Oregon (19-8, 9-7 Big Ten) vs. No.11 Wisconsin (21-5, 11-4 Big Ten)

Date/Time – Saturday, February 22, 11 a.m.

Arena – Kohl Center (17,071)

Television – FOX (Brandon Gaudin and LaPhonso Ellis)

Radio – Badgers Radio Network (Matt Lepay and Brian Butch), Sirius 83, stream online on iHeartRadio.

Series – Wisconsin leads 6-3 (Wisconsin leads 1-0 in Madison)

Last Meeting – Wisconsin won, 61-58, on March 21, 2023, in Eugene, Ore.

Follow Online: The Badgers' Den

Twitter: @Badger_Blitz

Betting line: Wisconsin - 8.5

Player to Watch: Blackwell is enjoying a breakout season, averaging 15.2 ppg and 4.7 rpg, including a trio of games scoring at least 28 points. On the year, he is tied for second on the team with 24 steals, including a team-high 15 in conference play.

Player to watch: Bittle recorded his third 20-10 game of the season against Iowa, finishing with 21 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 blocks. One of the top 10 candidates for the 2025 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award, Bittle leads the Big Ten in total blocks with 55, ranking second in blocks per game at 2.0. He also ranks eighth in rebounds per game.

This will be the first conference meeting between the programs.

Four of the nine previous meetings have been in the postseason (three NCAA tournaments, one NIT). In back-to-back years, UW knocked off the Ducks in the second round of the Big Dance on their way to the 2014 and 2015 Final Fours. Oregon won in the opening round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament.

Oregon is making its second visit to Madison with Wisconsin claiming a 74-47 win in the other meeting (11/26/88). The Badgers were led by Trent Jackson (20 pts), Danny Jones (15 pts) and Tim Locum (13 pts).

Steven Crowl, Carter Gilmore, Max Klesmit, and Kamari McGee all saw action in the 2023 meeting. Klesmit scored 18 points (2-5 3FGs, 6-7 FTs). Crowl tallied 9 points, 10 rebounds, and 3 assists in the win.

As the Big Ten has expanded over the last few decades years, Wisconsin has gone 3-3 in its first match-up with the new Big Ten rivals: 1992-93 Wisconsin 75, Penn State 68; 2011-12 Wisconsin 64, Nebraska 40; 2014-15 Maryland 59, Wisconsin 53; 2014-15 Rutgers 67, Wisconsin 62; 2024-25 Wisconsin 84, USC 69; 2024-25 UCLA 85, Wisconsin 83

UW is 5-0 in February, outscoring opponents by an average of 12.0 points during the month.

The Badgers are 14-5 against the top two quadrants of the NET rankings, including seven Quad 1 wins and zero losses outside of Quad 1. UW is one of five schools with 14+ Quad 1/2 wins, joining Auburn (18), Alabama (15), Purdue (14), and Texas A&M (14).

Wisconsin has put together one of the nation's most prolific offenses. The sixth-most efficient offense according to KenPom. com, the Badgers are averaging 82.0 ppg, the team's most since 1970-71

Wisconsin leads the Big Ten in both three-point field goal percentage (39.2%) and three-point field goals per game (11.3) during conference play. UW is on pace to shoot (27.9 3FGA) and make (10.3 3FG) more threes than ever since the inception of the 3-point line in 1986-87.

Wisconsin leads the NCAA in free throw percentage, 83.4 percent (447-for-536) at the line. That is on pace to break the NCAA record of 83.0 percent by Villanova in 2020-21. Wisconsin currently holds the Big Ten record, hitting 81.8% in 2010-11

Oregon has won three straight games after a five-game Big Ten losing skid, earning home wins over Northwestern and Rutgers before winning at Iowa on Wednesday.

The Ducks are 11-8 against the top 2 quadrants of the NET rankings. Oregon has eight Quad 1 wins and zero losses outside of Quad 1.

The Ducks have taken on a ranked opponent six times this season, going 2-4 in such games so far. Oregon sports two of the nation’s best wins in 2024-25, knocking off now-No. 3 Alabama and No. 10 Texas A&M. Oregon is 40-45 against ranked opponents under Dana Altman.

