The No. 2 Wisconsin Badgers and No. 8 Michigan Wolverines meet in the Big Ten Conference finals on Sunday afternoon, but the two teams got there in very different ways. After a bad end to the regular season, the Badgers still earned a No. 2 seed granting them free admission into the quarterfinals were they took on a couple surprising teams in Indiana and Northwestern. They’ll get another one in the Wolverines after Michigan took down the top dog in Purdue and then followed suit with the No. 4 seed in Minnesota.
This war on the floor in the Big Ten Tournament Finals will go down Sunday, March 12, 2017, at 3 p.m. ET at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC. The game will be televised live on CBS.
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Right after the Semifinals ended, the Badgers opened as the one-point favorites in the Big Ten conference finals over the Wolverines. Given their rankings heading into the tournament, that’s a bit of a narrow spread especially after Wisconsin completely destroyed Northwestern in the Semifinals.
The commanding 76-48 victory for Wisconsin was the third straight victory for a That’Wisconsin team that managed to get itself back on track here in the tournament after scuffling at the end of the regular season, in conference play no less.
As for Michigan, this team hit its stride at the perfect time. They’ve now won four straight and nine of 11 and have gone 8-3 ATS in those last 11 games.
Player to Watch
Keep eyes on Zak Irvin. He could very well be the Wolverines’ most effective weapon as he’s put up the best numbers against Wisconsin in their previous two meetings.
Irvin has been playing really well in this tournament. He’s a bit of an in-between player whose mid-range jumper has been sinking here in the nation’s capital. He needs that shot to continue to fall, at least for one more game, to give Michigan another consistent player in addition to Derrick Walton. That latter has really been shouldering an impressive load in minutes and productivity, but with games back-to-back-to-back, fatigue could start setting in.
That fatigue factor could play right into Wisconsin’s hands. They’ve been able to get a bit more rest for their stars, particularly with the Northwestern blowout and with a few less games played given their higher seeding.
Last Meeting
These two teams have met head-to-head twice with the Wolverines scoring 64 each time and the two schools splitting those games.
In the most recent battle, Michigan got to go up against the struggling Badgers who had just lost to Northwestern kicking off a span of five losses in six games. After Wisconsin crushed the same Wildcats team on Saturday, the future looks a bit bleaker this time as we look forward to their next battle.
Nevertheless, in their win, the Wolverines didn’t really go off on the elite Wisconsin defense, but Michigan held its own, slightly outscoring the average PPG allowed by the Badgers.
The real key was Wisconsin’s dismal offensive output. The team shot 38.3-percent from the floor and was downright dreadful from beyond the arc. Overall, Ethan Happ shot 10-for-13 from the floor for 22 points and the rest of the team did nothing.
Contrast that to the first meeting when Happ was the fourth highest scorer on the team with 11 points and the Badgers managed to outshoot Michigan while putting up at least a respectable percentage from three.
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We’ve got two games and 64-points each time for Michigan. That’s pretty telling, but what we need to figure out is how will the Badgers’ offense do this time around?
It seems that Wisconsin has reverted to its early season form and that’s a scary sign for Michigan. When Wisconsin is on its game, the team can slow the pace of play down to a crawl and this team thrives in that environment. On defense, it lulls the opposing offense to sleep. They just need to be sure it doesn’t do the same thing to themselves on offense.
This game will be a fight down to the final seconds. Michigan has done nothing but fight all season long, particularly in the latter part and into this conference tournament. They’ve proven a lot of people wrong along the way. It wouldn’t be a bad choice to take them over Wisconsin in the upset, but the Badgers are the better team on paper. They’ve got the killer defense and have been scoring in the 70s here in the conference playoffs.
College Basketball Odds: Wisconsin 68, Michigan 66
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