The Tennessee Volunteers and Wisconsin Badgers have both endured rough losses this season, often marked by a sputtering offense but sometimes defined by an unfocused defense. These teams both have incomplete resumes and stand on shaky ground relative to the NCAA Tournament. They have a lot in common based on what they have endured over the past several weeks.
The past is not the only thing these teams share. Their current situations relative to their respective rosters are also strikingly similar.
Wisconsin fans know that the Badgers are trying to quickly integrate Micah Potter into their regular rotation. Potter was allowed to play for the Milwaukee game on Dec. 21, which gave the Badgers one game in which to adjust before this tussle with Tennessee. The Badgers are learning how to play a new way — not in terms of a new “style,” but certainly in terms of how they react and respond to each other in a sport which requires crisp and immediate (and often unspoken) understanding of what teammates will do. This will be Potter’s first road game of the season with the Badgers. It is a major test for Wisconsin with one of its key pieces finally in the lineup.
Tennessee is also facing a new situation, but not because an important player has joined the lineup. For the Vols, it is just the opposite.
Senior point guard Lamonte Turner (whose phantom foul of Purdue’s Carsen Edwards led to the Vols’ overtime loss to the Boilermakers in last March’s Sweet 16) was injured and knocked out for the entire season earlier in December. Tennessee has to rework its lineup without a core performer while Wisconsin welcomes Potter to the mix. Tennessee will also spend Saturday’s game figuring out how to cope with an adjusted reality. It makes this game that much more of a coin flip, so much harder to figure out from any or all sides of the competition.
If you think you know how Wisconsin — with Micah Potter — will play against Tennessee — without Lamonte Turner — this coming Saturday, you’re a much more confident person than I am.