Appalachian State (1-1, 0-0 Sun Belt) vs. Wisconsin (2-0, 0-0 Big Ten)

Date/Time – Sunday, November 10, 11 a.m. CT

Arena – Kohl Center (16,838)

Watch – BTN Plus (Joey Bonadonna, Jadius McGhee, and Krissy Birdsall)

Radio – Badgers Radio Network (Matt Lepay and Brian Butch), Sirius XM 388, stream online on iHeartRadio.

Series – First Meeting

Follow Online: The Badgers' Den

Twitter: @Badger_Blitz

Betting line: Wisconsin -11.5

Player to Watch: In Thursday's 79-67 win over Montana State, senior reserve Kamari McGee matched his UW high with 11 points and added three rebounds and three assists in 28 minutes (all UW highs). He is averaging 9.0 points per game with a 7-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

Player to watch: Freshman forward Michael Marcus Jr. finished with a game-high 18 points and 10 rebounds off the bench in Wednesday’s 108-54 victory over St. Andrews, an NAIA school in North Carolina..

For the third consecutive game, Wisconsin is playing an opponent for the first time in its history.

The Badgers have a 6-3 record against teams currently in the Sun Belt. The Badgers bookended last season against teams from the conference, opening the year with a 105-76 win over Arkansas State and falling to James Madison, 72-61, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Wisconsin is 10-13 all-time against Division-1 colleges from North Carolina.

Appalachian State is 1-12 all-time against teams currently in the Big Ten, winning its lone game against Nebraska in 1993 while the Huskers were in the Big Eight. App State hasn’t played a Big Ten school since 2019.

The Mountaineers haven’t played a game in Wisconsin since playing at Marquette in 2002.

Wisconsin is averaging 82.0 ppg, having scored at least 79 points in each of the season's first two games for the first time since the 2017-18 season.

Wisconsin has made double-digit 3-pointers in back-to-back games to open the season for the first time since the 2016-17 season.

The Badgers have outscored their first two opponents at the free throw line, 36-to-13. The Badgers have made more than twice as many free throws (36) than their opponents have attempted (17).

The Badgers are 2-0 at home this season and 16-3 overall dating back to last season. Two of UW's three losses came against top 10 teams Purdue (No.2) and Tennessee (No.9).

Defense is the key for the Badgers. Since last season, Wisconsin is a perfect 19-0 when holding its opponents to 70 or fewer points.

The Mountaineers won their first conference title since 1979 after posting a program-best 16-2 record in the Sun Belt. They were one of 13 teams in the country to post at least 16 conference wins. Two of those wins came against James Madison, which upset Wisconsin in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

App State has posted five consecutive seasons with a winning percentage of .500 or better for the first time since 1987-92.

Today’s game will mark the first of six games against teams who won at least 19 games a season ago in nonconference play. Every one of those six games will come on the road.

The Mountaineers were one of the best teams in the Sun Belt away from home last season, posting an 8-4 record in true road games in the regular season, which was good for the program's best road winning percentage in the regular season since 2006-07. The eight road wins were the second-most in the Sun Belt Conference in 2023-24.

The Mountaineers have two wins against High-Major foes in the past two seasons, downing the Louisville Cardinals by one point on the road in 2022 before downing the SEC Tournament champion Auburn at home in 2023. Before the win against Auburn, the Mountaineers hadn't seen two consecutive seasons with an Autonomy Five win since the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons. App State has never beaten a High-Major opponent in three consecutive seasons.

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