Rastall Ramblings: Sky’s The Limit for Badgers With Boyd-Blackwell Duo

There’s an old adage in college basketball that guards win in March. If that’s true, then the Wisconsin Badgers should feel confident that this is the year they finally break through for their first run to the second weekend of March Madness in nearly a decade.

The brilliance of the Badger backcourt duo of Nick Boyd and John Blackwell has been on display plenty all throughout this season, but perhaps it was never better than what they exhibited during last week’s Big Ten Tournament in Chicago.

Blackwell set a new program record for most points in a conference tournament game by dropping 34 in Wisconsin’s Thursday victory over Washington — a record that was broken 24 hours later when Boyd poured in 38 in an overtime win against Illinois.

There was a bit of a cooling off in the Badgers’ semifinal loss to Michigan on Saturday with the duo only combining for 27 points, but even that game was cause for optimism going into the NCAA Tournament. Wisconsin, going up against the best team in the Big Ten without starting center Nolan Winter, nearly pulled off yet another double-digit comeback even without a herculean effort by their starting backcourt.

The Badgers earned a five seed for the upcoming tournament — a pretty remarkable turnaround given that they were barely on the bubble in early January. A Greg Gard-coached team finding their groove as the season goes along is nothing new, but this group coalesced into one of the sharpest offenses in college basketball over the last two months.

Along the way, Wisconsin built up a well-earned reputation as giant killers by knocking off Michigan, Illinois and Purdue on the road to go along with a home win over Michigan State and last Friday’s victory against the Illini in Chicago.

There is naturally going to be some hesitation from Badgers fans given that, since back-to-back Sweet 16 appearances in 2016 and 2017 in Gard’s first two years at the helm, the program has gone just 3-5 in the NCAA Tournament and hasn’t been able to escape the first weekend.

Those March disappointments include being the victim of 12 vs. 5 first-round upsets to Oregon in 2019 and James Madison in 2024.

The apprehension is understandable. However, the Badgers got about as favorable of a draw as they were going to get in their position for the opening round this year. Big South champions High Point ride a 14-game winning streak into the tourney and are 30-4 on the season, but, they haven’t faced a single top-100 NET opponent all year and, according to efficiency metric KenPom, they are the weakest of the four 12 seeds.

The Panthers are a team that loves to push the pace and are much better offensively than defensively. Getting into a track meet is something Wisconsin should (theoretically) be happy with given that they are 21-0 when scoring at least 80 points this season.

Taking care of business against High Point would likely mean a second-round matchup with the fourth-seeded Arkansas Razorbacks. Getting past them would be no simple task given that Arkansas has recently caught fire with a run to the SEC Tournament title and have one of the best players in the country in standout freshman guard Darius Acuff Jr.

That hypothetical matchup would at least give the Badgers a style of game they’d be comfortable in, as John Calipari’s Razorbacks play at a fast tempo and rarely turn the ball over while themselves not really forcing many turnovers either.

If they can get over the hump at long last to reach the Sweet 16, you can bet top-seeded Arizona would not be happy to be playing the Badgers — and not just because of the old scar tissue from the Wildcats’ Elite Eight losses to them in 2014 and 2015.

Wisconsin has shown a remarkable ability to compete with and defeat the best college basketball has to offer, while also showing that they are very comfortable playing away from the Kohl Center. Those qualities, the formidable backcourt combination of Boyd and Blackwell and the return of Nolan Winter should have Badgers fans excited for what lies ahead — even if the threat of being on the wrong end of March Madness chaos is always lurking.