Wisconsin Badgers @ Washington Huskies – Preview and Game Thread
· Yahoo Sports
Flash back three weeks. The Huskies had just lost to Iowa- undoubtedly a tough game, but arguably the toughest one on the remaining schedule. On paper, the Huskies looked level or better to each of their eight remaining opponents. Winning seven or eight of those games would give the team a winning record in Big 10 play and a real shot at an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Through the first five games, though, the Dawgs are 2-3, with especially bad losses to Penn St and Maryland.
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In the meantime, Wisconsin has looked quite good. They beat Illinois on the road and both Iowa and Michigan St at home. Even if the Huskies were playing well this month, Wisconsin’s improvement might make them a favorite in this match-up. Senior guard Nick Boyd has carried the team through this stretch, scoring 25+ in each of those three signature wins. In the team’s other two games, both losses, he scored 14 and 11, so his offense tends to drive success for the whole squad. Junior big man Nolan Winter, who looks exactly like what you would expect a 7’ center at Wisconsin to look like, has broken out this season with 13.5 PPG and 8.7 RPG. Stylistically, they play a relatively conservative but analytically sound style. they shoot a lot of threes (10th highest 3PAr in the country) with average accuracy. They don’t turn the ball over, nor do they force a lot of turnovers, but they rebound well enough that teams don’t get many second-chance points. The profile is good for the 28th best efficiency rating in Bart Torvik’s T-Rank.
At 11-6 in conference, Wisconsin has a very good chance at an at-large bid. they lost away to Oregon earlier in the week, so they will be motivated coming into Seattle on Saturday afternoon. There was a point in the season where this would have looked like a key game for the Huskies. Instead, they will try to play spoiler. The game tips off at 1 PM local time and will air on FS1.
Go Dawgs!