Riding a seven-game winning streak, No. 5 Wisconsin (7-1 Big Ten, 16-2 overall) will look to extend its win streak this Wednesday when Iowa (1-7, 9-10) comes to the Field House.
The Field House has proved to be a tough environment for opponents to come into, as the Badgers are 7-1 at home this season. Attendance has continued to impress this past weekend when Badger faithful sold out the Field House for the third time this season. Players and coaches have definitely taken note in the increase in attendance from last year to this year.
“It’s starting to become a hard ticket,” said Wisconsin head coach Kelly Sheffield. “And we’re real excited about that.”
These matches are becoming not only a must among the Madison community, but also among UW students.
“I mean, they were packed,” Sheffield said. “They were loud and energetic... and man that makes all of us really excited.”
Last week, the Badgers swept Minnesota in their home-and-home series. The win at Minnesota marked the first time the Badgers had beaten the Gophers on the road in six matches.
The two matches each had different storylines as the outside hitters on the Badgers dominated the first match while Wisconsin’s middles carried the team in the second match.
“That’s the type of team we have,” Sheffield said. “And fortunately we’re able to be able to play those types of games.”
While Iowa was pedestrian last year, Sheffield knows that his team cannot discount the Hawkeyes, especially after they beat Northwestern last week.
“They’ve got to be feeling really good about themselves,” Sheffield said. “They look really good on film. Certainly a lot better than what we’ve seen a year ago.”
Sheffield knows a lot of credit for this steady improvement from last year to this year has to go to Iowa’s new head coach Bond Shymansky and the rest of his coaching staff.
Shymansky has been trying to implement a new offense, which will take his team time to become fully comfortable with.
“They’re playing hard,” Sheffield said. “They’re playing with a lot of energy. But offensively, they’re just running things a lot quicker, a lot more diverse, and you can tell it’s starting to take hold.”
Unfortunately for the Hawkeyes, learning the new playbook has taken them a while and as a result their performance in the Big Ten has taken a hit. After making it through their nonconference schedule with an 8-3 record, the toughest conference in the nation brought them back down to size.
They were swept in six- straight Big Ten matches before putting up an impressive performance at home against No. 12 Illinois, pushing the Fighting Illini to five games, and later in the week beating Northwestern.
Following their match against Iowa, the Badgers will return home Sunday to take on No. 11 Nebraska. This will mark the return of former Badger coach John Cook, who coached Wisconsin for seven seasons and made six NCAA tournament appearances before moving onto Nebraska.
