No ranked Big Ten men’s basketball team has pulled off this feat this season. Wisconsin will try Saturday | Wisconsin Badgers Men’s Basketball

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When the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team lost to Rutgers on Feb. 12, coach Greg Gard said the locker room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

It was the Badgers’ third loss at home this season but their first to an unranked team.

Johnny Davis in the postgame news conference was quick to pivot to focusing on the team’s next game, but it didn’t mask how much the loss hurt.

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“They’re disappointed,” Gard said after the loss. “It burns. I don’t want them to be so happy-go-lucky that this doesn’t matter. This matters. But in this sport, in this league, you’ve got to flip it pretty quick. You can’t let today get back to us as we prepare (moving forward).”

UW will get its opportunity for revenge when it plays Rutgers at 5 p.m. Saturday, the first game of a three-game stretch that will determine whether the No. 13 Badgers will be the Big Ten Conference regular-season champions.

Illinois lost to Ohio State on Thursday, meaning there is a two-way tie for first place in the Big Ten between UW and Purdue.

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Purdue faces Michigan State before the Boilermakers and Badgers play Tuesday in a game that could decide the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament.

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If the Badgers lose to the Scarlet Knights, they’ll need to beat Purdue at the Kohl Center to have a chance at the regular-season title. Assuming both teams win their final games — UW hosts Nebraska and Purdue hosts Indiana — they’d each be 2-1 to close out the season and would share the regular-season title, but UW would get the No. 1 seed due to the head-to-head matchup with Purdue.

If the Badgers beat the Scarlet Knights, they can lose to Purdue and still earn a share if the Boilermakers also lose a game. The Badgers wouldn’t be the No. 1 seed. The Boilermakers and Badgers would’ve split their season series, meaning the tiebreaker is determined by the two teams’ records against the next best team. That’ll either be Ohio State or Illinois, and Purdue’s in good shape there because it went 2-0 vs. Illinois (UW went 0-1) and 1-0 vs. Ohio State (UW went 1-1).

Things get a bit more complicated if Illinois and Ohio State win out their last three games. If both Purdue and UW lose one game, Illinois goes 3-0 and Ohio State goes 3-0, it’d be a four-way tie.

It starts for the Badgers with playing at Jersey Mike’s Arena in Piscataway — a place where the Scarlet Knights have knocked off every ranked team in the Big Ten.

Rutgers — which has received votes in the past two AP Top 25 polls — has defeated Purdue, Illinois, Ohio State, Michigan State and Iowa while on its home court. The Scarlet Knights’ only Big Ten home loss came against unranked Maryland.

UW is the only ranked Big Ten team yet to play in Piscataway this season.

“They got a good team,” Gard said. “Steve (Pikiell’s) done a good job for them. They’re old and experienced. It’s life in the Big Ten — nothing’s going to be easy.”

Rutgers averages 7,459 attendees per game in an arena that fits 8,000 people.

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The atmosphere at Jersey Mike’s Arena is such a challenge for opposing teams that both Illinois coach Brad Underwood and Ohio State coach Chris Holtmann commented on it after losses this season.

“The fans are right on top of you,” Underwood said. “It’s old as hell. The acoustics are dynamic. Everything reverberates in there. The students are right there on you. You literally, the players can’t hear me in a timeout. There’s tremendous energy. Their student impact there is as good as there is in the country. All in all, it’s turning into a great home court. Steve should be commended for that and their players. It’s a sellout. Any time you get that kind of energy in the building, it can be a positive for the home team.”

The Badgers’ road record is the best in the league, with losses only to Ohio State and Illinois. They were short-handed against the Buckeyes but had a full roster against the Illini.

Both Tyler Wahl and Brad Davison said they were looking forward to the challenge of being the only ranked Big Ten team to walk away with a win in Piscataway.

“It’s a very unique stadium,” Wahl said. “The student section goes all the way up, they got the whole baseline and they love their basketball there. So I’m excited to get in there. But we’ve done pretty good on these road games. Hopefully we can go in there and get another one.”



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