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Wisconsin Basketball: It’s been a Rough Week for the Badgers

By Paul Bretl

BUFFALO, NY - MARCH 16: Head coach Greg Gard of the Wisconsin Badgers looks on against the Virginia Tech Hokies in the first half during the first round of the 2017 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at KeyBank Center on March 16, 2017 in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
BUFFALO, NY - MARCH 16: Head coach Greg Gard of the Wisconsin Badgers looks on against the Virginia Tech Hokies in the first half during the first round of the 2017 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at KeyBank Center on March 16, 2017 in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /
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To put it simply, it’s been a rough week for the Wisconsin Basketball program and one that they need to find a way to move on from.

After starting the season 5-5 and while they’ve still had their bumps in the road, overall the Wisconsin Basketball team had been playing some solid basketball over the last four or five weeks.

We saw them get their first road win of the season at Tennessee, and after that they added three top-25 victories to their resume, two of which came on the road as well. And after a win last Tuesday at home against Nebraska, Wisconsin sat at 5-3 in the highly contested Big Ten Conference.

However, the week that has followed has been rough on the Badgers. And that might be putting delicately.

It all started last Friday at Purdue where the Badgers were out hustled and straight up bullied by the Boilermakers. Purdue was lights out from 3-point range, had a rebounding margin of +32, including 16 offensive rebounds which matched Wisconsin’s total for the entire game. Not to mention that they had eight steals to the Badgers’ three. The result was a 70 to 51 win for Purdue, and honestly, it never felt that close.

Fast forward to this past Monday where in the midst of the Kobe King rumors, Wisconsin came out against Iowa playing very well. In fact, with 7:13 seconds left in the game, the Badgers held a 12 point lead. But from that point on, things would unravel as Iowa finished the game on a 23-5 run to secure the win.

Yes, those were certainly two tough losses to swallow but the Badges have a date with Michigan State at the Kohl Center this weekend where Wisconsin as always, has been very good and they have the opportunity to once again boost their resume. It was time to regroup.

The only problem was, things got much worse after that Iowa loss.

On Wednesday, Wisconsin learned that King would be leaving the program immediately and entering the transfer portal. This was a bit of a head-scratcher to some given that King was third on the team in average minutes played and second in field goal attempts per game, but moving forward, the Badgers will be without one of their top scorers.

Shortly after that announcement was released, we would learn that the Big Ten had made the decision to suspend Brad Davison for the upcoming Michigan State game after he received a flagrant foul trying to get around a screen in the final minute of Monday’s game against Iowa.

Two huge blows for a team that is trying to make an NCAA Tournament push over this final five weeks of the regular season.

Next. Badgers Fatal Flaws Exposed Again. dark

Now without King for the rest of the year and no Davison this Saturday, things look pretty bleak at the moment for the Wisconsin Basketball team. With 10 games left against some difficult conference opponents, the Badgers are going to have to refocus and find a way to finish the season strong.

And hopefully, there will be no more bad news to follow.

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