Preview: No. 11 Wisconsin travels to Michigan coming off a two-game skid

No. 11 Wisconsin (16-5, 8-2 Big Ten) at Michigan (7-15, 2-9)

Game: Wednesday, Feb. 7 in the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, MI

Time: 6:00 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: Wisconsin 71, Michigan 60

Follow Online: The Badgers' Den

Twitter: @Badger_Blitz

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

The Badgers will travel to Ann Arbor following two straight losses to Nebraska and No. 2 Purdue, which dropped them out of the top 10 of the AP Poll.

Yet, their skid is nothing compared to what Michigan has gone through recently. The Wolverines won just one out of their past 11 and sit dead last in the Big Ten. That one win came against Ohio State, which sits just above them at the bottom of the conference.

The Wolverines simply haven’t been able to recover from the losses of their three best players from last season. Kobe Bufkin and Jett Howard were both picked in the first round of the NBA Draft, while Hunter Dickinson went to Kansas via the transfer portal.

In their place, sophomore guard Dug McDaniel has become the first option. He leads the team in points (16.8), assists (4.9), minutes (36.2) and shot attempts (13.9) per game, but hasn’t seamlessly transitioned to a greater leadership role.

On Jan. 10, the program announced that McDaniel would be suspended for six road games due to academic issues.

Wednesday’s game is in Ann Arbor, so the Badgers will have to prepare for a slightly more talented team, but one that hasn’t been able to build any real chemistry in weeks.

In his absences, they’ve relied more heavily on Olivier Nkamhoua, who’s begun to face some struggles of his own. He spent four years at Tennessee and transferred to Michigan this past offseason, and immediately earned a greater offensive role.

The Finnish forward was once the most consistent and efficient scorer on the Wolverines, scoring in double figures in 17 of the team’s first 18 games and comfortably shooting above 50%.

Yet over Nkamhoua’s last four games, he’s averaging just 10.7 points per game on 43.7% shooting, which would be acceptable numbers if he wasn’t the new #1 option.

Wisconsin dropped back-to-back games for the first time since they lost the second and third games of the season back in November.

They first lost to Nebraska on the road in overtime after choking a 19-point lead, but the subsequent loss to No. 2 Purdue somehow felt even more frustrating.

Zach Edey put up a modest 18 points and had a quiet offensive game by his standards, but was still a nuisance on defense, silencing many of Wisconsin’s best players.

A.J. Storr was on his best run of the season, coming off of back-to-back 28-point games. However, Edey completely locked down the paint and didn’t give Storr any easy baskets.

The star wing put up 14 points and shot just 4-for-15, and was even benched at certain points because of his poor shooting.

Steven Crowl played a similarly forgetful game. He struggled with fouls and played just 28 minutes, finishing with eight points on six shot attempts.

This was after perhaps the worst offensive game of Crowl’s career against Nebraska, when he didn’t make a field goal and scored just one point.

Despite the ugly loss, Tyler Wahl played his best performance of the season. He scored a team-high and season-high 20 points, while also finishing with two blocks and three steals on the other end. It was the best Wahl’s looked since his pre-injury form last season. He was scoring unconsciously in the post. Edey even struggled to guard him down low at times.

However, if the Badgers want to beat any real teams, they’re going to need at least two of their three primary stars to show up. They grew to become too dependent on a single player last season, and it obviously cost them.

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