A new sensation for Bruce Pearl

Last night's feature game between #2 Tennessee and #1 Memphis lived up to the hype, and accordingly, Volunteer fans are loving it. BruceBall says WOW, Fulmer's Belly reminds us that Memphis is the home of the blues, and Gate 21 has a flashy new logo. You really have to hand it to Bruce Pearl. The guy can coach, and he's really made Tennessee a national player.

But for this Badger fan, the remarkable thing about last night's game is that Coach Pearl finally knows how it feels to lead the top team in the state. Unfortunately for Pearl (and many thousands of other people), UW-Milwaukee exists to be second-best. He was fortunate to only have to spend four years in that purgatory.

So, hats off to Bruce Pearl, not just for being the coach of the #1 team in the land, but for exposing the Fighting Illini as filthy, filthy cheaters.

Third prize is you're fired

Someone get the Badgers some coffee, because they are most definitely closers.

You ever take a dump made you feel like you'd just slept for twelve hours?

Now, had the Illini made more than half of their free throws down the stretch, we might be singing a different tune this evening. But that's the difference between a great team and a good one. With four minutes left, the Badgers were down by one. They went three for three from the floor and buried six free throws in six tries. In that span, the Illini went 0-for-6 shooting and made two free throws in four attempts.

Illinois stuck around all game long, coming back from eight down halfway through the second half to take the lead on a Rich McBride triple with just over five minutes to go. But then the Badgers did what they've been doing all year (save for one effort in South Padre), and at the end of the day they remained alone and undefeated at the top of the heap in the Big Ten, running their win streak to 15. Suddenly, the Illini are 2-4 in the conference and probably looking at an NIT bid if things don't change.

The Badgers get Michigan next. It's a home game, tipping off at 8 pm Central. The Wolverines aren't as good as their record suggests. I'd be surprised if Wisconsin wins by any fewer than 12 points.

Finally: is Alando Tucker the best Badger ever?

Badgers get by Purdue, visit Illinois tomorrow

The Badgers overcame a slow start on Wednesday to finish off the pesky Purdue Boilermakers, 69-64, at the Kohl Center. The game swung on Jason Chappell's otherworldly 13-point, 8-rebound performance. Wisconsin sniffed out Purdue's gameplan and exploited what they saw. That translated into several double-digit leads for the Badgers late in the game, and that was the difference in the game as the Opossums weren't able to get closer than two scores to UW.

(Speaking of Chappell, here's something that opposing fans are sure to start mocking: his J-Cheezy ... er ... fashion line. More examples here.)

As if we needed another reason to be proud of them: Congrats to the basketball team for posting the highest GPA of any fall sports team at UW.

Tomorrow the Badgers will try to run their winning streak to 15 games as they visit Illinois. The Illini have struggled thus far this year, losing at Michigan, at Michigan State, and at home to Ohio State. The Badgers need to realize that playing down to their competition as they did at Northwestern and versus Purdue simply won't work against the Illini. (Or whatever they're called, if they're not allowed to use the Illini name by tomorrow.)

Misc: hockey has a bye this weekend; the Dance Team got high marks at a competition; and the Badger Herald has a good metaphor for bringing bottom-feeding opponents to a revamped Camp Randall Stadium.