by Bart Winkler | February 10th, 2010
No matter what their record was, or what their ranking was at the time, no team has come into the Kohl Center this season and come out a victor. That’s a mark that stands no longer, as Illinois was able to knock of the #11/#13th ranked Wisconsin Badgers on Tuesday night in Madison. The 63-56 loss is Wisconsin’s first loss to an unranked Big Ten opponent throughout the entire tenure of Bo Ryan. Not cool.
It was a tough night overall for basketball in Wisconsin, as both the Bucks and the Badgers lost to teams that they had no business losing too. The Illini aren’t a terrible team at all, as they are right on the cusp of the rankings, but the Badgers blew one big time in their home stadium just as they were starting to get more national attention.
Illinois' Demetri McCamey (32) shoots past Wisconsin's Keaton Nankivil (52) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2010, in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Andy Manis) (Andy Manis - AP)
The Badgers were up by eleven at one point in the game, but a poor second half ultimately paved the way for Illinois to grab the victory. In the second stanza, the Badgers just just 26 percent, and that was something they couldn’t recover from. Rob Wilson hit a garbage three-point shot with sixteen seconds left, but Wisconsin couldn’t muster up one field goal in the entire five minutes before that shot. Each time they had an opportunity to score, the ball would either bounce out of the hoop or rim out as if it wasn’t mean to fall through. As hard as they tried, the Badgers were just not going to win this game.
The loss puts the Badgers in a bind if they want to try to win the Big Ten regular season, and it will definitely drop them in the rankings and probably cost them a spot in the seedings for the tournament when it’s all said and done. A very disappointing loss indeed, and the Badgers will need to regroup before a game against Indiana this Saturday.
Bart Winkler is a Staff OP/Ed writer fo Wisconsin Sports Online and BadgerChatters.com. Visit his blog, The Bucky Channel, for more of his work.
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