Wisconsin (20-12, 11-9 Big Ten) vs. Northwestern (21-10, 12-8)

Game: Friday, March 15 in the Target Center in Minneapolis, MN

Time: 1:30 P.M. CT

Watch: BTN

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

Prediction: Northwestern 74, Wisconsin 67

Follow Online: The Badgers' Den

Twitter: @Badger_Blitz

Betting line: Wisconsin -3.5 (according to ESPN BET)

The No. 5 Wisconsin Badgers will move on in the Big Ten Tournament and face No. 4 Northwestern Wildcats, one day after their 87-56 victory over Maryland in the second round.

As a top-four seed, the Wildcats earned a bye for the first two rounds of the tournament. Their postseason will begin Friday against the team they edged out in the standings.

Northwestern will begin the postseason coming off of a questionable end to the season. They entered March having won five of their past six, looking like one of the best teams in the conference.

Yet the month began with two losses in a five-day span. The first was in an 87-80 shootout with Iowa, followed by a 53-49 rock fight against Michigan State. It was the least amount of points Northwestern scored in a game this year, and tied for the lowest scoring game they’ve played all season.

They followed these losses with a resounding 90-66 victory over Minnesota in the regular season finale. It was one of their best offensive performances of the season, in which four of their starters scored 14 or more points.

This is all to say, it’s difficult to judge the Wildcats based on their recent history.

One of the few certainties about Northwestern is that they’ll lean most heavily on Boo Buie.

He’s been one of the best players in the Big Ten this season, having just been named to the All-Big Ten First Team, and one of the most consistent scorers. Buie’s 18.9 points per game average is fourth-highest in the Big Ten, and he’s scored in double figures in 19 of 20 conference games.

Buie was once the lone reliable threat for the Wildcats, but over the course of the season, junior Brooks Barnhizer slowly proved himself to be a perfect second option. He’s 15th in the Big Ten in scoring, averaging 14.6 points per game, and is currently on one of the better shooting streaks of his career, having made 10 of his 21 3-point attempts over the past five games.

Barnhizer has also become incredibly valuable on the defensive end, averaging 1.9 steals per game, and was even selected to the Big Ten All-Defensive Team.

The Badgers will play for the second consecutive day, after opening their tournament run with an 87-56 victory against Maryland.

It was never really close, and felt like one of Wisconsin’s strongest performances of the season. They made 10 3-pointers in the first half en route to a 21-point halftime lead.

The star for the Badgers was their shooting. They finished with 25 assists while making 64% of their 3-pointers — both season-highs.

Steven Crowl and A.J. Storr each had bounce-back performances. Crowl, coming off of a goose egg against Purdue, finished with 17 points on 7-for-8 shooting from the field and 3-for-3 from beyond the arc. Storr barely trailed him with 16 points to go along with five rebounds, all in just 22 minutes.

Perhaps their greatest concern was limiting Jahmir Young, another one of the Big Ten’s top scorers. He had a productive first half and even finished with 18 points, but the Badgers took such a significant lead that nobody’s individual performance seemed to matter.

Going up against Young was good preparation for facing Buie — both are smaller guards capable of taking games over with their scoring prowess.

However, those types of players are perfect targets for Chucky Hepburn, who was recently selected to the Big Ten All-Defensive Team.

In the first meeting between the Badgers and Wildcats, Buie finished with 20 points, but shot 7-for-16, including 2-for-9 in the second half. Hepburn slowly wore him down over the course of the game, and will look to do it once more.

Ultimately, the game will likely come down to which duo can out-perform the other, between Buie and Barnhizer, or Storr and either Crowl or Tyler Wahl.

For Wisconsin, a victory could prove that they belong on the upper echelon of the Big Ten, against the team directly above them in the standings.

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