Badger fans: As the great Samuel L. Jackson said several times during the final scene of Pulp Fiction, Be cool!""
Although Wisconsin's 72-67 loss to Purdue stings more than the sub-zero temperatures outside, don't reach for the Old Thompson or start thinking about how the great Brewers are going to be this year just yet.
Bo Ryan's Badgers still have an excellent chance of taking at least a share of the Big Ten title.
With road games against Indiana, Illinois and Ohio State and a home contest against Michigan State looming on the horizon, the outlook might look bleak at best. Yet, no team in the conference's top four will have an easy road to the regular season crown.
Purdue is certainly this season's Big Ten Cinderella. Six of the Boilermakers' top-seven scorers are underclassmen, and four of the seven are freshmen. Purdue has only one senior on its roster and yet the Boilermakers sit alone at the top of the conference ... but not for long.
Purdue put on an impressive offensive show Saturday, hitting 53 percent of its field goal attempts. Yet this will not happen every time the young Boilers step on the floor. In fact, Saturday marked the first time Purdue shot above 50 percent in Big Ten play.
The Boilermakers must play both Michigan State and Indiana in the next week. The Spartans defeated Purdue already this year and even former Boilermaker head coach Gene Keady probably can't remember the last time PU won in Bloomington, Ind.
And although this may seem like stating the obvious, many of the Boilermaker freshmen are probably not accustomed to playing so many games in a season. Look for the Boilers to run out of steam down the stretch.
After dropping consecutive contests to the UConn Huskies and the Badgers, Indiana has rebounded with three straight victories. Yet the Hoosiers' remaining schedule is tougher than the roast beef sitting in the back of your fridge since winter break.
Indiana must face Wisconsin, Purdue, Ohio State and Michigan State twice. Four of those five games will be in the friendly confines of Assembly Hall, but they will be far from easy W's for Eric Gordon and the Hoosiers.
Michigan State has shown they can play with any team in the country. Yet they have also shown they can be beaten by any team in the country. A 43-36 loss to Iowa and an 85-76 loss to Penn State prove this point loud and clear.
The Spartans play five of their final eight games on the road. MSU is only 2-2 in conference away from the Breslin Center.
The Badgers may not have a star player like the Hoosiers. They may not have the Cinderella story like the Boilermakers or the athleticism of the Spartans. But they do possess two valuable weapons: experience and mental toughness.
Will these tools get them to the Final Four? Maybe not, but they are enough to make a run for the Big Ten championship.
Every player in Wisconsin's rotation, with the exception of freshman Jon Leuer, has handled the pressure of a full Big Ten season. Brian Butch and Michael Flowers have been through it three times. Joe Krabbenhoft and Marcus Landry have been through it twice.
The point is the Badgers and Ryan have been here before. They know how to improve after victories and how to bounce back from tough losses like the one they suffered Saturday against Purdue.
With the top teams in the conference playing each other several times in the upcoming weeks, the winner of the Big Ten is going to have at least three, possibly even four losses.
So if Wisconsin loses to Indiana Wednesday night, don't count them out for a share of the title. And don't expect Ryan to start pushing any panic buttons. He'll be cool (even if he does get a technical foul from time to time.)
Feel free to send Valentines and assorted hate mail to reszel@dailycardinal.com.
