B1G Tournament: How Penn State Basketball matches up vs. Wisconsin

After dispatching Nebraska, Penn State Basketball takes on Wisconsin in Round 2 of the Big Ten Tournament Thursday

Penn State Basketball will play the No. 6 seed Wisconsin Badgers Thursday night at Lucas Oil Stadium, at approximately 9:15 pm on the Big Ten Network.

Thanks to a very impressive comeback last night over Nebraska, Penn State Basketball earned their rubber match vs Wisconsin the hard way.

Tale of the Tape:

KenPom: Penn State 35, Wisconsin 11

Net Rankings: Penn State 41, Wisconsin 26

Conference Standings: Penn State finished 11th (8-12, 11-13 overall), Wisconsin finished 6th (10-10, 16-11 overall)

Spread: Wisconsin -5

Last time(s) out: Penn State Basketball had one of their best wins of the year, at home vs Wisconsin, leading throughout almost the entire game. Unfortunately, three days later the Badgers boat-raced the Lions right out of the Kohl Center. Time for a best two out of three in Indy!

About the Badgers: Listen, Wisconsin’s teams haven’t changed in four thousand years. They are well-disciplined, tall, and play a very boring brand of basketball.  D’Mitrik Trice is leading the team in scoring with 13.7 points but they are balanced scorers, with six players averaging more than eight points per game. The Badgers have five shooters better than 35% from beyond and and seven of eight rotational players shot above 70% from the free throw line.

The change from a 35 second shot clock to a 30 second shot did not speed the Badgers up at all.  One of the most difficult parts of playing Wisconsin is you can’t get down big vs them, like PSU did to Nebraska.  Even in the first half, they will start their “stall ball” tactics.  Penn State must come out strong to have any chance.  Also important will be cleaining up the defensive glass, especially since already tired legs will only become even more tired defending for at least 30 seconds at a time.

And Penn State will likely need double digit three-pointers to pull this one off.

Everyone will remember the 36-33 victory Penn State Basketball had over this same Wisconsin team 10 years ago exactly.  I was part of the student section (Nittany Nation) in Indianapolis that weekend. This year, tar SG Talor Battle is on the Lucas Oil Stadium bench coaching.  Reserve SG Nick Collela is on the Lions’ bench coaching.  And perhaps most importantly, especially in a pandemic, the current student section (Legion of Blue) is in the house!

This will be a #climb no doubt, but like the belt Jamari Wheeler showed us last night, even without Pat Chambers, this team ain’t ready to stop climbing anytime soon.  Get your naps in today, and see you at appx 9:15pm!