UPDATE, 5:37 p.m.: Traevon Jackson has a broken right foot, according to Jeff Goodman of ESPN. He will have surgery on Thursday and is likely out for six weeks.
Time to step up, Bronson Koenig.
Monday night was bad. The Badgers lost at Rutgers in upset fashion, 67-62. In the grand scheme of the college basketball season, this loss won't really matter (maybe Rutgers is better than everyone thought?). The Badgers will still make the NCAA tournament and most likely with an extremely high seed. This isn't the football team losing to Northwestern, no matter how embarrassing it may seem.
What may be a problem, however, is what happened during the game. Starting the game without one starter, even as good a starter as All-America candidate center Frank Kaminsky, is something a deep team like Wisconsin should be able to overcome. However, losing a second starter is entering choppy waters. Senior starting point guard Traevon Jackson went down with a foot injury in the second half Sunday night and did not return.
In his weekly teleconference, head coach Bo Ryan did not have any concrete updates on Jackson's ankle or Kaminsky's concussion symptoms but did have this to say about his point guard's injury. "Oh, it's pretty severe," Ryan said. "How severe or what's next, we're not sure. We're still waiting for some results."
That is not exactly a rosy outlook for Jackson.
Luckily, the Badgers only have three games in the next 12 days: Thursday night against Nebraska at the Kohl Center, next Tuesday against Iowa at the Kohl Center and Jan. 24 against Michigan in Ann Arbor. This should hopefully give Jackson enough time to rest his foot and be ready for the stretch run.
With Jackson likely to miss a few games, sophomore point guard Bronson Koenig will step into the starting lineup. In 31 minutes against Rutgers, Koenig had 12 points (5-of-7 shooting, 2-of-4 from distance), three assists and one turnover. Koenig also appeared to not let the moment get to him, hitting a number of big shots to quell Rutgers runs and keep the Badgers in the game. He'll have to continue doing so, as Jackson has shown an aptitude for taking/hitting shots as the shot clock/game clock winds down.
We will have more updates as information comes out.