Fresno State former legendary football coach Pat Hill had a phrase. The phrase went “Any time. Any Place. Anywhere.” Hill was a notorious hard scheduler where we would place Fresno State against some of the best teams in college football. Fresno State and Wisconsin met a few times actually. Hill’s Fresno team beat Wisconsin in 2001 at Camp Randall Stadium by 12 points, and the other three meetings were razor-thin in terms of the final score. Well, Wisconsin basketball is channeling this energy for how they want to finish up their non-conference schedule.

Wisconsin will finish up their non-conference slate by playing Loyola Chicago tonight and Louisville on Saturday morning. Both teams are very solid. Loyola is 53rd in KenPom, and Louisville ranks 23rd. Yes, Louisville was a matchup at the start of the season, but Wisconsin never backed away from being back into the spotlight. Cardinals were able to make it happen after a game with NC State could not happen this weekend. And if Wisconsin could not play that game, they were potentially headed to Madison Square Garden to play Villanova. Per an article today, it’s been driven by the players wanting to face high-level competition.

That should be celebrated by anyone who is a college basketball fan. More good non-conference games the better. If Wisconsin can beat both Loyola and Louisville, that resume is strong to start conference play. And with the potential of the Big Ten this year, Wisconsin could find themselves at a one or two seed if they have a very successful Big Ten year. This is a good conference. Nebraska is the only team left on Wisconsin’s schedule with a KenPom rating over 100.

We’ll see how Wisconsin does against the Ramblers tonight and they’ll kick off a great sports day for Badgers’ fans on Saturday.

Charlie.