No. 11 Wisconsin (13-4, 5-1 Big Ten) at Indiana (12-6, 4-3)
Game: Friday, Jan. 19 in the Kohl Center
Time: 7:30 P.M. CT
Watch: FS1
Listen: 1310 WIBA AM and 101.5 FM (Matt Lepay and Brian Butch on the call); stream online on iHeartRadio
Prediction: Wisconsin 78, Indiana 69
Follow Online: The Badgers' Den
Twitter: @Badger_Blitz
Betting line: Wisconsin -10.5 (according to ESPN BET)
PRE-GAME NOTES
The Hoosiers will travel to the Kohl Center on Friday, where they’ve lost 19 straight games to the Badgers. Their last win in Madison came during the arena’s inaugural 1998 season, when Dick Bennett was still the head coach of Wisconsin.
Indiana will also look to get back on track against Big Ten competition. They've lost three of their past five, all against conference opponents.
They’ll enter Friday coming off of a brutal 87-66 loss to Purdue, where they shot 41.5% from the field, 33.3% from 3-point range and 44.4% from the free-throw line.
To add insult to injury, nobody on the Hoosiers knew how to stop Zach Edey. The reigning Naismith Player of the Year finished with an absurd 33 points.
Indiana’s leading scorer, Malik Reneau, had his worst performance in nearly a month, scoring just eight points, his second-lowest total all season. The sophomore forward had averaged 20.8 points over his previous six games, and was playing the best basketball of his young career.
Reneau has had one of the quickest and most impressive ascensions of any player in the Big Ten from last season to now, increasing his scoring average from 6.1 to 15.8.
Another sophomore who’s seen vast improvements this season is center Kel’el Ware. He’s gone from 6.6 points per game to 14.2, and now even shoots 54.5%.
Ware is a seven-foot center who also averages 9.4 rebounds per game, third most in the Big Ten. But Edey’s performance proved that Ware is ultimately liable to struggle against other big men, which is great news for Wisconsin’s frontcourt.
Rounding out Indiana’s young nucleus is freshman Mackenzie Mgbako. The 6-foot-8 forward entered as a five-star recruit, the ninth best player in his entire class, and he’s quickly shown why. Mgbako is already one of the most consistent scorers on the team, finishing in double figures in 12 of 18 games so far.
On the other side, the Badgers will also enter coming off a brutal loss to a 9-9 Penn State. It snapped their six-game winning streak, and ruined their perfect Big Ten record.
Their biggest problem, besides allowing the Nittany Lions to score 87 points, was holding onto the ball. Wisconsin finished with 13 turnovers, while Penn State had just six.
Friday’s game against Indiana, above all, is a chance for the Badgers to rebound from perhaps their most inexplicable loss all season.
A.J. Storr still finished with 23 points, despite shooting just 7-for-17. He’s been Wisconsin’s best scorer this season, averaging 15.3 points per game to this point, but his efficiency has dipped as of late. Storr is shooting just 42.1% from the field over his past four games.
The silver lining from the loss was the bounce-back performance from Steven Crowl, who had been struggling over the past few games with a knee injury that he suffered in practice.
Crowl scored just 20 points total over their previous three games, then finished with 17 against Penn State, his highest in over a month.
John Blackwell also contributed, albeit mostly from the free-throw line. He shot 7-8 from the line and finished with 17 points, his most since the loss to Arizona.
The freshman has been especially valuable due to Chucky Hepburn’s continued struggles. Against Penn State, Hepburn didn’t score at all, for just the third time in his 85 collegiate games so far.
It’s been a tough stretch of the season for one of Wisconsin’s most trusted and experienced leaders. He’s scoring just 5.9 points per game over his last 10.
Hepburn is still averaging a team-high 4.0 assists, but the Badgers may need more from their premier guard as the schedule toughens up.
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