No. 22 Wisconsin (7-1, 0-0) vs. Indiana (7-1, 1-0)

Game: Wednesday, Dec. 8 inside the Kohl Center

Time: 6:00 PM (CT)

Watch: BTN (Dave Revsine and Stephen Bardo)

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

Prediction: Wisconsin 69, Indiana 56

Follow Online: The Badgers' Den

Twitter: @Badger_Blitz

Wisconsin welcomes Indiana to the Kohl Center on Wednesday night, an arena its dominated the Hoosiers in since it opened in 1998. IU has not won at UW since 1998 (19 straight).

Indiana will bring a familiar group to Madison. The program, led by first-year head coach Mike Woodson, is off to a 7-1 start with a frontcourt of Race Thompson and Trayce Jackson-Davis leading the way.

"There's a lot of familiar names...It's an experienced front line," head coach Greg Gard said during a news conference Monday afternoon. "They play a lot through Trayce, and rightfully so. He's a heck of a player. We'll have to try to do the things we've done well and continue to get better as we get into conference play."

The matchup of the night for UW will be the battle between sophomore big man Steven Crowl and Jackson-Davis. In a league known for bruising bigs, Crowl will get his first significant Big Ten test right away. Indiana's leader scorer, Jackson-Davis is also second in the conference in that department (21.0), fourth in rebounding (8.6) and first in blocks (3.8).

“He’s a really good player,” Crowl told BadgerBlitz.com. “He likes to play with his left hand, so we’ve got to try to shut that down. It’s going to be a battle, and we’re going to do our best, but just the speed and physicality he plays with is what stands out.”

Indiana's offense, which runs through Jackson-Davis, will challenge Wisconsin's guards to slide down and shade towards Crowl and rotate properly.

“He’s one of the more elite post players across the country and the thing a post player wants is space and the freedom to take multiple dribbles to get to their spot," guard Brad Davison said. "Our role as guards is to try to take that space away by our positioning. We can dig, get a hand in there to tip the ball away, and help put the post player on the block where it can make life a little easier for Steven."

Alongside Jackson-Davis, Thompson, a former UW recruiting target out of high school, is also a leader for the Hoosiers. The redshirt senior is a strong rebounder who is second in the conference at 8.9 per game.

In the backcourt, UW will have to watch out for Parker Stewart, Miller Kopp and Tamar Bates. Kopp, who transferred to Indiana from Northwestern, is a familiar name for the Badgers. Stewart, a transfer from UT-Martin, is off to a hot start from beyond the arc, shooting 47 percent from three (21-44). Bates, IU's sixth man off the bench, can provide a scoring spark (7.1 PPG). He's also has been a decent shooter for Woodson (36.0 from three).

Woodson isn't afraid to extend his rotation, either, as IU currently has 12 players averaging at least nine minutes per contest.

For Wisconsin, the keys will be nothing new with its defense leading the way. UW is currently holding teams to 59.1 points per game, good for 28th best in the nation. On the offensive end, the Badgers are averaging just 9.1 turnovers a contest.

It will be interesting to see if Wisconsin can get some more juice off the bench against the Hoosiers. In a convincing win over Marquette on Saturday, UW received just nine total points from that group, five of which came from freshman Lorne Bowman II.

Wednesday will mark the 174th meeting in a series where IU leads, 97-77. The Badgers have controlled the series as of late, however, winning 22 of the last 25 meetings, including an 18-1 record inside the Kohl Center.

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