As extremely lopsided as the college football meeting was between these teams, the Northwestern vs. Wisconsin college basketball contest was even more one-sided.
As you might have heard, there is a “little football game” between the two NFL franchises overlapping the Badgers and Wildcats fan bases. In fact, this game was even moved up a half hour to accommodate those wishing to watch the Green Bay Packers take on the Chicago Bears for the right to reach the NFL title game.
The game was such a complete route, they were given plenty of extra time to leave Welsh-Ryan Arena to find their NFC Championship viewing destination.
The approximately 60% red, 40% purple crowd emptied long before the final buzzer sounded as the Badgers pulled away in the first five minutes, as the scoreboard displayed Wisconsin doubling up Northwestern’s score for pretty much the entire game. The 78-46 final was not indicative of just how lopsided the game was.
However, history was made.
Freshman guard Josh Gasser, who came in averaging just 5.5 ppg and 2.2 assists, recorded the first triple double in Wisconsin Badger history, with 10 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists. In a game like this, all the benchwarmers get a ton of playing time. Luckily for Badger Nation, Gasser got all his numbers in before being taken out.
“I was going to sub him anyhow, I don’t coach for a statistic,” Coach Ryan said postgame.
On the other side, the mood was quite grim.”We didn’t compete well enough, and that’s why they got all those second and third chances,” NU point guard Juice Thompson said.
Senior forward Jon Leuer had another big game, with a game high 19 points on 8-10 shooting.
“It certainly was something that I felt inside our guys were capable of,” Wisconsin Coach Bo Ryan said after the game.
Well, maybe Bears-Packers will be a more fun-to-watch, close game? Can’t be any more one-sided than this.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net. He’s also a regular contributor to the Tribune’s Chicago Now network, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker Network, and Fox Sports.com
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