Two Big Ten squads previously ranked inside the top five have fallen on hard times recently, and they will meet early today in Madison with the hope of getting back on track. OSU fell at home to PSU as a 13 point favorite on Wednesday night. Later on in that same evening, Wisconsin shockingly dropped one at home to a Northwestern team that had looked brutal prior to that game.
For the Buckeyes, their issues continue to be on offense. While they are an elite defensive club, sometimes you literally wonder what they are doing on the offensive end of the floor. Their sets have no obvious purpose and they rarely dump the ball inside to anyone. LaQuinton Ross is solid in iso situations, but Aaron Craft has been miserable offensively, averaging barely over two field goals made in his last six games.
Wisconsin has a lot more offensive firepower to work with, t and that’s the primary reason they come in here as 5.5 point favorites. They shot 21% from three against Northwestern and their propensity to fall in love with the perimeter look hurt them. They have two talented power forwards and, ideally, they should be working their offense from the inside out.
Nigel Hayes and Sam Dekker will have tougher match-ups here, however. The aforementioned ross and Marc Loving are longer forwards with the defensive skill set to limit Hayes and Dekker. The Buckeyes guards also have the perimeter quickness to contain penetration and cut down the number of clean perimeter looks the Badgers get.
But the biggest question comes down to OSU’s ability to keep pace here. I expect these two teams to lock in and focus today, with an added emphasis on the defensive end. The total has been set at 129, and a game in the mid 60’s makes a lot of sense.
Wisconsin hasn’t been quite as good on defense as in previous years. A lot of that has to do with them playing at a quicker pace early on in the year, but this game should be more of the typical grind reminiscent of these two teams in years past. Making a play on the spread is tough, and this figure is relatively accurate based on how these two stack up on paper.
Keep an eye on Traevon Jackson here. The Wisconsin point guard has been kept mostly quiet in their recent string of defeats. He’ll likely have Aaron Craft on him here, and his struggles could continue Bo Ryan’s squad can win this game without him having a big stat line, but he needs to get back to playing aggressive yet efficient ball if wisconsin wants to make a run this year.
