Wisconsin basketball: confidence rising among Badgers fans

It’s been quite the month for the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team as they closed out the month of February on a nice five game winning streak. The most impressive of those wins was Thursday evening as the Badgers went to Ann Arbor and took down the No. 19 ranked Michigan Wolverines. Thursday’s contest was between the two hottest teams in the Big Ten, and the victory allowed the Badgers to remain in the hunt for the Big Ten title as they battle it out down the stretch.

It appears that the confidence in the team is at an all-time high, and they are playing their best basketball because of it. Among those really shining is D’Mitrik Trice who finished as the leading scorer Thursday night with 28 points. Trice has been a great Badger over his career, but it appears this seven game stretch might be his strongest showing yet.

The teams confidence is riding high, which in turn is creating an uptick of confidence among Badger fans. It’s safe to say that fans of this program have bought back in in a big way. Just two months ago FanPulse measured the confidence among fans and the mark came in at a season low 46%. Over the last few weeks there has been ups and downs, but confidence has steadily climbed to 76% among Badger fans.

Additionally, the polling was done before Thursday’s result, so you’d have to imagine confidence will continue to creep up. With three very winnable games left on the schedule, you could see a real high mark if the Badgers can close the season out with a trio of wins.

In addition to the confidence metrics, fans were also asked which teams in college basketball deserve a one seed in the upcoming tournament. In very unsurprising news, it appears the nation agrees that the Kansas Jayhawks and the Baylor Bears both deserve that mark as they received 86% and 85%, respectively.

After the Big 12 titans came the Gonzaga Bulldogs had 74%, and then a rather large drop off with the San Diego State Aztecs falling to 47%, likely due to their first loss of the season last weekend. In a surprising turn, the Duke Blue Devils received 30% which to me is hilarious because that team does not deserve to be anywhere near the one line right now. However, I suppose this thing will all work itself out and we’ll peacefully agree as the season winds down.