December 7, 2019. A lot has happened since then, not just in the world at large, but in college basketball.
Wisconsin was an NIT-quality team then. Indiana had not lost a game heading into its Big Ten opener against the Badgers in Madison.
The Hoosiers had just beaten Florida State — a team likely to be a No. 2 seed in the upcoming NCAA Tournament — and hoped that they were ready to take the next big step forward as a program.
The Badgers had Kobe King on their active roster, and Micah Potter was still two weeks away from making his UW debut in the 2019-2020 season.
Greg Gard was facing more heat than Archie Miller at the time.
Yes, a lot has changed in the three months since that contest. The Big Ten’s 20-game conference season, with those two December openers, makes it possible to have a three-month gap between two conference games.
Now look where everyone is.
It is somewhat ironic that when Indiana and Wisconsin played on Dec. 7, the Badgers had one of their best offensive games of the season against a non-Nebraska opponent. Wisconsin had struggled through much of November (and then at North Carolina State in early December) at the offensive end of the floor, but against Indiana, everything came together. The obvious difference between the fluid, functioning Wisconsin offense of past weeks and the fluid, functioning Wisconsin offense seen against Indiana three months ago is that Kobe King was a central part of the Dec. 7 explosion against Indiana. King got in a rhythm and stayed there. He was a primary cog in an 84-point outburst against the Hoosiers, scoring 24 points. Nate Reuvers scored 20 to bolster Wisconsin.
The Badgers’ scoring patterns and distribution are so different now. Reuvers has been picked up in the frontcourt by Aleem Ford and Micah Potter. With King out, D’Mitrik Trice and Brevin Pritzl have stepped up, and Brad Davison has been a different player since getting a needed week off from Feb. 9-15, when Wisconsin did not play a midweek game in the Big Ten schedule. (That week in many ways reset Wisconsin’s whole season, though the Michigan State win on Feb. 1 was the most important individual game of this campaign.)
Indiana, meanwhile, has stumbled around — just good enough to make the NCAA Tournament, which is a profound relief in Bloomington, but not good enough to represent a remote threat for the Sweet 16. The Hoosiers have a low ceiling, especially since they can’t play NCAA Tournament games in Assembly Hall. Indiana fans won’t mind an NCAA bid, but they’re not happy. Indiana fans don’t expect 10 seeds; they expect strong Sweet 16 teams with a chance to go to the Final Four. Memories of that 8-0 start for IU are very distant.
Yes, a lot has changed in three months.