Preview Time! Badger Basketball and Gordon vs Abdullah

Its a good weekend to be a Badger fan. Not only is the highly anticipated football matchup with Nebraska finally here, the #3 ranked Badger basketball season gets underway tonight. The game itself shouldn't be much of a contest, against Northern Kentucky, but one thing that would make it worth attending is the raising of the Final Four banner for last season. This year's squad has the talent to make another run, and should be fun to watch all year. Here's my preview for the 2014-15 season, as well as a look at the important football game at Camp Randall this Saturday.

• One of the main reasons this team is so highly ranked to start the season is that they only lost 1 key player from last year's team, Evan Anderson. I mean, Ben Brust. Bronson Koening finished the year strong and should be able to fill the void left by Brust. 
• With this team, I have a feeling they will be using more 2- guard lineups than the 3-guard starting lineups that were common last year. The 3 big guys Sam Dekker, Frank Kaminsky, and Nigel Hayes are too talented to leave off the floor for long periods of time. There will always be situations that will call for a 3 guard lineup, but right now I'm predicting the most common lineup will be Traevon Jackson, Josh Gasser, Dekker, Hayes, and Kaminsky. 

• I think Duje Dukan will be a major contributor this year. He improved as last season went on, and made some big shots in the Final Four game. It will be interesting to see what other bench players will get significant minutes. Some players to keep an eye out for, especially in many of these early season non-conference games which should likely be blowouts, are Vitto Brown and Zak Showalter. 
• There are some non-conference games that will be tough tests. The one that obviously stands out is the Dec. 3rd ACC/Big 10 challenge game against Duke at the Kohl Center. Their freshman center Jahlil Okafor is being heavily hyped, so we'll see how he matches up with Kaminsky. This would be a huge win and could help the Badgers' case for  1 seed in March. Also, Thanksgiving week the Badgers travel to the Bahamas to play in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament, which is filled with quality teams. The Badgers' first game is against UAB, but advancing in the tournament would mean potential matchups against Florida, Georgetown, UCLA, Oklahoma, or North Carolina. Pretty stacked field. 
• The Badgers are the consensus favorite to win the Big Ten. The league will be tough as always, but maybe not quite as tough as in the past. Teams like Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State lost some key players that they will have to replace. 
• In the end, if everyone stays healthy, the Badgers should win the Big Ten and compete for a #1 seed. As any college basketball fan knows, however, that doesn't guarantee a Final Four appearance. Anything can happen in March. Let's just hope the Badgers have a little more magic in them this season. 

                                           Who's Gonna Win the West?

           The football Badgers finally face a ranked opponent this weekend, #16 Nebraska. It's the first ranked team the Badgers have played since the opener against LSU. The way I see it, this game will decide who wins the the Big Ten West. Although Minnesota has been somewhat of a surprise and is tied atop the division, I don't see them as a legitimate contender (They have a chance to prove me wrong, but good luck doing it against Ohio State, Nebraska, and Wisconsin 3 weeks in a row). So, this game is pretty much a must-win for both teams. The winner pretty much would give themselves a 2-game lead over the loser, and with 3 weeks left to go, well, you get the point. The winner of this game will be going to Indy to face Ohio State in the Big Ten Championship game. 

          The Badger defense has played well over the course of the season, but really hasn't faced an offense as good as Nebraska's yet. A key factor in deciding how good their offense will be this Saturday is the health of Ameer Abdullah. In Nebraska's last game, Abdullah left with an injury early in the game after only gaining one yard. That has calmed some of the Heisman talk for Abdullah, but he will still likely be ready to play this Saturday. This game is seen as a showdown between two Heisman candidates who are two of the top running backs in the country. If Melvin Gordon wants a shot at the Heisman, he is gonna need to outshine Abdullah on Saturday. Gordon has needed a showcase game after missing most of the 2nd half against LSU. This is his chance (Finally NOT an 11 AM kickoff at Camp Randall, BTW). He's gonna need to put up big numbers to at least earn a spot in New York for the ceremony. 

           This will also be a test for the new two-quarterback system. It has worked so far, but now Stave and McEvoy will be facing a much better defense than they have so far since they began to share snaps. Last week against Purdue, the QBs were also being interchanged mid-drive, which was something new and can benefit the offense, as each QB has different strengths for different situations. I just hope against a better defense like Nebraska the offense doesn't become too predictable when a certain QB is on the field. 

            I believe the home-field advantage in this game will help, but I don't see this game being a rout like the last time the Huskers visited Camp Randall or met the Badgers in Indianapolis. I think both Gordon and Abdullah will have big games, and whichever team's quarterbacks can avoid making the big mistake will get the win and the drivers seat to Indianapolis.