Overall, the Wisconsin Badgers 2010-2011 season should be considered a success seeing that they weren’t even expected to finish in the upper half of the Big Ten.
Not only did they finish in the upper half, they went 25-9 (13-5 in Big Ten) and finished third in the conference. The 25 wins were the third most in a single season in school history.
However, the season could also be looked at as a missed opportunity as the Badgers hovered around the top 10 to finish the season. but were only able to salvage a Sweet 16 appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
By: Nick Grays
The Achilles heal of the Badgers all season long was being away from home. Wisconsin was a mediocre 5-6 in true road games and a decent 4-3 in neutral site games. When you look at the fact that the Badgers went a perfect 16-0 at home by flat out dominating their opponents, it was really a mystery to why UW played so differently on the road.
The Badgers best game of the year came on February 12th when they beat #1 Ohio State 71-67 in Madison to duplicate what the football team did earlier that year.
While that was the high, the Badgers had two very low games when they only scored 33 points in a loss to Penn State at the Big Ten Tournament and again when they struggled mightily in their Sweet 16 game with Butler, which they eventually lost 61-54.
From an achievements/accolades perspective, Wisconsin had a great year.
Coming into the year, we all knew Jon Leuer would be a candidate for Player of the Year, but what we didn’t know is that junior point guard Jordan Taylor would join him in that race.
Taylor was a pleasant surprise while averaging 18.1 points, 4.1 rebounds and 4.7 assists. For his efforts, Jordan was named a Second-Team All-American and was also a consensus All-Big Ten pick and Cousy Award Finalist.
Taylor’s most impressive stat of 2010-11 was his assist-to-turnover ratio (3.83) which led the country.
The other half of Wisconsin’s dynamic duo put together quite the resume for his self as well while averaging 18.3 points and 7.2 rebounds per game.
Unfortunately for the Badgers, Leuer was a senior and will be taking his talents to the NBA.
With the departure of starters Leuer, Keaton Nankivil and Tim Jarmusz, it begs the question of who will step up for the 2012 season?
Head Coach Bo Ryan just might be on the verge of his toughest year yet. Each year he seems to pull together a group of unknown recruits and somehow make the tournament. The difference this time around is the lack of experience in the post.
The key down low will be the development of 6-10 Jered Berggren who will surely see more than 6.9 minutes per game which he saw in 2010-11. Berggren is your typical Badgers big men in that he has a legitimate post game, but can also shoot the three.
It was nice to see Mike Bruesewitz step up and raise his game come tournament time. He could be a crucial key to the Badgers swing offense next season. Bruesewitz is the kind of guy that could average a double-double.
I wouldn’t worry about the Badgers back-court as they return Taylor and Josh Gasser who posted the first triple double in school history during his freshman campaign.
Another player to watch in 2012 is incoming freshman Jarrod Uthoff. The 6-8 power forward is a four-star recruit and projects to play significant minutes right away.
While inexperience down low worries me, I wouldn’t pick the Badgers to place below fifth in the Big Ten because each and every year Bo Ryan gets the most out of his team and finds a way to the NCAA Tournament. Expect much of the same in 2012!
Do you think the Badgers 2010-11 campaign was a success or a missed opportunity? What do you think of the Badgers 2012 squad and what they might do? Let me know by commenting below!
Nick Grays is a senior editor at the Sports Bank where he covers the Wisconsin Badgers, Green Bay Packers, Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Brewers. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here or visit his blog Nick Knows Best.