Round Three?

The bracket has been released for the 2007 Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament. Wisconsin, as the number 2 seed, will play the winner of the Michigan State/Northwestern game on Thursday. Barring a Wildcat upset, it looks like MSU and Wisconsin are headed for a third meeting in three weeks.

Out of the cluster of Big Ten teams from number 4 to 8 in the standings, Michigan State is the last team Badger fans want to see on Friday. Drew Neitzel's hot shooting and Michigan State's brusing style will pose a tough challenge to the second seeded Badgers.

However, with great risk comes great reward. A win over Michigan State and Indiana/Illinois/Penn State on Saturday will solidify Wisconsin's resume and make the Badgers no worse than a number 2 seed in the NCAAs.

Finally, I must correct myself about comments I made to fellow fans about Brian Butch's injury and my perceived lack of impact it would have. I didn't believe that Brian's offensive production would be missed and that other frontcourt players would step up and fill the void. Saturday confirmed that I was wrong. Chappel, Steisma, Landry and Krabbenhoff combined to shoot 4-9, which is a good percentage, but none of the bigs stretched the MSU defense and allowed MSU to guard the paint aggressively and double and triple team Tucker when he received the ball in the post. As a result, Wisconsin scored only 52 points in 57 possessions, well below the Badgers' average of 1.17 points per possession.

Bo Ryan has five days to prepare for Friday's game and I am hopeful the Badgers will come out on top on Friday.