NU hosts struggling Badgers

anyone who saw the Northwestern-Wisconsin game three and a half weeks ago would never have guessed that these two teams come into the rematch tied in the conference standings. since UW embarrassed the Wildcats in the Kohl Center on January 7, NU has gone a surprising 3-2 while the Badgers have lost five in a row. it is the first time at Wisconsin that Bo Ryan has lost five consecutive games or two straight home games.

first and foremost, Wisconsin will look to get back to their strong defensive principles. with the earlier victory over NU, the Badgers moved to 12-3 and had allowed only UConn, Virginia Tech and Texas to score more than 61 points. since then, all five opponents have scored at least 64. in home losses to Minnesota and Purdue, UW coughed up leads down the stretch, so NU shouldn't feel like they're out of this game, even if they face a late deficit.

it should be an interesting game to watch, as both teams have entirely different frames of mind from the last meeting. similar to the Michigan game, i'd feel better about NU's chances if Wisconsin wasn't coming into Welsh-Ryan with a losing streak.

it appears Joe Krabbenhoft will be active for this game. some had called for his suspension after the brutal elbow he delivered against Purdue's Lewis Jackson on Tuesday. normally this would be a great opportunity for some serious heckling, but of course that would require NU students to a) show up the for the game and b) do their homework on an NU opponent.