Jordan Longseth

Big Ten Record Predictions

/ / Leave a Comment

College basketball is upon us! Wisconsin and the rest of the Big Ten tip off their seasons Monday night.

Below, I went through and made my record predictions for the season and what teams will make the Tournament. This is a standings prediction, not necessarily a ranking of which teams are better. For example, I think UCLA is a better team than Illinois and Wisconsin; they just happen to have a rough away slate. Unfortunately, with the Big Ten as bloated as it is, a lot of standings will be determined by the home/away split. 

1. Purdue 26 – 4 Overall (17 – 3 Big Ten)

2. Michigan: 23 – 7 (15 – 5)

2. Mich St: 24 – 7 (15 – 5)

4. Illinois: 22 – 9 (14 – 6)

4. Wisconsin: 23 – 8 (14 – 6)

6. UCLA: 23 – 8 (13 – 7)

7. Oregon:20 – 10 (12 – 8)

7. Iowa: 20 – 10 (12 – 8)

9. Ohio State: 20 – 11 (11 – 9)

10. Washington: 18 – 12 (10 – 10)

11. Indiana: 17 – 15 (9 – 11)

11. USC: 18 – 11 (9 – 11)

11. Maryland: 15 – 15

…

Big Ten Record Predictions Read More »

Badger Basketball 2025/26 Schedule Prediction

/ / Leave a Comment

Welcome to basketball season! Thank god the football season is over for the Wisconsin Badgers. Looking ahead to Wisconsin’s schedule, the Badgers have a much easier non-conference schedule compared to the past couple of years. They follow that up with a couple of tough games to begin the actual Big Ten slate, a stretch of what looks to be easy conference games, and then a stretch of tough road games to end the season. I fully expect this season to play out like recent Greg Gard seasons, where he’s able to put together a solid season that’ll slip towards the end into tournament season. That is no disrespect towards the Badgers; that’s just how the schedule fares this year. On to the game by game predictions!

Mon, Nov 3 vs Campbell – Win

Fri, Nov 7 vs Northern Illinois – Win

Tue, Nov 11 vs Ball State – Win

Mon, Nov 17 vs SIU Edwardsville – Win

Fri, Nov 21 @ BYU – Loss

Thu, Nov 27 vs Providence – Win

Fri Nov 28 vs TCU or Florida – Loss

Wed, Dec 3 vs Northwestern – Win

Sat, Dec 6 vs Marquette – Win

Wed, Dec 10 @ Nebraska –

…

Badger Basketball 2025/26 Schedule Prediction Read More »

2025-2026 Badger Basketball Breakdown

/ / Leave a Comment

Returning Players

John Blackwell 25 – Guard (JR)
2024/25 stats – 31.2 MPG / 15.8 PPG / 5.1 RPG / 2.2 APG 

The offense will run through John Blackwell in what is likely his last year of college basketball. Blackwell has NBA potential and will be looking to build upon his resume this year to push himself to a 1st round pick. I expect him to lead the Badgers in minutes and points this year by a large margin.

Nolan Winter 31 – Forward (JR)
2024/25 stats – 21.1 MPG / 9.4 PPG / 5.8 RPG / 1.1 APG 

Last year, Nolan Winter was the 5th starter and got rotated out to get more of a true center in quite often. If his trajectory continues, expect that to change this year. Of the returning players, Winter is the leader in 3-point percentage and rebounds. As long as he gained some bulk, he could be looking at a Kaminsky-esque jump in performance in his 3rd year of play.

Jack Janicki 5 – Guard (SO)
2024/25 stats – 11.4 MPG / 1.9 PPG / 1.4 RPG / 0.8 APG 

Janicki will win the Naismith College Player of the Year, mark my words. …

2025-2026 Badger Basketball Breakdown Read More »

2025-2026 Badger Hockey Preview

/ / Leave a Comment

The Badger Hockey season started this past weekend with two wins against Lindenwood. That means it’s time for Walk on Fan’s preview of the 2025-2026 season! 

Last year, Wisconsin followed a resurgent first season under Mike Hastings with a season to forget. Can Hastings recreate the magic of his first season, or will the Badgers’ season end in disappointment again?

