To capture a second consecutive Big Ten Tournament title, Wisconsin will have to win four games in four days. It’s a tall order, but one that the Badgers are looking forward to.
Wisconsin has run the gauntlet over the past month and a half or so, facing each of the Big Ten’s top teams at least once, including several on the road. UW heads into Indianapolis having won 11 of its last 13 games. And even though they dropped their regular-season finale to Purdue, the Badgers still feel that their grueling schedule has them prepared for the heightened intensity of the postseason.
“We kind of got a nice taste of what to expect down the road,” junior forward Vitto Brown said of the team’s stretch run. “We’re definitely confident heading into the tournament.”
Wisconsin (20-11), the No. 6 seed, begins conference tournament play Thursday night at approximately 8 p.m. against the 11th-seeded Nebraska Cornhuskers (15-17), who advanced after beating Rutgers 89-72 Wednesday evening.
“It's Greg Gard's first day on the job officially, so I'm sure he will be nervous,” Nebraska head coach Tim Miles said following his team’s win over the Scarlet Knights. “Hopefully we can take advantage of that.”
UW faced the Cornhuskers once during the regular season, a 72-61 victory at the Kohl Center. However, Nebraska was missing one of its best players, senior forward Shavon Shields, in that game.
Shields, a second-team All-Big Ten selection by the coaches and a third-team pick by the media, is averaging 16.6 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
One of the difficulties of having a bye in a conference tournament is not knowing for certain who you will play as you practice throughout the week. However, Brown believes the fact that the Badgers faced both of their potential opponents in the regular season makes the task easier than it may seem.
“I think it would be tougher if we hadn’t played either one of them before,” Brown said. “The fact that we are familiar with who they have definitely makes it easier on us. We know Shavon Shields will be back for Nebraska, so that kind of adds a little wrinkle in there. So we’re just going to prepare like we would any other game.”
With the top of the Big Ten standings so crowded this season, the conference tournament seems relatively wide open. It seems like any of the top teams could capture the tournament crown, and redshirt freshman forward Ethan Happ is extremely confident in Wisconsin’s chances of doing just that.
“I feel like we’re gonna win it, so it’s not wide open to the other teams,” Happ said. “Obviously, there’s no team that’s head shoulders above another one and I feel confident that we’re going to get to Sunday.”
