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.