Roster Breakdown

Compared to last year, the Badgers have a younger team with more upside to their roster. Their only major loss from last year is Ryland Mosley, last year’s second in points. The team has 9 new players, including 7 freshmen and 2 transfers. Most importantly, they have two new goaltenders: freshman Daniel Hauser and transfer Eli Pulver. From the first series, it appears Hauser will be the primary goaltender going forward. The two most exciting Badgers from last year are still on the team in Quinn Finley and Logan Hensler. The team should be more complete around them, leading to slightly elevated expectations compared to last year.

Schedule Breakdown

USCHO had the Badgers ranked #20 going into the season. That might seem like an improvement over last year, if it weren’t for the 5 Big Ten hockey squads …

2025-2026 Badger Hockey Preview Read More »

Welcome Home Brad

/ / Leave a Comment

Did you know Brad Davison played quarterback in high school? If you watched Wisconsin Basketball from 2017 to 2022, I’m sure you heard that fun fact every other game. Little did any of us know that he was throwing passes to eventual Brewers rookie of the year candidate Isaac Collins. Now, after a short pro career in Spain, Brad is back in Madison to join Gard’s coaching staff. All roads from Maple Grove, Minnesota, lead to Wisconsin, I guess.

The Loss of Kirk

Before I break down what Brad Davison brings to Wisconsin, I do have to mention the loss of Kirk Penney. Penney was an assistant for only 2 years, but was able to make a significant impact on the program. As the Badgers’ unofficial Offensive Coordinator, he played a significant part in revolutionizing Gard’s offense. He brought a modern perspective to Wisconsin’s plodding swing offense, leading to the team’s best offensive season since the 80s. Gard claims that he was calling the plays this past year, while Penney was the one who helped define his vision. However, Gard stated that he will still be looking to keep Penney involved in the program from afar in New Zealand.

What

…

Welcome Home Brad Read More »

Wisco Wednesday: Fire Gard – Part Two

/ / Leave a Comment

Before we get into basketball talk, congratulations to the Badger Women’s Hockey team for winning the national title this past Sunday. If you haven’t seen Kirsten Simms’ two goals to win the game, go find the highlight. It might just wash a little bit of Saturday night’s loss away.

For starters, I am still in the camp that we should keep Greg Gard. While we had another disappointing exit in the tournament, Gard accomplished a complete 180 in Wisconsin’s identity in one season. In a season picked to finish 12th in the Big Ten, his team was able to grab a 3 seed in the tournament. The question is, will he be able to replicate a quick turnaround for next season? We will be losing 63% of our total minutes just to seniors graduating. Comments from Blackwell and Winter indicate that they will be staying in Wisconsin, but after them, it’s a whole lot of inexperience. If Greg Gard can hit it out of the park with the transfer portal once again, expect another season that crushes preseason expectations.

But at what point does regular season success translate to postseason success? Wisconsin hasn’t made the Sweet Sixteen since 2017, only …

Wisco Wednesday: Fire Gard – Part Two Read More »

Welcome to March! – Walk on Fan’s NCAA Bracket Challenge

/ / Leave a Comment

Do you think you can pick a better bracket than me? Join Walk on Fan’s NCAA bracket challenge by clicking here!

The First Four

Let’s get started with the First Four games and the biggest controversy of Selection Sunday. North Carolina should not be in the NCAA tournament plain and simple. Indiana and West Virginia have vastly superior wins and also less harmful losses. The only thing that North Carolina has going for it is the fact they have a lot of non-conference quality losses. But only one quality win. In fact, they have 2 wins over other teams in the tournament: UCLA (7 seed) and American (16 seed.) In comparison, Indiana has 4 and West Virginia has 5. However, there’s commonly one team that plays in the first four that makes the Sweet Sixteen. And UNC is my bet to make that run. They have been playing good basketball recently, only losing to Duke twice in their past 10 games. On top of that, they get to play a weak San Diego State team, an over seeded Ole Miss, and either Iowa State without their second-best player or 14 seed Lipscomb. Good thing UNC’s athletic director, also the NCAA …

Welcome to March! – Walk on Fan’s NCAA Bracket Challenge Read More »

Welcome to Selection Sunday! Walk on Fan’s Final Bracket Update

/ / Leave a Comment

We’re keeping it simple today. Just seeds and no analysis. We’ll have a breakdown of the actual bracket tomorrow.

