Wisconsin Badgers at a crucial point in the Big Ten season

The Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team find themselves in the hunt for the regular season Big Ten Championship, and these next couple games will determine whether or not they’ll have a chance at the title.

Currently, the Wisconsin Badgers find themselves in the midst of their toughest stretch of games this season. They were victorious over then 21st rank Maryland at the Kohl Center and then avenged an ugly early season loss against Minnesota.

So far it has been a roller coaster season for the Wisconsin Badgers, after getting off to a hot start they ended up losing four of five games at the end of December and into January. But now they find themselves on a six-game winning streak and playing some fantastic defense.

During this stretch, the defense has limited their opponents to just 35.6 percent shooting overall and under 14 free throw attempts per game. This has resulted in Wisconsin’s opponents scoring only 53.8 points per game over the winning streak.

The Wisconsin Badgers now find themselves tied for third in the Big Ten standings and just a game behind Purdue and Michigan in the loss column.

However, as solid as this team has been as of late, they will really be put to the test in their next two games when they travel to seventh-ranked Michigan and then back to the Kohl Center for number nine Michigan State.

#7 Michigan

After a couple of tough losses to Purdue and Maryland, the Wisconsin Badgers were able to jump-start this winning streak with a huge win at home over then second-ranked Michigan.

During that game, the Badgers held Michigan to just 54 points, their lowest total of the season up to this point and limited their scoring opportunities by holding them to just 11 attempts at the free throw line.

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Offensively, the Wisconsin Badgers hit seven out of nine free throws, which is an area that has been a concern for much of the season and shot nearly 39 percent from three-point land.

When up against any good team, you have to do the little things correctly, so Wisconsin must have similar success at the free throw line as they did during the first matchup.

Perhaps the biggest key for Wisconsin in their previous win over Michigan was holding Ignas Brazdeikis to zero points. On the year the freshman is averaging 15.5 points per game along with 5.5 rebounds. While unlikely that the Wisconsin Badgers will hold Brazdeikis scoreless again, they must slow him down.

#9 Michigan State

This will be the only regular season matchup with the Michigan State Spartans and the Badgers may have caught them at just the right time as they are currently riding a three-game losing streak.

Over the course of this streak, the Michigan State defense has struggled, allowing 77 points per game, the team has been outrebounded during this stretch which has slowed their transition offense, and they are shooting just 66.1 percent from the free throw line.

When these two teams meet, it will be a terrific matchup between the Wisconsin Badgers stingy defense and a high-powered Michigan State offense. Even during this losing streak, the offense is still scoring an average of 70.7 points per game.

The keys to the Wisconsin Badgers winning this game will be slowing the pace to limit the number of possessions Michigan State has and to not let their offense get out into transition. The last thing that the Badgers want is to get into a fast-paced scoring match where they have to go bucket for bucket with the Spartans.

Lastly, although it will be difficult, the Badgers will have to slow Spartan guard Cassius Winston, who is a focal point in the offense. On the season Winston is averaging 18.9 points per game, along with 7.4 assists and is shooting almost 45 percent from three.

Michigan State will present a difficult matchup for Wisconsin but we have seen a lot of magic at the Kohl Center in years past.

Badgers continue to struggle at free throw line. dark. Next

Once the Badgers make it through these two tough games, they get some reprieve in their schedule by facing Illinois, Northwestern and Indiana, all of which are in the bottom half of the Big Ten standings.

For the Wisconsin Badgers to end up regular season Big Ten champs, they will need to continue playing solid basketball as well as have a couple of things fall their way. But if they can pull off upset wins over Michigan and Michigan State, they will be sitting in a great position.

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