After beating them last year on the road, the Xavier Musketeers welcome the Wisconsin Badgers to Cincinnati in each team’s first real test of the season. The Badgers are a dangerous team after missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 20 seasons last year while Xavier is an entirely different team coming off a one-seed in the Big Dance a season ago.
Some major losses including the former head coach has Xavier entering the year, and possibly this game, a bit underrated. That’s fine by the Musketeers, in recent years, they’ve seemed to fair better as the hunter rather than the favorites.
If you want part of the action in this game, live betting will be available at BookMaker.eu. This should be an interesting game between one team trending upwards after a disappointing season a year ago and other trying to prevent slipping back to far from a number of losses off last year’s squad.
NCAA Basketball Betting at Bookmaker.eu
Wisconsin Badgers vs. Xavier Musketeers
Date and Time: Tuesday, November 13, 2018, 6:30 p.m. ET
Location: Cintas Center, Cincinnati, Ohio
College Basketball Odds: Check Back Later
Badgers vs. Musketeers TV Coverage: FS1
Despite a disappointing end to the season last year for Wisconsin, missing the NCAA Tournament after 19 consecutive appearances, the Badgers look poised for a good season.
This is largely the same team as last year, but now there are a lot more answers. The lineup varied quite a bit last season, but Coach Gard has a much better idea of his talent now, giving him an edge over newly promoted head coach for Xavier, Travis Steele.
While Steele knows Xavier and should be able to keep a level of continuity taking over for Chris Mack, he has a much different lineup to work with than Mack did last season.
For Wisconsin, the team still includes Ethan Happ who may be one of the best players in the conference. He’s an elite post scorer. He has 17.9 PPG last season with eight rebounds and 3.7 assists to go with several steals and blocks. At 6’10”, he’s the center of the action for Wisconsin and was a jack of all trades as an elite athlete despite his size.
In the Badgers’ game last week against Coppin State, Happ did a bit of everything. He shot well enough from the floor, sunk all four free throws and moved the ball around. This is his team and it showed against Coppin State as he made it a point to get his teammates involved in preparation for a much more challenging opponent in Xavier.
Speaking of the Musketeers, they find themselves in a very different position than Wisconsin. While the Badgers have a relatively experienced crop of players, Xavier has a lot of turnover from last year.
Trevon Bluiett and J.P. Macura are huge losses inside. Fortunately, the team managed to nab a few key grad transfers that at least bring some level of college experience into the fold. Still, blending these new players together will take time.
In the opening game against Evansville, Paul Scruggs stole the show with 24 points, shooting well from the floor, including from three-point range. Tyrique Jones saw a lot of time, too, and impressed with 19 points. Quentin Goodin played just 15 minutes, but shot 5-for-9 with 14 points and three assists. He’ll play more against Wisconsin and will be expected to produce.
Live Betting
The Badgers have edge in experience over Xavier and last week toppled Coppin State by 22-points. Of course, the Musketeers outscored Evansville by 16 on Saturday. Neither team was able to cover the respective spread in their game.
Both of these teams will be challenged in their head-to-head battle on Tuesday evening. While neither dominated their weaker opponents to this point, neither team was adequately challenged yet either. That’ll change.
Look for a close game between the Musketeers and Badgers. We had one last year, at least until the final minutes, and should again this season.
Xavier lost a lot in the backcourt in Bluiett and Macura. That’s a lot to replace. A great recruiting class and some good grad transfers help, but it’ll be important for the backcourt to hold its own and play well as a unit in this game.
Key Player
While the Musketeers are trying their best to figure things out after losing a number of key players, the Badgers are getting one back.
D’Mitrik Trace missed most of last season with an injury. He played well in limited action last year and showed a good outside shot that’ll bring a lot to this offense.
The Badgers saw a nice first glimpse of how Trace fits in their game against Coppin State. In 27 minutes, he shot 7-for-13 from the floor, including 5-for-9 from beyond the arc. Ethan Happ is the star of this team nabbing a triple-double in the season opener, but Trace lead the team in scoring with 21 points and is an important shooter in this offense.
Xavier will need to find a way to contain Trace on the outside while still providing enough coverage around to Happ, Davison and others. The Musketeers are likely transitioning a bit more out of the zone defense into a one-on-one, but either way, it may be hard to contain Trace if he’s shooting well.
Badgers vs. Musketeers Live Betting
Xavier has lost too much while the Wisconsin has retained most of its premier talent from last year. Count on a big game from Happ to help the Badgers control the inside while Trice and Davidson provide enough in the backcourt.
The Musketeers will probably still be okay this season. They looked good in their opener, but an early season battle against Wisconsin will be tough as the young team tries to jell behind a new head coach.
Check out all of the live betting at BookMaker.eu for Monday’s college basketball.
NCAA Basketball Score Prediction: Wisconsin 78, Xavier 71
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