The Wisconsin Badgers basketball program are no strangers to a big stage. Saturday they go front in center on the biggest stage in the world, Madison Square Garden, as part of Big Ten Super Saturday.
Bright lights. Big City.
The city that never sleeps will see plenty of Wisconsin Badgers fans as Madison Square Garden plays host to Big Ten Super Saturday, a double-header of basketball and hockey at the world’s most famous arena.
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It’s just one more big stage for the Wisconsin basketball program to showcase their talents. Three years ago they lost to Kentucky in the Final Four. They followed that with halting the Wildcats’ 38-game win, landing them in the national championship. The Badgers would wind up losing to Duke in the title game. Last year the Badgers, amid a mid-season change at the head coach rank, would make it to the Sweet Sixteen before losing to Notre Dame.
Oh yeah, and don’t forget the Big Ten tournament either. Wisconsin has played in the conference title game on six different occasions, winning three of those contests.
Just this season the Badgers have seen a fair-share of high-profile games. An early season November top 25 matchup saw the Badgers fall on the road to Creighton in a Big East-Big Ten showdown. Not long after that Wisconsin would find themselves in the Maui Invite championship game against a very good North Carolina team.
Follow that with a matchup against Syracuse in the annual ACC/Big Ten challenge and you could say the Badgers have had plenty of experience playing on a big stage with plenty of attention thrown their way. Throw in playing in the Big Ten, one of the toughest conferences in college basketball.
Wisconsin will take on Rutgers at 11 a.m. CT in a game televised on the BTN. The Badgers once again are asserting their dominance in the Big Ten with a 6-1 conference record and sitting atop the league with Maryland.
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Bright lights? Big city? This is nothing new for this Badgers program. They’ve been through this a time or two.