The good news for the Wisconsin Badgers: They should easily be able to handle the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Tuesday night in the Kohl Center. The bad news: Well, there shouldn’t be any bad news, but if the Badgers somehow lose, they will take a big hit on their resume, wiping away the discernible progress they have made in recent weeks with wins against Penn State and Maryland.
This is not the least pleasant game a team can play when it tries to solidify its NCAA Tournament status (the Badgers are clearly in the tournament right now, but a loss to Nebraska, should it happen, would move them toward genuine bubble territory). The least pleasant game a team can play when chasing an NCAA bid is to play a team like Nebraska on the road. Tuesday’s game is at home. (Wisconsin will have to go to Lincoln later in the season.) So, this isn’t the most uncomfortable situation Wisconsin can face. Nevertheless, it is close to that. This is a time to take care of business and move on to the more challenging games on the schedule, which will be tougher to win, but which won’t carry nearly as much of a penalty.
Nebraska has been good enough to beat Purdue and Iowa at home this season, but away from Lincoln, the Husker hoopsters have not been able to win in Big Ten play. They nearly beat Indiana in December but fell just short. They had a chance to win at Northwestern — one of the two road Big Ten games every good Big Ten team needs to win this season — but failed to get the job done. This is not a good team. It is going nowhere this season. Fred Hoiberg knows he is in the middle of a major — not minor — rebuilding project.
If the Michigan State game this past Friday was set up for a Badger disaster, everything about this Nebraska game on Tuesday sets up Wisconsin for success, and maybe a drama-free night as well. This should be a routine victory. That’s the good news.
The bad news? We shouldn’t have any bad news to discuss on Tuesday night — not if the Badgers do what they ought to.