Written by Matt Norlander at CBSSports.com
Wisconsin has picked a bad time to be bad.
The slumping Badgers were dropped at home by Iowa on Thursday night 59-57, resulting in the team’s third straight loss and its fifth in the past six games. Wisconsin, ranked seventh in the polls only two weeks ago, has dropped five straight to unranked teams. Very un-Wisconsin-like.
Entering Thursday’s game, Iowa was 2-17 all time against ranked Wisconsin teams.
Thanks to Jordan Bohannon, Iowa still has distant dreams of making the NCAA Tournament. His 3-pointer on a broken play following a botched rebound attempt by the Badgers gave Iowa the lead with less than 10 seconds remaining. Bronson Koenig took a long 2-pointer that fell short, Iowa grabbed the carom, and the game was over just like that. The Hawkeyes outscored Wisconsin 7-0 down the stretch.
It was brutal for Greg Gard’s team. Former UW coach Bo Ryan must have been chewing on his shirt watching the final few sequences. Here’s Bohannon’s winner.
The bitter irony for Wisconsin fans is that Bohannon’s two older brothers, both of whom were in attendance at this game, played at Wisconsin.
Iowa scored 14 of the game’s final 17 points. It was a weird and frustrating game for a Wisconsin team that was thought to be the best in the Big Ten as recently as two weeks ago.
Now Wisconsin finishes its regular-season slate with a home game against a Minnesota team that not only projects better in the bracket, but also hasn’t lost since January. What has happened in Madison?
To think, this could be even worse. Maybe we should have all seen this coming when Wisconsin needed some minor miracles to make it past Rutgers in late January. Three of the Badgers’ wins this season have required overtime. From 21-3 to 22-8, Wisconsin is skidding and the Big Ten is taking an image hit.
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