If you click over to a certain Big Ten team's website, you will see what the Wisconsin Badger men's basketball team is up against this year for primacy in the conference. No squad poses more of a threat to UW than the one that landed one of the best recruiting classes—including the top player—in the country.
The Cardinal and White does not meet Scarlet and Grey until early January, around when freshman Greg Oden should be fully recovered from an injury that will sideline him for the first month or so of his—allow me to hazard a guess—one year in college hoops.
It will be an early test then, a jockeying of position in the very nascent stages of the Big Ten season. UW gets an up-close look at the ballyhooed freshman class that Thad Matta so masterfully put together: Oden, the 7-foot center already drawing comparisons to David Robinson and Tim Duncan; Daequan Cook, a sniping shooting guard who is the team's leading scorer in the early going; and Mike Conley Jr., who is proficiently running the point in his first year.
But this writer is here to tell you that, for all the hype these teams are generating, there is an even more important game quickly approaching UW. The opponent comes in the form of the Marquette Golden Eagles, whom the Badgers square off against a week from tomorrow in Milwaukee.
As a native of that city, I can attest to the fact that Marquette is waiting gamely for this rivalry to resume, in part because they know that Wisconsin provides the latest measuring stick for what has been a great run to date.
With impressive wins against Texas Tech and Mike Krzyzewski's perennial power Duke, the Eagles have soared to heights recalling their Dwyane Wade-led flight to the Final Four in 2003. It's an entirely different cast now, though, for head coach Tom Crean, whose team is a few spots ahead of UW in the latest rankings.
Crean and Bo Ryan have been competing for some time now for the state's best prospects to come to their respective schools. We can save the debate for who has out-recruited the other for another time, but you can not help but notice that one of the Eagles' top performers comes from this campus's backyard. The former Mr. Basketball in this state, Wes Matthews, is upping his numbers from last year, including a big-time performance against Bobby Knight's gang.
Not to mention that the Wisconsin-Marquette matchup is really the first of the year where the Badgers get to test their vaunted defense against a veritable star in Dominic James. The sophomore solidified his position as one of the best players in the Big East with a major game against the Duke Blue Devils and by—get this—scoring his team's final 18 points, including the game-winning three—earlier this week against Valparaiso.
What the Badgers have in next week's game against Marquette is a prime chance to assert themselves over their intra-state rival, and, more importantly, to establish themselves as a legitimate foil to Ohio State in the Big Ten.
Tell Bortin how hyped you are about the UW-Marquette game coming up by e-mailing him at bortin@wisc.edu
