It's too bad teams can't make overseas trips every year.

I know it's almost football season so I'll do a post on that soon, but I couldn't resist my basketball Badgers.

It was quite fun to get some summer basketball from the Badgers this past week. All I was able to watch was the 2nd half of the Ryerson game, but even that was a welcome break from baseball. I didn't see or read anything to question my assumptions from the end of last season:

The Badgers are going to start and play a lot of 3 guard and probably some 4 guard lineups. Kaminsky will have to play a lot. Dekker will almost never come out of the game and will be a dominating force in the Big Ten. They are going to be a lot of fun to watch.

The schedule came out today and it should be a fun year. There are not as many early cupcakes as usual. Perhaps because of the Canada trip UW will be ready for big tests early and they will get some wins. They start with Big East foe St. Johns on a neutral court, probable preseason top 10 Florida at home, and at Green Bay (where Bo Ryan has suffered a preseason loss before).

I think this team will be a championship contender in what should be a good but not great Big Ten Conference. They have a lucky schedule in that they don't play at MSU or at OSU and only play each team once. The other 2 teams they get once are Nebraska and PSU on the road. I think they ride a 4-0 record in those games plus a 10-4 record in the remaining games to a share of the Big Ten title at 14-4.