Open Jim: Are Greg Guard and men’s basketball neglected? – Badgerextra

The first is from @ilijaqz on X: How is it that 5 voters in this week CBB poll did not have UW in the top 25? Last week was 13 of them.

The second is @douggreenb on X: There is no mention of Greg Guard as the potential coach of the big 10 of the year and he is not in any list of the national coach of the year. With the players who left UW, as well as the pre -season forecasts, how is this possible?

Let’s start with the ranking. Although I certainly pay attention every week to see how the poll shakes, I will admit that I did not follow the individual voting of everything so close. So for me it was news that five voters had no badgers in the top 25 this week and that they were outside last week, looking at 13 ballots.

Am I outraged? No. Yes.

Badgers are 12th in Kenpom, 13th in Bart Torvik ratings, 12th in KPI and 22nd in BPI. They are shown as # 4 seeds (or better) in the forecast brackets of the NCAA tournament. So, yes, they deserve to be ranked and their place # 16 in the poll this week seems completely fair.

If there is a knock on Wisconsin, it is that the badgers do not have enough Wow won in their schedule. But they also have no “wow” losses, and their schedule power is strong enough to erase any argument that their 19-5 record is shiny.

I wouldn’t want to be a basketball voter, by the way. The fact that I was a football AP for a few years was difficult enough because I turned out to be confused late Saturday night or early Sunday morning to track the results, make sure, correct order.

Basketball teams usually play at least two games a week. By the time the conference game rolls, it’s pure chaos because it is difficult to go through a week unharmed. This is my way of saying that I am ready to cut off the voters.

This is a similar situation for the Coach of the Year’s discussion Big Ten. This is another topic that has not appeared on my radar before, but it is an interesting race, the more I think about it.

The case with a guard is strong. He lost his three best players on the 2023-24 list and still has the badgers near the top of the big ten with a record of 9-4. So far, it was an impressive running.

But there are some other strong contenders for this award this season. See what Dusty May did to turn the Michigan program in his first season. Tom Itso from Michigan should be in conversation. I would put Kevin Willard from Maryland in my short list. And just because Matt Painter is responsible for a perennial power plant in Partyu every year, it does not mean that it should not be applauded for the boilers returning to the title dispute after they have lost the national player of the year back to the back (Zack Eddie ).

There is plenty of time for a guard, a two -time prize winner to make it an obvious choice for the voters. Winning in No. 7 Purdue on Saturday would not only strengthen his work, it would probably be enough to convince the five detention voters in the AP poll to put Wisconsin in the top 25.