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The Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team, along with the rest of the Big Ten Conference, released their full 2019-2020 schedule on Friday afternoon. Now, the only thing that Badgers fans were waiting for was the dates of the conference games, but it is nice to now be able to plan out the winter evenings we definitely won’t be going outside.
Big Ten schedule is set ✔️
— Wisconsin Basketball (@BadgerMBB) August 23, 2019
We tip off B1G play Dec. 7 at the Kohl Center against Indiana
Which games are you looking forward to this season?#OnWisconsin pic.twitter.com/2BslPec1Ph
The Badgers both open and close their conference season against the Indiana Hoosiers which is good, because IU won’t have figured out who they are yet by the first game and will have given up hope of qualifying for the NCAA Tournament by the last game. So, two wins right off the bat for Greg Gard and the boys.
The Badgers host ESPN preseason top-25 teams No. 1 Michigan State (2/1/20), No. 10 Maryland (1/14/20) and No. 12 Ohio State (2/9/20) during their conference slate and they’ll also see No. 21 Marquette at the Kohl Center during non-conference play. Michigan, Iowa and Penn State do not visit Madison this year, while Wisconsin will not travel to play Maryland, Illinois or Northwestern (thank God!).
As far as the rest of the conference goes, the B1G Tournament is in Indianapolis this year and starts on Wednesday March 11th, with the championship game being that Sunday. The last day of the regular season sees two marquee, potential conference title deciding, matchups in Michigan at Maryland and Ohio State at Michigan State. Iowa also plays Illinois that same day, but no one will be watching that game.
UW begins the regular season Nov. 5 on the road in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where they will face Saint Mary’s at the Sanford Pentagon. They also have an exhibition game on Nov. 1 at the Kohl Center against UW-Lacrosse.
Since 2001-02, the Badgers are 131-25 (.840) against Big Ten teams at the Kohl Center, the best mark in the Big Ten, according to UWBadgers.com. Wisconsin returns top players Brad Davison, Nate Reuvers, Kobe King and D’Mitrik Trice from a team that lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Oregon last year.