The Wisconsin Badgers’ win against the Ohio State Buckeyes was huge on its own terms. Wisconsin got a quality win which will significantly improve the Badgers’ nitty-gritty report for the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee. Wisconsin needed that game to bolster its profile. Yet, another important aspect of that win was that it came on the road. After the past weekend of Big Ten games — and as the calendar turns to the new year, which tells us the college basketball season is in its middle third — it remains true that road wins are hard to find in the Big Ten.
We are just getting started in conference play — three games into the conference season — but teams have played 13 to 15 regular-season games including non-conference play. That’s a decent amount of basketball. Through January 5, guess how many Big Ten teams have fewer than two losses on their home floor.
Remember, this is a league in which Nebraska and Northwestern exist. Those two schools have already racked up multiple bad home-court losses. Of the other 12 schools in the conference, surely one or two have lost at least two games at home this season, in early January. Right? RIGHT?
Wrong.
Twelve Big Ten teams — everyone other than the two NU schools — have no more than one home-court loss. Four schools — Wisconsin, Maryland, Rutgers, and Penn State — are unbeaten at home. Keep in mind that the Big Ten-ACC Challenge occurred. Indiana beat the same Florida State team which just went into Louisville and handled the Cardinals. Purdue, which has noticeably struggled this season, didn’t struggle at all at home versus Virginia.
Wisconsin doesn’t have a leg up on Michigan State in the 2020 Big Ten basketball race, since the Spartans are 4-0 in the league after their win over Michigan on Sunday, but the Badgers ARE in a good spot for second place given their road win over Ohio State, a precious gem which — if augmented by other road wins — will give Wisconsin a great chance to grab what it has claimed so often in the past: a double-bye in the Big Ten Tournament and the assurance that its first game of that March weekend will come on Friday, and not earlier.
Home sweet home. That has been the theme in the Big Ten this season. We will see how much the next two months change that reality.