Wisconsin (21-12, 11-9 Big Ten) vs. No. 3 Purdue (29-3, 17-3)

Game: Saturday, March 16 at Target Arena in Minneapolis, MN

Time: 12:00 P.M. CT

Watch: CBS

Listen: 1310 WIBA AM and 101.5 FM (Matt Lepay and Brian Butch on the call); stream online on iHeartRadio

Prediction: Purdue 76, Wisconsin 73

Follow Online: The Badgers' Den

Twitter: @Badger_Blitz

Betting line: Purdue -5.5 (according to ESPN BET)

The Wisconsin Badgers will move forward in the Big Ten Tournament and face the Purdue Boilermakers once again. It’ll be their third meeting this season, and the second in the last seven days.

So far in the tournament, the Badgers have collected a few respectable wins and will now face the top team in the conference, and the reigning Big Ten Tournament champions.

The Boilermakers are coming off of a 67-62 win over Michigan State on Friday.

The Big Ten Player of the Year, and soon to be National Player of the Year, Zach Edey, was the only Boilermaker to have any sort of impact. He finished with 29 points, while the second leading scorer, Lance Jones, had just 10.

Edey’s success wasn’t a surprise, based on how good he is, as well as Michigan State’s shaky defense against big men. But the rest of the team’s inability to perform was worrying.

Jones and Braden Smith, two of Edey’s best supporting cast members, each shot 2-for-7 from the field, while Smith also finished with five turnovers. The team even shot 66.7% from the free-throw line.

The Boilermakers are obviously on an incredible run, having lost just once in the last two months. But they haven’t looked scary or unbeatable in quite some time. Their last double-digit victory came on February 22 against Rutgers.

The issue, whatever it is, has nothing to do with Edey. He’s somehow playing even better than usual recently, averaging 29.8 points on 61.3% shooting over his last five games.

The Badgers threw the kitchen sink at Edey in their most recent matchup. They swarmed him, fouled him, did just about everything short of assault, and he still found a way to have a great game.

The very same thing could happen once again. But no team can really win in the postseason with one player. Edey will need Jones and Smith if they want to right the wrongs of last year.

While the Badgers will have to play their third game in as many days, against a slightly more rested team in Purdue, they do have somewhat of an advantage in momentum.

Their first win in the tournament came against Maryland, and featured one of the Badgers’ most complete and dominant performances of the season, culminating in an 87-56 win. Friday’s 70-61 victory over Northwestern wasn’t as pretty, but felt far more meaningful.

Fans learned shortly before tip-off that Chucky Hepburn would miss the game with a lower body injury and was only available in the case of an emergency.

Early on, this looked like the most crushing loss of the season for Wisconsin.

Northwestern’s Boo Buie had the best opening eight minutes that any player has had against the Badgers this season. He scored 16 points in just over eight minutes, securing an early 21-10 lead for the Wildcats.

It felt like we were about to witness one of the great performances in the Big Ten this season. The loss of Hepburn seemed insurmountable.

Then, in seemingly miraculous fashion, the Badgers rebounded.

Buie himself suffered an injury and became far less intimidating, while Wisconsin fixed their offensive struggles. They went on a run before the end of the half and even carried a 33-29 lead into halftime, before they won the game.

A.J. Storr scored a career-high 30 points, giving the type of performance the Badgers have desperately needed these past few weeks.

Steven Crowl followed up his 17-point performance against Maryland with 19 against Northwestern. He, like Storr, even finished shooting 3-of-5 from 3.

Storr and Crowl were neutralized by the Boilermakers in each of the first two meetings. If the Badgers want a statement victory, they need their best players to perform.

But the big concern going forward is how these Badgers will fare without Hepburn. No one else on the roster can truly match his defense or playmaking, but John Blackwell and Kamari McGee are incredibly valuable backups who should see their roles increase in the immediate future.

“I’ve always felt that the real strength, the ace of this team, has been their depth,” Greg Gard said after the game. “That spark comes from, specifically, Kam and John.”

The Big Ten Tournament has proven to be useful for the Badgers rediscovering their identity and finally finding a way to play good basketball again.

These last two games meant a lot to Wisconsin, and it was clear. I’d expect, at the very least, a passionate performance, in which the Badgers treat it more like the actual tournament.

Purdue will also obviously give their all. But after winning the Big Ten Tournament last season and following it up with a first round loss to 16th-seed Fairleigh Dickinson, there’s a chance Matt Painter will be wary of overworking his players

Purdue is the better team and should prevail once again, but anything is possible in a conference tournament.

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