Wisconsin Badgers are getting hot to finish off the season. They’ve won four of the last five games and look better than they had all season. The young team grew up in the past couple of weeks and will prove to be a tough out in the Big Ten Tournament. Wisconsin knows the only way to keep their NCAA Tournament streak alive is by winning the Big Ten Tournament. It’s not impossible and with the way they’re playing right now, I do not think many teams want to see them on their side of the bracket. Wisconsin takes down Northwestern on the road in a game where the Badgers held the lead for most of the game as Northwestern got close but couldn’t make the final push.

Andy Van Vliet breaks out
In what has been a rough junior year for Belgian forward Andy Van Vliet, he came through with a massive performance off the bench with 14 points making four threes. It came out of nowhere as the junior hasn’t played much during the Big Ten season. Van Vliet received 24 minutes off the bench and stepped up as Greg Gard called his name to be effective. That’s an encouraging sign for him and Wisconsin going into next season.

Khalil Iverson continues to develop
The biggest reason for Wisconsin’s small turnaround to finish the year is there are more than just Ethan Happ doing things. We talked about Brevin Pritzl after Wisconsin’s win versus Minnesota, and Khalil Iverson is another one who has stepped his game. It appears Iverson is more comfortable with his role on the team and even showed some flashes of the point guard position yesterday. Iverson finished with 16 points and six rebounds. He’s been a beast on the boards in the last five games averaging 8.6 in that time span.

Wisconsin locked in as the eight seed
With the Big Ten Tournament starting next week, Wisconsin will be the eighth seed playing Maryland on Wednesday afternoon at Madison Square Garden. Wisconsin lost to Maryland recently, but the game was close, so, there’s no reason to think the Badgers can’t win. Curious to know how the players will feel returning to MSG where their season ended last year with a Chris Chiozza buzzer-beater. You have to think there will be a little redemption in the air.

Next up
Wisconsin finishes the year at home versus Michigan State. It will not be an easy one, but as noted, Wisconsin’s playing their best basketball of the season. It would not surprise me if the Badgers gave Sparty a game.

Charlie.