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The Penn State Nittany Lions are looking to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time under Pat Chambers. Chambers has been in Happy Valley for seven seasons now, but has never got Penn State to finish higher than 10th in the conference and has only taken the school to one postseason tournament, the CBI back in 2013-14. To make the tournament, and possibly save his job, he needs to start picking up wins and fast. Beating a vulnerable Wisconsin Badgers team at home on Monday night would aid that goal.
This war on the floor will go down Monday, December 4, 2017, at 7 p.m. ET at Bryce Jordan Center in University Park, Pennsylvania. The game will be televised live on ESPN2. We'll have NCAA basketball odds at BookMaker.eu available for this and every game on the college basketball Monday schedule.
Opening College Basketball Odds at BookMaker.eu
Wisconsin is not off to a good start this season. The Badgers have typically been one of the strongest programs in the Big Ten, but a tough non-conference schedule has punished Wisconsin and now has this team behind the eight ball heading into conference play. Wisconsin not only lost, but didn’t get the cover against quality opponents like Xavier, Baylor, UCLA, and Virginia during the month of November and managed just 37 points against Virginia’s defense.
The Nittany Lions are off to a 6-2 start, but haven’t played nearly as tough of a schedule. Penn State got the win and cover against all of the cupcakes on its schedule and did hammer a bad Pitt team, but failed to get the win or the cover against either Texas A&M or North Carolina State. Under has been a good bet in Penn State games this season, with a mark of 4-2.
Player to Watch
If the Nittany Lions turn it around this season, it will probably be based on the play of Tony Carr. Carr has been great early on this season and is pouring in points for Penn State. He is averaging over 20 points per game and kept the team in contention against both NC State and Texas A&M. Carr went 11-20 from the floor against the Aggies and 12-25 from the floor against the Wolfpack and turned a lot of heads with those performances.
He has been a lights out three-point shooter this season. Carr has hit 57.7 percent of his three pointers and has been the best free throw shooter on the team as well. The fact that he has consistently risen to the level when it was needed the most is extremely impressive and something to keep an eye on here.
Key Stats
According to Ken Pomeroy, Wisconsin is due to start turning things around. The Badgers have been one of the three or four unluckiest teams in college basketball to this point of the season and should not be sitting at 3-4.
However, the team needs to find another good shooter outside of Ethan Happ and Khalil Iverson. Both players are hitting over 57 percent from the field, but after those two the shooting numbers tail off dramatically. The next best shooter is hitting just 44.8 percent from the field and that’s where the Badgers struggles mainly lie. Opposing teams have been able to focus on Happ and Iverson, and no one has made them pay.
Free College Basketball ATS Picks
Unless Carr shoots the lights out from the floor against a very good Wisconsin defense, I think this will be when the Badgers start to right the ship. Penn State has never won more than six games in conference play since Chambers took over the program and many of those victories have come against the bottom feeders of the conference. Look for a big Badgers victory in this one.
College Basketball Odds: Wisconsin 75, Penn State 57
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