NFL
By: Melo Williams
It’s March Madness Baby, which means it’s time to start dancing as the Wisconsin Badgers are making their 27th trip to “The Big Dance.”
Wisconsin (22-13, 11-9 B1G) received the No. 5 seed in the South Region and will face 12th-seeded James Madison (31-3, 15-3 Sun Belt) for the first time in program history in the first round of the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament on Friday in Brooklyn, New York. Tip time is 8:40 p.m. CST on CBS.
It appears the most popular upset pick of the first round is James Madison over Wisconsin led by CBS college basketball analyst Seth Davis who seemed pretty confident in the Dukes to upset the Badgers during the reaction show to Selection Sunday.
“I spy a 12-5 upset,” Davis said.
James Madison earned the automatic bid out of the Sun Belt Conference after a 91-71 win over Arkansas State to win the Sun Belt Conference tournament championship.
The Dukes averaged 84.4 points per game this season, allowing only 69.2 points per game.
Terrence Edwards Jr. leads the way for the Dukes, averaging 17.4 PPG, 4.4 RPG, and 3.5 APG. T.J. Bickerstaff averages 13.4 PPG, and 8.5 RPG, and Noah Freidel averages 12.1 PPG and 5.4 RPG. Julien Wooden rounds it out averaging 9.9 PPG, 3.2 RPG, shooting 51.9% from the field.
Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball head coach Greg Gard on Terrence Edwards Jr. and the Dukes:
“Obviously the ball gets in his hands a lot, they share it really well. The two point guards they play them some together and they play them individually as well, but with Edwards you know he’s like some of the guys we’ve seen in our league. Rather it be maybe not quite like Terrence Shannon but athletically but that type of balls gonna be in his hands quite a bit, he’s gonna be making plays for others, he can score, and knows how to find the bottom of the basket.”
“You know you get to this point in time, anybody left is a really good team, and we’ve obviously learned that over the last 48 hours with James Madison.”
For Wisconsin, after falling short to Illinois in the Big Ten Championship game, the Badgers learned they’d be making their sixth NCAA Tournament with Greg Gard as the head coach.
Though the last part of the regular season didn’t end the way the Badgers would’ve liked it to, they went into the Big Ten Tournament with expectations to win the conference championship which they almost did but almost isn’t good enough.
However, the Wisconsin team that showed up to the Big Ten Tournament resembled the team that once was ranked 6th in the AP poll.
Soph AJ Storr leads Wisconsin in scoring with 16.9 PPG and 3.9 RPG, and Steven Crowl, has 11.2 PPG, a team-high 7.1 RPG, and 2.1 APG. Tyler Wahl is averaging 10.8 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 1.8 APG, and 1.1 SPG. Max Klesmit is averaging 9.7 PPG, 2.1 RPG, 1.9 APG, while his backcourt partner in crime, Chucky Hepburn is averaging 9.3 PPG, 3.4 RPG, and a team-leading 3.9 APG and 2.1 SPG.
Then when you add in four-time B1G Freshman Player of the Week, John Blackwell averages of 8.1 PPG and 3.2 RPG, the Badgers have a core group who can score the ball as well, which Coach Gard said having the ability to score the ball in today’s game is very important because the game has gone more offensively focused vs defense how it once used to be.
Besides Wisconsin’s ability to score points, the Badgers are a solid defensive team especially when they’re clicking on all cylinders defensively. As mentioned by every coach in the Big Ten conference, Chucky Hepburn and Max Klesmit are one of the best defensive backcourts in the country.
Hepburn was named to the 2023-2024 Big Ten All-Defensive Team. The backcourt defense of Chucky and Max, I believe will be key for the Badgers match-up vs James Madison.
Gard said, “The 68 teams that are in are all good.” “You know my line: All the bad teams are on spring break.
“They are 31-3. They won the Sun Belt. They beat Michigan State in overtime the first game of the year.”
“Everybody you’re going to play this time of year is really good. Just erase all those numbers, the seed lines.
“We’ve seen that enough, 16s have popped ones in the last 3 to 4 years.”
The winner of the first-round NCAA tournament matchup will face the winner between No. 4 seed Duke and No. 13 seed Vermont in the second round on Sunday.
PREDICTION: Wisconsin beats James Madison.
Wisconsin is one of only five schools to appear in 23 of the last 25 NCAA tournaments, joining Gonzaga (25), Kansas (25), Michigan State (25) and Duke (24).
Wisconsin is 40-25 all-time in the NCAA tournament, reaching four Final Fours and 10 Sweet 16s. The Badgers have made the Sweet 16 in six of the last 12 NCAA tournaments, reaching the NCAA tournament’s second weekend in 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 during that stretch.
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