It’s no secret who the best team in the Big Ten is. Wisconsin might very well be a No. 1 seed come the NCAA Tournament, and only a few teams have tested the Badgers this season.
Of those, only Duke and, shockingly enough, Rutgers were able to beat Wisconsin this season. While Duke is possibly the second-most talented team in the country, Rutgers caught Wisconsin at home without its star center, senior Frank Kaminsky.
The Hoosiers won’t have the benefit of either of those advantages. IU is traveling north to the Kohl Center, and Kaminsky seems healthy enough considering he tallied 24 points and nine rebounds in Wisconsin’s last game.
If IU hopes to stand a chance against Wisconsin, it has to play a perfect game.
What does that mean? IU will have to fix all the issues it has been plagued with since the Ohio State game.
IU needs to deny entry passes into the post, play great transition defense, stay hot from behind the arc, keep momentum for longer periods of action and look for open shooters on the ?perimeter.
Yeah, that’s a lot of areas to improve in. It would be one thing if the Hoosiers had 17,000 or so fans backing them up, but the game is away from Assembly Hall, where the Hoosiers are just 3-5 this season.
And even if IU somehow does manage to play to the peak of its potential, it might still lose. Wisconsin is just that good.
The thing I’m curious about for Tuesday will be who on IU is going to step up and be a playmaker.
Junior guard Yogi Ferrell will have a big game because he takes control when IU struggles on offense — and I believe the Hoosiers will struggle on offense against the Badgers. But other than that, who will we see stretch his potential?
Sophomore forward Troy Williams has looked like the No. 2 guy at several points this season. He’s even garnered some NBA talk.
But he still struggles with consistency and isn’t quite as refined as other stars in the Big Ten. He’s eons ahead of where he was last year, but there’s still a ways to go.
Freshman guard James Blackmon Jr. is another candidate to step up against Wisconsin. Blackmon has cooled off from behind the arc in conference play. He’s shot 16-of-47 (.340) in Big Ten games, down from 45-of-79 (.443) in non-conference play.
That’s a big drop-off even when you factor in the increased level of competition.
Blackmon has stayed productive by scoring from inside the arc and rebounding well. But once he rediscovers his shot, look out. Wisconsin is a surprisingly likely candidate for Blackmon to break out of his slump.
A team often lauded for its tough defense hasn’t been as impressive this year.
Since the start of conference play, the Badgers rank 13th in the Big Ten in field goal percentage defense and 12th in 3-point field goal percentage defense.
I see Blackmon and Ferrell having huge games against Wisconsin. The Badgers don’t have the athletes at guard to stop them.
But on the other side, IU doesn’t have the players to stop Kaminsky, junior forward Sam Dekker or sophomore forward Nigel Hayes. And that’s a much bigger advantage than Blackmon and Ferrell give IU.
Because of that, Wisconsin will win this one handily. It might not blow out IU, but I certainly don’t see a close game on Tuesday. The Badgers are just too good, and the Hoosiers are too erratic.
My Prediction: Wisconsin, 80, IU 67
Casey Krajewski is 10-2 in predictions this season
