MADISON, Wis. – Asked Sunday night about the University of Wisconsin’s title chances entering the final week of the season, forward Micah Potter said he and his teammates needed to control what they could control and hope everything outside of their control work out in their favor.
On Tuesday, the Badgers got the opening they needed.
By virtue of Rutgers knocking off No.9 Maryland in New Jersey Tuesday night, the Badgers moved a half game out of first place in the conference and now control their own path to a Big Ten conference championship.
Super Tuesday, indeed.
If Wisconsin (19-10, 12-6 Big Ten) beats Northwestern (7-21, 2-16) Wednesday night, the Badgers clinch a double bye in next week’s Big Ten tournament and move into a first-place tie.
If the Badgers win at Indiana Saturday afternoon, no matter what happens the rest of the week, they clinch a share of the regular season conference crown for the first time since 2015.
“We’ve got to win at Northwestern and win at IU,” Potter said. “We’ve got to make sure we’re ready for those games.”
The Badgers were 5-4 in the league when guard Kobe King up and left the program following an embarrassing loss at Purdue. UW proceeded to give away a game at Iowa the next time out, leaving them 5-5 in the standings. A home victory over Michigan State broke an eight-game losing streak to the Spartans and delivering some uplifting reprieve, but the joy was quickly washed out by a 70-52 loss on Feb. 5 at Minnesota.
Wisconsin has won six consecutive games since, averaging 75.2 points during its longest winning streak of the season.
“Ever since the summer, we knew how much talent we have on our team,” junior Brad Davison said. “We know the weapons we have. I think early in the year, obviously we had our ups and downs, but we had some ups where we were playing really good basketball in certain games, certain parts of games, so we knew we had it in us. Coaches had confidence that we had it in us.
“The mantra was don’t chase success, just continue to get better every day, and that’s what we’ve done every game, every practice without looking too far ahead. We’re just trying to build momentum.”
In addition to Maryland and Wisconsin, the Spartans and Illinois are still in the mix for a piece of the title.
Michigan State (21-9, 13-6) moved into a first-place tie with Maryland with its fourth straight victory, overcoming an early 19-point deficit to beat Penn State, 79-71, in State College. The loss eliminated the Nittany Lions (21-9, 11-8) from title contention. The Spartans host Ohio State (20-9, 10-8) at home Sunday.
Illinois (20-9, 12-6) – winners of four straight - can join the Terps and Spartans – and possibly UW – in first place with a victory Thursday at Ohio State. The Illini finish the season at home Sunday against Iowa. The Hawkeyes (20-10, 11-8) were eliminated from title contention with its 77-68 home loss to Purdue.
Maryland (23-7, 13-6) closes Sunday at home against Michigan.
If Wisconsin, Maryland and Michigan State finish the season as tri-champions with 14-6 Big Ten records, the Badgers would be the No.1 seed based on having the best round-robin record between the schools (2-1).
