Badgers have a shot at Big Ten title?

With the way this season’s been going for the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team, a Big Ten title sounds like a pipe dream. Whatever a pipe dream is.

With the surprise departure of La Crosse native Kobe King — the Badgers second-leading scorer at the time — and the resignation of a strength coach for inappropriate language, distractions have seemingly been at a all-time high in Madison.

Add that to the rollercoaster season Wisconsin has — upsetting ranked opponents, like No. 5 Ohio State or No. 14 Michigan State, then losing to pedestrian rivals like Minnesota — with a 7-6 Big Ten record after Sunday’s 70-57 win over the now not-ranked Ohio State, a conference title probably isn’t on anyone’s radar.

But, maybe it should be?

Look at the rest of the Badgers schedule and try to forget the fact that they seem to always play up for the ranked opponents and lay down against the sub-par teams.

The Badgers (14-10) are just 2.5 games back of first-place Maryland in the Big Ten — granted five other teams are between UW and the Terps.

Wisconsin has seven games left in the Big Ten — none of which are ranked opponents.

Of the the seven teams left on the Badgers’ schedule, only Rutgers and Purdue have winning records in conference.

BADGERS REMAINING SCHEDULE
Sat. @ Nebraska (7-16, 2-10)
Feb. 19 vs. Purdue (14-10, 7-6)
Feb. 23 vs. Rutgers (17-7, 8-5)
Feb 27 @Michigan (14-9, 5-7)
March 1 vs. Minnesota (12-11, 6-7)
March 4 vs. Northwestern (6-16, 1-11)
March 7 at Indiana (15-8, 5-7)

Those seven teams are a combined 34-53 in the Big Ten, which includes 2-10 Nebraska and 1-11 Northwestern.

Overall records are a little different of a story but not much.

There, those final seven teams are a combined 85-77. Four of them with winning records: Rutgers (17-7), Michigan (14-9), Indiana (15-8) and Minnesota (12-11).

The first of those comes at 1:15 p.m. Saturday at Nebraska, which Wisconsin already beat 82-68 on Jan. 21.