When the preseason polls came out, Wisconsin and Northwestern could be found near the bottom of the Big Ten standings. The Badgers were expected to show the losses of four starters, while the Wildcats were expected to continue their rebuilding process under second-year head coach Bill Carmody.
Both are now being referred to as surprises of the season.
UW has kept hold of its fourth-place spot in the conference standings, while NU continued to put pressure in the middle of the conference mix.
After Wisconsin’s 73-44 blowout over Northwestern on Saturday, Carmody opened up his post-game comments with nothing but praise for the Badgers.
“I said before tonight’s game that [Wisconsin] is the story of the Big Ten this year,” said Carmody. “To lose what they lost and just to bring freshmen in and those guys contributing in such a great way, I think that coach Ryan and his staff have done just a terrific job. There might be other stories, but I think [Ryan is] doing a phenomenal job and they really showed it tonight.”
UW also showed something else that night that had not been seen all season — they managed to build a lead and only increase it. When the Badgers went up 55-35 with 6:48 left in the game, it seemed that everyone expected UW to falter, but that didn’t happen. Wisconsin scored on its next three possessions and continued to roll as it ran out the clock with a 20-9 run.
Wills would lead the Badgers in scoring with his 16 points, which was only fitting on senior night.
The win over Northwestern was the second time this season that UW beat a team that had previously beaten them on the road.
The last time the Badgers played the Wildcats, UW shot poorly from the free-throw line and left the “back door” open the entire game. Saturday was a different tale. Coach Ryan noted that past experience helped in the win, but that other problems then occurred.
“We took away the back door [Saturday], but then we let the guards on the comeback,” Ryan said. “They didn’t get one comeback on us at NU, but then they got three or four on us tonight. That was frustrating, but they didn’t get the backdoor. So we improved in one area and another area I wasn’t as happy with.”
Ryan related the victory back to time spent getting schooled on the playground.
“When you guys are playing at the playgrounds against somebody and you play them one game and they beat you and you get back on the court, aren’t you going to take away what they beat you with the first time?” asked Ryan. “It’s because of basketball IQ — you make adjustments, you study a player when you stand on the sideline. You study the guy you are going to guard and your help guy.”
As for the Northwestern side of the story, Carmody blamed not only poor execution on their part, but that Wisconsin had one too many weapons to contain.
“I think we were lucky to be within two at half,” said Carmody. “I didn’t think we played well on offense at all in the first half. There are too many guys to stop and that is usually a sign of a good team.”
Five Badgers scored in double-figures, including freshmen Devin Harris and Mike Wilkinson.
With only four games left on the Badgers’ conference schedule, attention has already turned to next Wednesday’s game against league-leading Indiana and Saturday’s contest against third-place Minnesota — both on the road. Ryan and his players refused to discuss those games until after Northwestern, but sure enough, talk turned to the Hoosiers in the locker room following the victory.
“We mentioned Indiana some after the game,” said Ryan. “But all I’m starting to think about is the corrections of some of the things tonight to take care of us first. First of all we’ll try to work on getting better so hopefully some things tonight will help us against Indiana.”
