Why Do The Wisconsin Badgers Continue To Lose To Unranked Opponents?

The Wisconsin Badgers have struggled to win games over the past four games, losing three of their last four games to team that are ranked in the Top 25.

Tonight’s matchup against the unranked Northwestern Wildcats proved that the Badgers have some serious holes left to fill if there is any hope of winning the Big 10 Conference Championship. In a game were Wisconsin could not make a basket to save their life, the Wildcats exploited every weakness the Badgers’ defense had. Drew Crawford scored 30 points for Northwestern while Ben Brust scored 21 to lead the Badgers.

Wisconsin fans have every right to be scared for how this season has started to pan out. Just several weeks ago basketball experts were calling the Badgers a national championship contender, now after losing four of their last five games, it is difficult to see how a team who loses to average Big 10 teams can have a chance at going anywhere during the March Madness Tournament.

In the defense of the Badgers, two of their last five games have only been lost by five or fewer points, making their pride a little more salvageable. Both the Michigan Wolverines and Indiana Hoosiers have been top 10 teams in recent seasons, but this season has been extremely difficult for both programs, causing them to remain unranked and be referred to as “average” teams, something that does not get said about these two programs ever year.

With their next game against the Ohio State Buckeyes coming up on Feb. 1, it will be interesting to see what major changes are made by head coach Bo Ryan. During the past few games, especially tonight against the Wildcats, top scorer Sam Dekker was nonexsistent and with his lack of shooting presence, this ultimately led to the teams unfortunate demise and four loss on the season.

Should all you Badger fans be worried out there? If Wisconsin cannot manage to win against an OSU team that just lost in overtime to Penn State, I would definitely start to worry about any chance of Big 10 tournament glory.

Baxter Colburn is a College Basketball writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Baxstar20, “Like” him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google