Wisconsin Basketball’s season begins in less than a month, and the Badgers will be facing several star-caliber players in Big Ten play.
College basketball is BACK everybody!
Well, almost. We are just 26 days away from Wisconsin taking on Coppin State at the Kohl Center in the season-opener, though the Badgers do have an exhibition game scheduled against UW-Oshkosh a few days earlier on November 2.
Last season was certainly one to forget for Wisconsin fans. After losing a special senior class and seeing key players such as guards D’Mitrik Trice and Kobe King go down with injuries early on, the Badgers struggled mightily for most of the year and, despite an encouraging run of success at the end, the team missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 20 years.
Graduation and injuries certainly played major roles, but it also didn’t help that the Big Ten very strong last season.
The conference’s star power in 2017-18 was significantly more potent than what it appears to be this season. Michigan State’s Miles Bridges and Jaren Jackson, Michigan’s Moritz Wagner, Purdue’s Dakota Mathias, Isaac Haas, and Vincent Edwards, Maryland’s Kevin Huerter and Justin Jackson, Ohio State’s Keita Bates-Diop, and Northwestern’s Bryant McIntosh are just some of the big names that have moved on and left huge voids to be filled on their respective teams.
That being said, some stars certainly do remain in this conference, and more will undoubtedly rise as the season plays itself out.
Here, we take a look at the five players that opposing teams should be most concerned about in the Big Ten at the moment.