Preview: Wisconsin to close out regular season against No.2 Michigan State

The Wisconsin Badgers (7-10, 14-16) are back on their home floor, this time for the last game of the 2017-18 regular season against the No. 2 Michigan State Spartans (15-2, 27-3).

Game information and team previews are below:

Wisconsin vs. No. 2 Michigan State

Where: Kohl Center in Madison, Wis.

Time: 12:00 PM CST

Watch: CBS

Listen: BadgerSports Network (iHeartRadio)

Special Event: Senior Day

Follow and Discuss Online: The Badgers' Den

Twitter: @Badger_Blitz, @McNamaraRivals, @JohnVeldhuis and @therealJMlLLS

Michigan State Notes

What has gone right, and wrong, for the top-ranked Michigan State Spartans this season?

For starters, the team clinched a share of the BIG Ten title with a victory over Illinois last Tuesday and boasts one of the nation's best players in Miles Bridges.

However, for this year's MSU team, there is no rose without a thorn.

According to a recent Yahoo! Sports article, Michigan State is one many well-known universities linked to a major NCAA corruption scandal. It marks the second time this season that the university is linked to a national scandal, likely adding another layer of scrutiny around the success built by head coach Tom Izzo.

"I’m not shunning anything," Izzo said shortly after the sexual assault story broke. "I’m just going to focus in on my team.”

Regardless of the ongoing chatter off the court, the Spartans continue to make noise on the court. Entering Sunday's contest, MSU leads the conference in scoring offense (82.6 ppg), scoring defense (63.5 ppg) and scoring margin (+17.9), to name a few.

Although the Spartans ( conference-worst -3.1 T/O margin) are struggling with turnovers this season, the team has an opportunity to capture the outright title if its offense continues its recent dominance.

Earlier this season, Michigan State took the first game of the series and defeated Wisconsin, 76-61, in East Lansing.

Wisconsin Notes

The Badgers continue to fight back from an early-season slump, and recorded a hard-fought road win over Northwestern on Thursday night. It was not a perfect game by any means, but it was another performance that UW displayed late-game consistency.

“I think early we were finding ways to lose games,” Ethan Happ said after the game. "Now we’re finding ways to win them.”

Not only did Wisconsin find a way to win Thursday, the team found another source of offensive production in the form of junior forward Andy Van Vliet (14 points vs. NU), who also saw a career-high 24 minutes on the floor.

Overall, rattling off three straight conference wins is no easy feat, especially when one recognizes the up-and-down season the Badgers are experiencing. However, two constants on this roster have been Happ (18.0 ppg) and freshman Brad Davison (11.5 ppg), who emerged as leaders on a team with many inexperienced players looking for direction.

"We've had a lot of learning experiences but the only way you learn from adversity and learn how to handle it is to go through it," UW head coach Greg Gard said of his team after they upset Purdue. "That's how you force growth."

Now, the Badgers host the Spartans in Madison, Wis., where MSU has not won since Jan. 22, 2013.