Our worst fears here at Badgers Wire were realized. We wrote about the reality that Purdue, after being blown out at home by Illinois earlier in the week, was likely to be mad as hell entering Friday’s game against Wisconsin. We noted the parallel with Purdue crushing Michigan State by 29 before Tom Izzo’s Spartans played Wisconsin one Friday earlier, on January 17.
We did point out that Purdue is a lot worse than Michigan State. Nevertheless, the Boilermakers did figure to bring a lot of heat for this game against Wisconsin.
The Badgers couldn’t handle that heat.
We all know that the timing of each game in a season is a variable no one can predict before the season starts. These things do matter to the extent that while teams might be inconsistent over a five- or 10-game stretch, they will have more (or less) motivation on a specific night.
However, these considerations don’t have to matter. Moreover, it is precisely the job of a coaching staff to make sure players answer the bell regardless of what the opponent does. This is exactly what proves how good — or weak — a team is. Can a team take an angry opponent’s best punch? Is a team ready to fight when the opponent zooms out of the locker room with tremendous energy at the start of a game?
Wisconsin wasn’t ready for this against Michigan State. That was not fun, but at least we could all say that was Michigan State, a quality team.
Wisconsin not being ready for Purdue, though? That is orders of magnitude worse. It’s so much worse than the Michigan State loss not just because Purdue is a far weaker team than the Spartans, but also because Wisconsin just went through a week in which it faced an angry team coming off a blowout. This game against Purdue was a time to show that the Badgers could take that big punch from a steaming-mad team on the road.
They couldn’t… and the sad part is that they were NEVER truly competitive.
What if future Wisconsin opponents are coming off blowout losses? Those teams will be mad as well. Can the Badgers defeat highly motivated teams away from home? They will need to prove that sooner rather than later.