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Wisconsin Basketball: Penn St. games important for Badgers’ title hopes

By Christian Borman

Jan 27, 2021; College Park, Maryland, USA; Wisconsin Badgers forward Tyler Wahl (5) celebrates with guard Trevor Anderson (12) after making a basket as time expire in the first half against the Maryland Terrapins after making a shot as at Xfinity Center. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 27, 2021; College Park, Maryland, USA; Wisconsin Badgers forward Tyler Wahl (5) celebrates with guard Trevor Anderson (12) after making a basket as time expire in the first half against the Maryland Terrapins after making a shot as at Xfinity Center. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Wisconsin basketball team is currently 13-4 and tied with Iowa for second place in the Big Ten. Of the 10 games remaining on the regular-season schedule, five of those opponents are currently ranked. Luckily, three of those five matchups will be at home.

The Badgers will host #4 Michigan (Feb. 14), #7 Iowa (Feb. 18), and #19 Illinois (Feb. 27). They will still face both Illinois (Feb. 6) and Iowa (Mar. 7) on the road this season.

They have some big games coming up, which makes all the other games even more important. They will face five unranked teams. Games they should win. But we should all know by now that in the Big Ten, nothing is guaranteed. Just last night we saw Rutgers beat Michigan State by 30 points.

In this conference, anything can happen on any given night, which is why the Badgers need to snag every win they can. They avoided a big second-half meltdown against Maryland earlier this week, being up by 17 at the half before Maryland cut the game back to within three points with 12 minutes left in the game.

Hopefully, that game will give the Wisconsin basketball team some experience with overcoming adversity in conference games. It was difficult to watch, but you could say that game had more value than if they would have blown the Terps out.

So now, with such a difficult schedule ahead, the Badgers will face the Penn St. Nittany Lions twice in a row. The Badgers were previously slated to take on the Nittany Lions on January 3rd, but the game had to be postponed due to covid complications.

So now, the Badgers will travel to Penn St. on Saturday and then turn around and face them at home on Tuesday. These are a pair of games that the Badgers should and need to win. These two wins will out the Badgers at 15-4 and at the very least, keep pace with the top of the Big Ten.

First-place Michigan is currently under a 14-day halt due to positive covid tests at the university, so they aren’t scheduled to play again until they host Illinois on February 11. The Badgers could potentially make up some ground on the Wolverines. The Wolverines will face four ranked teams (Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio St, and Iowa) in their final 10 games. Since they are on a two-week delay, that could make them a little rusty. Teens like Iowa and Wisconsin will be looking to jump in and take the top spot in the conference should they slip.

Iowa doesn’t have it any easier.  The Hawkeyes will face Illinois, Michigan St., and Ohio St. in their next three games. They have 12 games left, and six of those are against ranked opponents, including two against Wisconsin.

Even though the Badgers are struggling throughout stretches of games, they are still hanging around are still very much a threat for the Big Ten title. If they want to stay at or near the top, they will need to beat the lesser, unranked teams. A pair of games against the 5-7 (2-6) Nittany Lions this week is going to be Wisconsin’s first test. A letdown in either game could prove that Wisconsin isn’t the caliber of team that would make some noise in the NCAA Tournament like we all hoped they were.

Buckle up Wisconsin basketball fans, the final ten games of the season are going to be intense.

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