Wednesday night’s basketball game between the Wisconsin Badgers and the Rutgers Scarlet Knights is a huge one. Wait a minute.
RUTGERS? HUGE GAME? No, come on now. That’s just a cheap way to get some extra clicks. You don’t really MEAN that, do you?
Actually… yes, I do. This is genuinely a huge game. If you think about it, it’s not that controversial a statement to make, even though any sentence with the words “Rutgers” and “huge game” seems absurd on its face.
First of all, this is a road game. Wisconsin has to win one of these pretty soon. The Badgers need to enter the heart of Big Ten play — on January 3, 2020, at Ohio State — knowing they can play well on the road. This Rutgers game is the last Big Ten road game before that Ohio State contest. This game is the next-to-last road game for Wisconsin before the heart of the Big Ten season. The other road game is on Saturday, Dec. 28, at Tennessee. If Wisconsin plays a poor game against Rutgers, how can the Badgers realistically expect to win in Knoxville? If the Badgers don’t win in Knoxville, how can they expect to win in Columbus several days later?
Second, Wisconsin plays just one game in the next 16 days after this visit to Piscataway, New Jersey. The Badgers host Milwaukee on Dec. 21, then have the Christmas holiday, followed by the Tennessee game a week later on the 28th. Wisconsin won’t have many live-game situations in which to test its responses and instincts. Getting it right on Wednesday against Rutgers gives Greg Gard and his players a chance to realistically say to themselves, “We’re on the right track.” Without a lot of games in the next few weeks, the Badgers need to make this moment count.
Third, the fact that this is Rutgers is precisely what makes this game bigger, not smaller. If Wisconsin was going to Ohio State or Michigan on Wednesday, to play a top-10 team which has been flourishing, the Badgers really wouldn’t have much of a chance. Moreover, Wisconsin could play well against OSU or Michigan right now and still lose. Rutgers, however, is an opponent the Badgers should beat. RU is an opponent the Badgers need to beat, in order to improve their road-neutral record (part of the NCAA Tournament’s “nitty gritty report” and the overall data profile the committee looks at in early March). Rutgers is an opponent Wisconsin — at this stage of its season-long evolution — can beat on the road. It is in many ways the truest measuring stick this team could ask for. A win says this team can grow. A loss would show this team is not yet ready to evolve.
Huge game? Yeah. I think I just laid out a convincing three-point argument… whether you like it or not.