No. 11 Wisconsin (16-8, 8-5 Big Ten) vs. Ohio State (14-10, 4-9)
Game: Tuesday, Feb. 13 in the Kohl Center
Time: 8:00 P.M. CT
Watch: Peacock
Listen: 1310 WIBA AM and 101.5 FM (Matt Lepay and Brian Butch on the call); stream online on iHeartRadio
Prediction: Wisconsin 64, Ohio State 59
Follow Online: The Badgers' Den
Twitter: @Badger_Blitz
Betting line: Wisconsin -9.5 (according to ESPN BET)
PRE-GAME NOTES
The No. 20 Badgers will return home after a dreadful two-game road trip in which they lost to Michigan and Rutgers, two teams near the bottom of the Big Ten.
Wisconsin is free falling down the AP Poll, the Big Ten standings and any list of serious national title contenders.
They’ll hope that a return home could help provide some sort of fresh start. But as the days and games pass, the remaining time to shape up before March is shortening.
Wisconsin’s recent decline, however, doesn’t compare to what the Buckeyes have experienced this calendar year.
When these two teams played for the first time in early January, the Badgers knocked Ohio State down to a respectable 12-4 record.
Since then, they’ve gone 2-6, and are now just a game away from being at the bottom of the Big Ten alongside Michigan. Their only wins in 2024 have come against three of the worst five teams in the conference — Rutgers, Penn State and Maryland.
Despite their plummet, the top of Ohio State’s lineup is incredibly talented. They’re the only team in the Big Ten with three players who average at least 14 points per game.
In the first game between these teams, the Buckeyes stayed competitive until the final minutes, before Max Klesmit scored 16 of Wisconsin’s final 22 and the Badgers pulled away. Jamison Battle led the way for Ohio State, scoring 18 points on 4-of-5 3-point shooting.
Yet their best player this season has still been sophomore guard Bruce Thornton, who underperformed against the Badgers, finishing with 13 points on 6-of-16 shooting. He’s coming off of a 24-point performance in a double-OT win against Maryland on Saturday, which broke a five-game losing streak.
Ohio State will first play the Badgers on Tuesday, then No. 2 Purdue on Sunday. They could play with nothing to lose, while the Badgers will be vulnerable and desperate.
Wisconsin, meanwhile, will try to kick-start their offense in any way possible.
The recent performance against Rutgers felt like one of the worst by any Badger team in years. They put up a season-low 32.8% field goal percentage and didn’t lead for a second.
The leading scorer was actually Connor Essegian off the bench, who scored 15 points for the first time since February of last year.
A.J. Storr put up 14 points, but shot 5-for-14 and didn’t make a single 3-pointer. He continues to put up big scoring numbers, but his recent inconsistency hasn’t helped the Badgers. In the past seven games, he’s shot below 40% four times and above 50% the other three nights.
Tuesday is also an opportunity for Chucky Hepburn to have one of his rare strong offensive performances.
The Buckeyes have allowed a starting guard on the opposing team to reach 20 points in each of the past four games, and Hepburn is beginning to show flashes on offense once again. He’s scored in double figures in two of the past four games, which is something he had only done once in the prior two months.
Ultimately, none of the nuances of the game matter if the Badgers look as lifeless as they did in the previous two games. Perhaps returning home will provide some confidence, or maybe the free fall will continue.
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