Wisconsin basketball lost its fourth-straight game yesterday, this one a 78-56 blowout loss to a 12-10 Rutgers team.
The Badgers were never truly competitive. Rutgers’ pressure had Greg Gard’s team out of whack from the opening tip, and the Badgers never seemed to match the Scarlet Knights’ intensity and effort. Pair all of that with some Rutgers hot shooting in the second half, and Wisconsin gets blown out by a team that was 4-7 in Big Ten play.
It is the continuation of a gigantic slide. Wisconsin was ranked No. 6 in the nation with a 16-4 record and an 8-1 mark in Big Ten play entering the month of February. Now 11 days later, the Badgers have dropped to 16-8 (8-5 Big Ten) and have been all but eliminated from the conference race.
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One place the slide is also seen is KenPom’s ratings. The Badgers were hovering around the top 10 for weeks — propped up by one of the five best offenses in the nation.
Now, Wisconsin is down to No. 18 in the rating system with the No. 12-ranked offense and No. 40-ranked defense. The Badgers also fell to the No. 4 team in the Big Ten, now behind No. 2 Purdue, No. 11 Illinois and No. 16 Michigan State.
Seven games remain on the regular season schedule. This feels like a crossroad for this team — where the group either goes on a run entering March, or collapses entirely and risks missing the NCAA Tournament.