Shelstad scored a career-high 26 points vs. Northwestern on February 11, his fifth 20-point game of the season, all coming in Big Ten play.

Bamba finished with 10 points and a career-high-tying six assists on Wednesday at Iowa. He’s dished out six assists three of the last four games.

An incredibly mature team with a combination of fifth-year seniors, young talented scorers, and important bench players, Wisconsin was able to be loose and carefree off the court and incredibly focused, efficient, and blood-thirsting on it.

Badgers head coach Greg Gard was answering a question about the 2015 national runner-up team, but his answers could easily be applied to the team he’s coaching now.

While he wasn’t willing to go down the road of comparing the two teams, considering the different personnel and how the game has changed, there’s no denying the similarities are there

Both teams were loaded with senior leaders (2015 with the likes of Josh Gasser and Traevon Jackson and this year with Crowl and Klesmit), had at least one first-team All-American candidate (Sam Dekker and Frank Kaminsky then, Tonje now), had talented underclassmen (Bronson Koenig and Nigel Hayes then, Blackwell and Winter now), and a bench to lean on (Duke Dukan then and Carter Gilmore and Kamari McGee now).

“Anytime you have a team that is talented, experienced, and they’re connected, you have a chance to have some exciting times,” Gard said. “You can’t be missing one of those three. You can’t be experienced and talented and not be connected. We’ve seen a lot of talented teams that can’t get it done on the court.”

The 2020 team was an example of that. The Badgers returned the bulk of their roster from the prior year’s Big Ten championship team but the same chemistry that led to ending the season with eight straight wins never regenerated in the COVID bubble. UW finished the year at 10-10 in the league.

UW’s runner-up team from 10 years ago rarely experienced adversity. It only lost four times and had winning streaks of seven, eight, 10, and 11 games in one season. The Badgers won their first eight this season but a three-game losing streak brought outside questions of the legitimacy of their start and potential.

Gard said the players didn’t care other than wanting to get back to work to keep improving which is another similarity between the two teams.

“They turned the page really quickly after each one of them, knowing here’s where we need to get better at and we got a lot of basketball in front of us,” he said.

“They don’t get too high. Purdue was emotional and that was an awesome environment to be in. I also don’t want to take the fun away. Those moments are special and that’s what this experience and journey is about is those types of moments. That’s what they’ll talk about for the rest of their lives.”

“In due time, we’ll move on to next, and they’ve done a great job of it, a large part due to their maturity and experience. They know when it’s time to have fun and time to go to work.”

A victory today can move Wisconsin to a game behind Michigan State for first place in the league and give UW a 3-0 record through this trio of games highlighted at the beginning of conference season as the murderer’s row. It doesn’t look nearly as daunting now as it did then because of Illinois’ injuries and illness and the Ducks’ inconsistency, but Oregon still has solid pieces that can give UW trouble.

Even though he was limited to three points against the Hawkeyes, Shelstad is averaging 17.3 points over his last six games and will be a tough cover considering he shoots well from all over the floor. He’s slashing 44.8/38.5/86.6 with 73 assists to 37 turnovers. Barthelemy is the best three-point shooting at 41.4 percent and Bittle is a pick-and-pop center that shoots threes, plays at the rim, and blocks shots.

Minus the blocks, Bittle is utilized in the post and double-teamed a lot like Wisconsin’s Crowl, and still manages to be impactful.

“It looks like they are playing better, like they did earlier in the year,” Gard said. “We’ll definitely have our hands full.”

The same is likely being said in the Oregon camp. Wisconsin is playing with confidence, competitiveness, and a level of joy as it racks up these recent wins. That’s a lot like 2015, too. And just like that year, the Badgers will beat Oregon on their way to bigger things.

Worgull’s Prediction: Wisconsin by 15

Record: 21-5 (20-6 ATS)

Points off Prediction: 208 (8.0 per game)

_________________________________________________

*Chat about this article in The Badgers' Den

*Check out our videos, interviews, and Q&As on our YouTube channel

*Subscribe and listen to the BadgerBlitz.com podcast (as seen on Apple, Google, Spotify and wherever you listen to podcasts)

*Follow us on Twitter: @McNamaraRivals, @TheBadgerNation, @RaulV45, @seamus_rohrer, @DonnieSlusher_

*Like us on Facebook