A Brief, Late Badgers Basketball Preview

It appears I'm about two weeks late with this Badgers Basketball preview. That's ok, we now have a few non-conference games to shed a little more light on the 2011-2012 Wisconsin Badgers.

Wisconsin currently sits at 6-0. You can't really determine too much for easy wins over Kennesaw State, Colgate, Wofford, or UMKC, but this weekend's victories in the prestigious Chicago Invitational Challenge over Bradley and BYU are somewhat nice. At least those teams are mid-majors.

The team this year will obviously revolve around pre-season All-American Jordan Taylor. It's important that Taylor doesn't try to do too much. He needs to balance facilitating his teammates with scoring points. He needs to dominate the game - tempo, scoring, and distributing.

The rest of the team is far less proven. Taylor will be joined in the backcourt by Josh Gasser with Ryan Evans at the small forward and Mike Bruesewitz and Jared Berggren down low. It looks like Ben Brust will be an important contributor off the bench.

Let's take a look at a few of the keys to the season for Wisconsin.

1. Jared Berggren down low - It's a given that Wisconsin will have big white guys that can shoot. The question is, can they get big down low? That is the question for Berggren on both offense and defense. He will need to defend guys like Jared Sullinger and Trevor Mbakwe. As inconsistent as Keaton Nankivil was on offense, he was strong on D and I think will be a a bigger loss than Leuer. Breggren will need to D up and rebound and at least provide the possibility of a low post game for the Badgers to keep their outside shooters open.

2. Ryan Evan's mid range jumper - It's clear Evans is not a 3-point shooter, but we need his athleticism out there. He will consistently have wide open mid-range jumpers. He needs to make those. This may seem small, but it will really open up Taylor and our other outside guys and keep the swing swinging.

3a. Josh Gasser - Gasser is a good player, but we need him to be more than just a Mike Kelley or Joe Krabbenhoft. He needs to be a scorer and second ball handler to free up Taylor. I'm not sure he is ready to take up this role.

3b. Ben Brust - So this one wouldn't have been in my preview had this been a true pre-season post, but after actually getting to see a few games, it looks like Brust will be an important 6th man. He's got wild range, plus he seems to be the secondary ball handler and point guard when Taylor is out.

These are just a few important things to look for this season. As far as predictions go, there is no reason why Wisconsin shouldn't again challenge for the Big Ten. The conference is down this year and Wisconsin will always win at the Kohl Center. Ohio State should win the conference, but I can't see the Badgers being worse than 2nd or 3rd. Normal powers like Michigan State, Purdue, and Illinois will be down and teams like Michigan and Minnesota are always picked to do well but never really produce. Look for Indiana to be better and Northwestern to possibly make the NCAA tourney for the first time ever.

Overall, the Badgers are not currently a top ten team, but the way Bo Ryan teams improve over the course of the season, things could be different come March. Wisconsin should continue to be a good team, but not really a great team.

Tune in Wednesday for our first true measuring stick - at North Carolina and then Marquette in Madison.