No, a ticker-tape parade won’t be thrown for the Wisconsin Badgers if they manage to defeat the Purdue Boilermakers on Tuesday night in the Kohl Center. However, if you have been paying very close attention to Wisconsin hoops this season, you know this game is very important for one simple reason: Believe it or not, Wisconsin could register its first three-game conference winning streak of the season with a win over Purdue.
Surprised? You shouldn’t be.
This has been the way of the Big Ten this season — not just the home-road splits, but teams fluctuating wildly between their A game and their F game. The Purdue team Wisconsin will face on Tuesday is a perfect embodiment of this pattern. Iowa has exhibited the pattern. Indiana has. Rutgers doesn’t know how to tie its shoelaces away from The RAC in Piscataway, New Jersey. Wisconsin has certainly been part of the Big Ten’s very unpredictable, motion-sickness-inducing basketball campaign.
Go look it up if you’re not sure. Wisconsin split its December Big Ten games. The Badgers won at Ohio State in early January and lost to Illinois. They beat Penn State and Maryland and were on the verge of a three-game winning streak in the league, but they then lost to Michigan State. They stumbled around in late January, losing three of four games, but have since rebounded to beat Ohio State and Nebraska. Here we go, then: Wisconsin can finally stitch together three Big Ten wins in a row on the day after Presidents Day. It has been a long and winding road, but the Badgers have entered a favorable portion of their schedule and are in position to make good use of it.
If they CAN, it speaks well of the team’s ability not only to improve as the season has moved along, but to have survived the rougher patches in the schedule in January, without completely collapsing.
If the Badgers CAN’T beat Purdue — which would mean a season sweep at the hands of the Boilermakers — dreams of a double bye at the Big Ten Tournament would not necessarily be shattered, but they would become a lot less realistic.
Wisconsin has had a hard time handling prosperity this season. UW has been great when its back has been against the wall, but terrible when coming off a decisive victory. If the Badgers can string together good performances, their habits and tendencies might improve in the right direction… at the best possible time of year.