Analyzing the Badgers' Basketball Schedule
After the tough Sweet Sixteen loss to Notre Dame, the Badgers' basketball season is just about two months away. Finally. Currently, the Badgers rank in the top 10 in a lot of really early preseason polls, and are almost a unanimous top 15 squad after returning everybody and with the additions of F/C Andy Van Vliet and G Brevin Pritzl. They have two "TBA" games, but one of them is likely Wisconsin-Milwaukee (who is not on the schedule for the first time since I remember) and the other is probably a "cupcake" game for the first game of the season. Here is the link to the schedule: http://www.wkow.com/story/32842382/2016/08/25/badgers-release-2016-17-mens-basketball-schedule
This is definitely not an easy schedule, but it's also not the most difficult either. Oklahoma and Syracuse are both rebuilding clubs and are at the Kohl Center, Creighton is not the same since Doug McDermott graduated, and the Maui invitational could wind up being very easy or very difficult. As far as the Big 10 schedule goes, the five teams we play both home and road are Minnesota, Rutgers, Ohio State, Michigan and Indiana. Indiana is the only almost surefire tournament squad of the bunch, with a decent chance for Michigan and Ohio State is likely NIT quality. Of the remaining 8 games in Big 10 play, Purdue, Illinois, Nebraska and Michigan State (in order) are on the road, where Penn State, Northwestern, Maryland and Iowa are at home. This schedule is pretty average at first glance, with Michigan State, Purdue and Indiana on the road as obvious tough draws.
Overall, the Badgers should wind up in the top 25 from start to finish next season, and they should be a favorite to win the Big 10 along with Michigan State and Indiana. Should the Badgers be forced to go up against Oregon and North Carolina in the Maui Invitational, it would likely mean that the Badgers' beat Oregon to get to Carolina, so only one loss (at most) is likely from that tournament. The Badgers are better than Georgetown, Connecticut, and Tennessee for sure, and on a normal Badger performance, they should beat any other team. Same goes for Oklahoma, Creighton, Syracuse and the rest of the non-conference slate. Marquette could be the "toughest" non-conference game outside of Maui, as they return pretty much a full roster as well and the game is in Milwaukee. I'd say the Badgers will likely finish with seven losses, and those are unpredictable at this point.
Once it gets a month or so closer to the season, and the Brewers are done playing, and the Packers and/or Badgers have a bye week, I likely will do at least a Big Ten preview and a preview of the non-conference opponents from the Badgers, but at this point, a lot can happen, and not every opponent is set in stone yet. Until then, the NFL season starts exactly two weeks from tonight.