1 Seeds:

Duke, Houston, Auburn, Florida

2 Seeds:

Tennessee, St. Johns, Alabama, Michigan State

3 Seeds:

Wisconsin, Texas Tech, Michigan, Iowa State

4 Seeds:

Maryland, Texas A&M, Clemson, Kentucky

5 Seeds:

Purdue, Marquette, Arizona, Louisville

6 Seeds:

St. Mary’s, Gonzaga, Kansas, Oregon

7 Seeds:

Mizzou, UCLA, BYU, Ole Miss

8 Seeds:

Illinois, Memphis, Creighton, Miss State

9 Seeds:

UConn, VCU, New Mexico, Vanderbilt

10 Seeds:

Baylor, Georgia, Arkansas, Oklahoma

11 Seeds:

Xavier, Colorado State, West Virginia, Utah St, San Diego St, Indiana

12 Seeds:

UC San Diego, Drake, McNeese, Yale

13 Seeds:

Liberty, Akron, Grand Canyon, High Point

14 Seeds:

Lipscomb, Troy, UNCW, Robert Morris

15 Seeds:

Montana, Wofford, Bryant, Omaha

16 Seeds:

Norfolk State, American, Mt. St. Mary’s, SIUE, Alabama State, St Francis PA

First 4 out:

North Carolina, Boise State, Texas, Ohio State

Next 4 out:

North Texas, George Mason, UC Irvine, Cincinnati

Follow us on Bluesky here!

This article was written by Jordan Longseth and edited by Hayden Breene.…

Welcome to Selection Sunday! Walk on Fan’s Final Bracket Update Read More »

Walk on Fan’s Big Ten Tournament Preview

/ / Leave a Comment

The regular season is over! Congratulations to Michigan State on winning the Big Ten regular season title. Now, let’s move on to the postseason and see where the whole Big Ten stands going into Wednesday’s games and what my picks are for the tournament. Well, not the whole Big Ten. Sorry to Nebraska, Penn State, and Washington. There’s always next year.

Game 1: Northwestern (+27,000 to win the Big Ten) vs Minnesota (+27,000)

This is the first of two games not to feature a team that could make the NCAA tournament without winning the conference tournament. Don’t expect an NC State run from either of these teams. Northwestern is favored and leads Minnesota in most metric-based standings. However, Minnesota has seven Quad 1 wins compared to Northwestern’s 3. I would pick Minnesota (+120) here.

Game 2: Iowa (+30,000) vs Ohio State (+5,000)

Ohio State really needs to win this game even to have a chance at making the NCAA tournament. Iowa has had a very disappointing season, and I don’t see that changing. The only win of note they had in the Big Ten was against Indiana. Back when they were floundering. I am going to side with Ohio State …

Walk on Fan’s Big Ten Tournament Preview Read More »

We have a new number one! Walk on Fan’s March 10th Bracket Update

/ / Leave a Comment

1 Seeds:

Duke (2-0), Auburn (0-2), Houston (2-0), Florida (2-0)

2 Seeds:

Tennessee (1-1), Michigan State (2-0), St. Johns (2-0), Alabama (1-1)

It turns out that Auburn is mortal, after all. Losing twice in one week only drops them to number two overall, with how stacked their resume is at the moment. Duke benefits from the dip and is currently sitting as the number one overall seed. The rest of the one and two seeds are sitting relatively comfortable going into the conference tournaments. Even if there are upsets, expect these teams to stay steady.

3 Seeds:

Texas Tech (2-0), Iowa State (1-1), Maryland (2-0), Clemson (2-0)

4 Seeds:

Wisconsin (1-1), Texas A&M (2-0), Purdue (1-1), Kentucky (2-0)

Wisconsin losing to Penn State sucks. Obviously, there were concerns with fouls and injuries related to the game, but that shouldn’t be an excuse to lose to a Big Ten team that didn’t even make the conference tournament. Greg Gard better hope his team can rebound in the postseason, otherwise, we might be hearing some “Fire Gard” chants coming soon. Elsewhere, Maryland and Clemson are two hot teams going into their respective tournaments and could move up with a good showing. Texas …

We have a new number one! Walk on Fan’s March 10th Bracket Update Read More »