When the Wisconsin Badgers play the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Sunday in the Kohl Center, it will be 74 days since December 11, 2019.
What is so special about Dec. 11, 2019? It is the last time Wisconsin and Rutgers played, the first of the two games in this season’s Big Ten series between the two teams. Saying that UW and RU last played 74 days ago doesn’t seem to capture just how long it was — or at least, how long it FEELS — since these two teams last played each other.
It feels like 74 weeks more than days.
Micah Potter wasn’t yet eligible on Dec. 11, 2019. Wisconsin had not yet won a game played away from home on Dec. 11 of last year. Wisconsin was the team trying to find some way, any possible way, to play well in a non-Madison location. Rutgers had not yet beaten Seton Hall — that came a few days later, on Dec. 14 — and was therefore a team without a high-quality win. No one was talking about Rutgers as a possible NCAA Tournament team back then, 74 days ago. No one in Madison or elsewhere in the state of Wisconsin entered that night in Piscataway, New Jersey, thinking that the Badgers were about to lose to an NCAA Tournament-quality team. No Wisconsinite entered that night thinking that a loss to Rutgers would be easy to absorb on Selection Sunday. A loss to Rutgers — on Dec. 11, 2019 — figured to be a blow to the Badgers’ overall NCAA profile. Given that the team was only 5-4 at the time, it seemed UW badly needed that win.
Huh.
How things change.
We can look back on that moment as the last game in which Micah Potter was ineligible to play. We can also look back at that game in New Jersey and realize that Wisconsin lost to a good team, not a bad one. That result looks less appalling and more reasonable with each passing day.
Now, as the teams prepare for the rematch on Sunday, can we note the irony involved? Wisconsin was looking for its first road win entering Rutgers on Dec. 11, 2019. Now, on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020, the script has been completely flipped. Rutgers has only ONE true road win this season. The Scarlet Knights — in Game 2 against Wisconsin this season — are now the team desperately searching for a road win and for a good performance away from their home building.
Funny how life works, eh?
This is how weird things get when two teams don’t play for 74 weeks…
I mean 74 days.