My love for basketball started over a decade ago when I was just eleven years of age. From various trips to America and Canada, I was struck with the amount of attention and passion that surrounded every one of America’s major sports. After making a trip to Madison Square Gardens in New York to see the Knicks play the Heat back in 2005, I wasn’t completely ready for what was about to take place.

Being down by twelve with six minutes to go in the fourth, I was surprised to see that the arena wasn’t emptying. Maybe they knew what was about to happen. Then star, Stephon Marbury, started to actually play and make shots while he was at it. In fact he made three after three after three. Before I knew it, the Knicks were down by just three with the shot clock turned off. Seeing the Garden absolutely erupt after Marbury had tied it to send it to over time, I knew basketball was the sport for me. With all that said, I have been a huge basketball fan ever since supporting the Toronto Raptors. (Please don’t laugh).

Anyhow, I have become accustomed to the professionalism and formality of the NBA and while great to see, I have a growing love and passion for the college game. I am so excited to become part of something so special that is NCAA basketball, and in particular to cover your Wisconsin Badgers. The Badgers have had great success in recent years by consecutive sweet-sixteen appearances, but are now ready to take the next step and join the game’s elite. The 2013-14 season promises to be as exciting as ever and it really is a privilege to cover the team for Fan Sided. So here’s to a great season of passionate yet credible coverage of your Wisconsin Badgers. Go Badgers!

Rodney Dangerfield has nothing on the Badgers when it comes to “Getting No Respect.”  The Badgers have no bad losses.  At UNLV, at Penn State, at Purdue, at Illinois, neutral court versus Notre Dame(a potential one seed), and at overall number one seed Ohio State.  Along with no bad losses the Badgers have a bunch of quality wins, namely Illinois, Purdue, Ohio State and Marquette.

The Badgers are currently favored by seven points tonight over Penn State.  If the team at all cares about keeping its seed from falling any further than a four I strongly suggest they come to play with all out effort.  With a couple of wins a three seed may be back within reach but one loss and I could see the Badgers getting a six.

I will take the current stats off of Kenpom.com since it gives us the efficiency stats and provides the ability to look at teams from past years.  The stats I will focus on are Offensive Efficiency, Defensive Efficiency, Effective FG %, Turnover %, Offensive Rebound%, Free Throw Rate, 3 Point%, 2 Point%, FT%, Block% and Steal%.  These are the major stats tracked at Kenpom and give a very strong snapshot of any particular team.

Wisconsin Badgers

I love the Badgers and am a Wisconsin fan.  But I will be taking my bias out of this projection as I am truly basing this off of the stats and prior years.  The Badgers efficiency stats are in the table at the below.

Strengths

• Offensive Efficiency.  The Badgers are currently ranked #1 in the country.
• Offensive Turnover %.  The Badgers are also ranked #1 in offensive turnover rate.
• FT%.  The Badgers are also ranked #1 in free throw%.
• Defensive Rebounding.  The Badgers are 11th in the country at gathering the opponents misses.
• Block and Steal % Offense.  The Badgers do not get blocked on offense(ranked 10th) and do not give up steals(ranked 6th).

Weaknesses

•  Turnover % defense.  The Badgers are 313 in forcing turnovers.
• Free Throw Rate.  The Badgers are 334 in the country at getting to the line per field goal attempt.
• 3 point % defense.  The Badgers are 267 in defensive three point shooting%.
• Steal %.  The Badgers are 342 in creating steals.

My Tournament Projection:  Wisconsin has a highly efficient offense which bodes well come tournament time. If you have the choice between an efficient offense or defense, go with the offense in basketball.  Wisconsin is also a great free throw shooting team which will allow them to salt games away when they get a lead, this should really help out in the early rounds when Wisconsin should be the more talented team.  The offensive efficiency, lack of turning it over and free throw shooting should be enough on their own to get to the second weekend. 

Once in the second weekend Wisconsin is possibly the most susceptible to match-ups.  Wisconsin only plays at a slower pace and rarely if ever speeds it up which is unfortunate.  If Wisconsin were to speed it up to grab a lead, than slow it down to salt the game I would be more confident of their chances against like competition that they will see in the Sweet 16 and Elite 8.  Add to this the fact that Wisconsin does not force turnovers nor do they get steals that can quickly be converted to points which prevents Wisconsin from quick runs that can open up a game or quickly close down a deficit.  Wisconsin will be in a grind it out game likely from the second round on. 

Due to the talents and ability of Jon Leuer and Jordan Taylor I do feel the Badgers can rise above their deficiencies to get a round past where they should.  These two players take Wisconsin’s ceiling of a second weekend run to a potential final four team.  But I feel the Badgers getting to the final four is their ceiling, too many chances along the way to meet up with a bad matchup.  A bad matchup for the Badgers would be any team that can speed you up with their defense, shoot the three, and have the personnel to match up with Leuer and Taylor.

Second Weekend:  Near Lock.  Any team can have a bad day and if the Badgers get stuck in a 3-6 seed the second round matchup would be far from a gimme.  Otherwise the Badgers are in position to control their own destiny in the first weekend.

Final Four: Contender.  I do not think the Badgers can make the final four if their path to the final four holds form throughout, meaning if they are a three seed they would face a 6, 2, and 1 to get into the final four.  If the Badgers get at least one break and avoid getting  the toughest possible matchup in each round I feel they are good enough on offense and can create enough issues with Leuer and Taylor to make a run to the final four.

Championship:  Pretender.  It think the deficiencies in forcing turnovers, 3 point % defense, and getting to the free throw line are too many to win six games in row for the Badgers.  What Wisconsin is bad at, they are really bad at and that shows a lack of versatility that you need to take on all comers in the tourney.