Game Day Essentials: Game #26 vs Wisconsin

Wisconsin Info

Head Coach: Greg Gard
Location: Madison, WI
Conference: B1G
Nickname: Badgers

Mascot: Bucky Badger

Point Spread: Wisconsin by 3.5

Typical Rotation Depth: 8

KenPom rank: 64

A couple of Famous Alumni: Michael Finley, Frank Kaminsky

Other:  

• In there last matchup Nebraska upset the #10 Badgers at Madison in the last regular season game of 2022 by a score of 74-73
• Brad Davison finally ran out of eligibility. He had played in 10 game vs the Huskers.
• The only team shooting worse from the FT line in conference than Nebraska is Wisconsin

KenPom Analysis: Wisconsin is doing everything slowly.  Offensively they are swinging the ball around to hunt for 3pt shots. Have to admit that I haven't watched any Wisconsin basketball this year so I assume they're giving token pressure up the court to burn shot clock. 

Player to watch: PG Chucky Hepburn

Hepburn is already your prototypical Wisconsin PG who controls the offense and takes (and makes) 3pt shots when they run out of shot clock.  Chuck is shooting 48% from 3 for the year and 46.8% from 3 in conference. 

Player to watch: F Tyler Wahl

Wahl has struggled to carry part of the scoring load in his senior year to the point that he's shooting 43.6% from the FT line in conference play.  Some of the struggles in conference were due to an ankle injury at the beginning of the year.  He had a 16 point, 8 assist, 6 rebound game is last time out vs Penn St.

Others to watch

• Crowl is a reliable bucket inside and is capable of taking 3s.
• Freshman sharp shooter Connor Essegian is shooting 44.2% from 3
• Max Klesmit is a glue guy
• Jordan Davis (Johnny's twin brother) struggles to shoot from outside and comes of the bench after starting most of the season
• 6'7" F Carter Gilmore brings rebounding off the bench
• 6' PG  Kamari McGee plays for the few minutes Chucky might come off the court

Probable starters for Nebraska
5    Sam Griesel    G    6-7

30  Keisei Tominaga    G    6-2

10  Jamarques Lawrence - G  6-3

32  Wilhelm Breidenbach    F    6-10

13  Derrick Walker    F    6-9

Bench

0   C.J. Wilcher    G    6-5

12  Denim Dawson - F  6-6

15   Blaise Keita C   6-11

12   Sam Hoiberg    G    6-0

33  Oleg Kojenets    F    7-0

35  Henry Burt  F  6-6

24  Jeffrey Grace III  G  6-3

Injured

3   Quaran McPherson   G   6-3 - Out for the Year

4   Juwan Gary  F  6-6 - Out for the Year

25  Emmanuel Bandoumel    G    6-4 - Out for the Year

Redshirting 

2   Ramel Lloyd Jr.  G 6-6

31  Cale Jacobsen  G  6-4

The Skinny: 

Wisconsin is a lot like Penn St where they will try and beat you from 3 but unlike Penn St they have better interior defenders. In what projects to be a low possession game due to neither team being in a hurry to push the ball it's probably beneficial if Nebraska can speed the game up a bit.

Assuming that Wisconsin doesn't run away with the game by torching Nebraska from 3, this should be a close one.  I like Nebraska's odds for what should be a large crowd in Lincoln.

Prediction: Nebraska 66 - Wisconsin 63