisconsin will have to shut down the Spartans’ high-octane transition game. Michigan State has averaged over 10 points per game on fast break opportunities while adding nearly 16 points per game off turnovers.

“We’ve been playing really well in transition,” Gasser said. “Anytime you can take away a couple easy transition baskets in games like this, where it’s usually decided by one or two possessions, it’s definitely huge.”

But throughout the season, the Badgers have been second to none on stopping the transition game, holding opponents to under five points per game on fast break opportunities.

“Its always an emphasis. We don’t want teams to come down and get easy shots,” junior forward Mike Bruesewitz said. “I think we have some of the best transition defense in the country and that’s something we work on.”

Led by the front line trio of senior Draymond Green, junior Derrick Nix and sophomore Adreian Payne, the Spartans have dominated both in the paint and on the glass this seasn. Michigan State has outscored its opponents by over 13 points per game in the paint while posting a rebound margin of plus 10.2 per game.

“They take a lot of pride in doing that,” senior guard Jordan Taylor said of the Spartans’ play in the paint. “We definitely want to out-rebound them. We know they are big, but we have guys who can rebound too.”

Having already won in hostile environments at Purdue, Illinois and just last week at Minnesota, the Badgers are more than ready for whatever the “Izzone” has in store.

“We’ve won in some tough road environments this year,” Taylor noted. “We just have to execute offensively and defensively and do whatever we can to get the win.”

A Badger win on Thursday night would truly shake things up in the Big Ten. With Wisconsin set to face Ohio State yet again in just over a week’s time, the next 10 days mark just about as pivotal a stretch as any that the Badgers will face this season.

“If the juices aren’t flowing for what we’ve got coming,” head coach Bo Ryan said. “You need help.”

Let's hope Bucky can take down Michigan St.   GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!