Seeing the team you root for lose is never fun. Seeing your team get embarrassed from the tip-off in basketball might be the most depressing thing ever. It’s almost worse than football where you go down like 21-0 early on or baseball where the pitcher gives up like six runs. You still know there’s a chance to comeback. Purdue Boilermakers jumped out to a 23-4 lead over Wisconsin, and it never got close. This ended up being the worst loss of the year for the Badgers as the Boilermakers stay hot in the month of January.

Badgers turnover woes continue
As this season has gone on, this is an awful team when it comes to protecting the basketball. Wisconsin turned the ball over 20 times in this game led by Ethan Happ and Brad Davison each having seven. Purdue frustrated this offense for the entire game and forced a lot of bad mistakes out of Wisconsin. The way they can keep it close against the powerhouses of the Big Ten is protecting the basketball.

Boilermakers light it up from three
Purdue is known for the big men in the middle – Issac Haas and Matt Hearms who are both giants, but neither really had an impact on the offensive end of the court. Rather, Purdue used their three-point attack to really push out their lead. Purdue had four players make three or more 3-pointers in this one. Wisconsin did a bad job protecting the perimeter as the Boilermakers got open look after open look.

Resetting expectations
If Badgers fans didn’t already think they were a tournament team, last night should have been the final nail in the coffin. They’re 9-10 on the year with a 2-4 record in Big Ten play. It’s likely Wisconsin will miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998. I was in third grade at the time. Fans need to find some positives, whether, it’s a player like Brevin Pritzl breaking out or a bench player coming to life, they should be looking for those things, and maybe, a chance at an upset at the Kohl Center since they do play Purdue and Michigan State three more times this year.

Next up
Wisconsin heads home to play Illinois on a Friday night at the Kohl Center. It’s going to be interesting to see the crowd there. I’m sure it will be close to a sellout, but you wonder what the energy is going to be like in that gym. People aren’t used to this. Illinois is the best 0-6 team on the block. They’ve lost three games by less than five points, so, this will not be easy for Wisconsin.

Charlie.