Wisconsin has struggled this season against formidable foes. They've lost every single quad-1 game they've played until they went on the road to Ann Arbor to take on Michigan. Greg Gard had a plan to scramble the Wolverines, and the players needed to execute, and they did, toppling Michigan 91-88. This handed Michigan their first loss of the season, but it also showed the Badgers they can hang with the top teams in college basketball.
Jon Rothstein, after the win, deemed Wisconsin as 'back' in a quote on his 'Breakfast Buffet' article. He said, "Wisconsin got its season back against Michigan." Stating that things weren't headed in the right direction for the Badgers, losing "five games to BYU, TCU, Nebraska, Villanova, and Purdue by an average of 19 points." However, it all started to click versus Michigan.
Jon Rothstein thinks that Wisconsin has their season back after the big win over Michigan
Related: Wisconsin gets good news and bad AP Top 25 news after stunning Michigan
Rothstein is the biggest name on the media side of college basketball. He's known for his basketball obsession and pretending there's nothing else in the world happening. Now, he's patting Wisconsin on the back, "On Saturday, the Badgers’ stellar outside shooting and ability to go over the top of the defense gave a formula on how to beat Dusty May’s team moving forward."
As Rothstein notes, Wisconsin hasn't had an easy road, and four of its five losses have come at the hands of top-30 NET teams, with the only exception being the loss to TCU, which is ranked 42nd in the NET but also has a win over Florida (NET 15).
BYU is NET 9, Nebraska is 11, Villanova is 29, and Purdue is 5. That's quite the gauntlet, and now, after the big win over Michigan, it's hard not to think that maybe Wisconsin was closer than most thought, but hadn't quite put it all together until facing Michigan.
There's a case to be made that Wisconsin figured it out against UCLA, as they beat the Bruins 80-72. However, because it was at home and UCLA was only a quad-2 opponent, many overlooked it. Now, those two back-to-back games may have shown that Wisconsin is actually cooking right now, and they may truly be the "comeback kids."