Kobe King made a stunning decision yesterday to not travel with the team to Iowa City. No one saw it coming. After the Badgers’ loss to Iowa, Brad Davison and D’Mitrik Trice both told the media they did not know that King wasn’t playing tonight. From how things are trending, it sounds like King will not be on the team when it is all said and done. According to Jeff Portkyus of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, King is frustrated with the direction of the Wisconsin team. What happened that made King realize that he no longer wants to be with the Badgers?

This is puzzling, to say the least. King did not have a dip in minutes. He didn’t shoot well against Purdue on Friday night. But at the same time, that didn’t feel like his last game was a Wisconsin Badgers player. What could have changed where there is this shift in thought about needing out right now versus waiting until the end of the year to find a new home? There is one part of being his teammate and toughing it out but also, you had a serious injury that caused a missed season. It is likely the Badgers forward did not want to risk hurting himself yet again.

The good news for Wisconsin is they have a week of practice to figure out how to play without King. And besides the final few minutes against Iowa, Badgers looked pretty good without him. Tyler Wahl is going to need some more seasoning, but Badgers will throw him into the fire because they do not have many other options. As for King, my assumption is he will garner some interest. Teams to watch that offered him as a freshman could be Iowa State, Marquette (That would be something), and Northern Iowa. There could be other teams that get involved as well this time around.

Charlie.