The Wisconsin Badgers are entering the 2024 iteration of March Madness’ first round with a bit of a dampened mood after squandering their chances of winning the Big Ten Championship after their loss to Illinois.
However, they have to move forward and focus on their upcoming campaign as slight underdogs can make epic Cinderella runs under the right conditions. The Badgers will do everything in their power to ensure that the JMU Dukes will not pull the rug under their feet again.
Wisconsin Badgers zero in on upcoming March Madness duel with James Madison Dukes
Jerry Beach wrote a piece for Superior Telegram about the team’s thoughts ahead of their first-round clash against James Madison.
The Dukes may have a better record (31-3) than the Badgers (22-13), but they’re playing at a much more competitive conference and will be highly rated as favorites.
However, the team knows better than to let their status as a powerhouse get the better of them. The team is looking at their disappointing collapse to the Fighting Illini as a reality check:
“It hurts because this is one we wanted, obviously, and (the Big Ten championship) was one of our goals,” Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said Sunday. “But as I told them in the locker room, now we’ve put ourselves in position to (play) more basketball. We’ll take the things we learned through this week, which were many, and way more positives than negatives.”
JMU Basketball knows they have a tough test against the Wisconsin Badgers, but head coach Mark Byington is eager to face the challenge:
“Now we know our path,” Byington said, “Wisconsin is a tremendous basketball team — one of the best-coached teams. They beat Purdue (Saturday), so our hands are full.”
The Badgers will be counting on sophomore AJ Storr to carry them past the Dukes. He’s the team’s primary shot creator at 16.9 points a game, but he will need the rest of his team to step up if they’re to break through and possibly face Duke in the next round.
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