Wisconsin Men’s Basketball Opens League Season Earlier

The Wisconsin men’s basketball team will start its Big Ten season almost one month earlier than usual. The league announced its schedule Wednesday, and it has the Badgers opening at home against Ohio State December second with a road contest at Penn State December fourth. It will be an early test for coach Greg Gard, who must replace four starting seniors who left last spring after the Badgers made the N-C-A-A Sweet 16. Wisconsin will have a long stretch of games in January with three straight road outings, followed by a home contest against Illinois and then two more games on the road. The Big Ten Tournament starts one week earlier than normal in a new location at Madison Square Garden in New York.