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Wisconsin basketball began its 2024-25 season with an 85-61 victory over Holy Cross on Monday.
Despite the final 24-point margin, the win was far from a wire-to-wire dominant showing. The Badgers trailed 13-3 in the first minutes, 23-7 halfway through the first half and 36-35 at halftime. The team eventually found its form, but could not coast to an easy victory against ESPN BPI’s No. 331 (of 364) team in the sport.
Related: Biggest takeaways from Wisconsin basketball’s opening win over Holy Cross
Those early-game struggles and lack of overall dominance saw the Badgers dip in ESPN’s Basketball Power Index despite the win. The team dropped from its preseason slot of No. 28 down to No. 39, also down to the No. 9-ranked team in the Big Ten.
ESPN BPI now projects the Badgers’ final record at 18.2 — 11.8 (10.4 — 9.6 in Big Ten play), and gives them a 5.5% chance to win the conference.
The good news: early-season rankings updates don’t define a team’s rest-of-season fate. The 2024-25 Badgers may face a predictable slow start with several new faces in the lineup. But the team projects to be one that improves as the season continues, especially as the transfer additions gel in the rotation and top youngsters including Daniel Freitag continue to develop.
Wisconsin’s second-half performance against Holy Cross showed the start of that development, as transfer wing John Tonje and sophomore forward Nolan Winter took over the matchup.
The Badgers are back on the Kohl Center court on Thursday against Montana State (No. 173 in BPI). They then continue with a home matchup with Appalachian State (No. 194) before a high-profile showdown with top-ranked Arizona (No. 5).
Badgers fans should watch for progress from the team through each of these matchups. Steady development from Greg Gard’s group will have it in strong position once Big Ten play heats up in January.
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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/wisconsin-basketball-falls-espn-bpi-120113553.html
Author : Badgers Wire
Publish date : 2024-11-06 12:01:00
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