Northwestern Wildcats vs. Wisconsin Badgers: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 2/5/2023

Time: 6:30 p.m. ET

Venue: Kohl Center, Madison, WI

Where to watch: BTN

DraftKings: Wisconsin -3

FanDuel: Wisconsin -3.5

BetMGM: Wisconsin -3.5

Caesars: Wisconsin -3.5

Northwestern: 15-7 (6-5 Big Ten)

Wisconsin: 13-8 (5-6 Big Ten)

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Northwestern: lost 68-51 vs. Michigan

Wisconsin: won 65-60 at Ohio State

The funny thing about looking at the college basketball schedule for Sunday's games is that the Big 10 got it wrong in terms of scheduling. If we're looking for a team that needs to be playing on CBS right now, wouldn't you rather watch the northwestern Wildcats take on the Wisconsin Badgers in a game of two teams in the middle of the pack in the conference and legitimately have a chance to maybe pull off an upset or two come conference tournament time? Not Ohio State and Michigan?

 

Maybe it's just me being on some sort of tirade of understanding which programs deserve to be shown on that particular day. And I get it there are teams and programs across the country that have fans scattered everywhere. Take a look at Nevada for example. I am pretty sure that you could find at least five Michigan or Ohio State supporters within a five mile radius. But no one wants to watch them at 10:00 AM knowing that their prospects of contending for a conference championship are not realistic at the moment.

 

And I'm not saying that northwestern or Wisconsin have any positive prospects of competing for a conference championship either. But at least for the betterment of the sake of the conference, at least you have two teams fighting for that middle of the pack that five or six seed that might prove to be a threat at some point. And both of these teams are in desperate need of a victory right now. Northwestern has lost two games in a row with their latest being a 68-51 loss at home to Michigan, which of course the irony in which of what we are discussing has taken a great turn. Between that and the 86-70 lost to Iowa a few days prior and it hasn't been the greatest run of form for northwestern since their little winning streak not too long ago.

 

Part of that winning streak was against Wisconsin which ironically enough was the start of a three-game losing streak for the Badgers that started on January 23rd and included losses to Maryland and Illinois. Not that that's a bad thing, but Wisconsin has been known to be a powerhouse before and right now they are not playing like it. But of course they would defeat Ohio State 65-60 in Columbus on Thursday to at least alleviate the pain in some regard.

 

I completely understand that it's not the sexiest game on the docket of the big 10 conference, but at least you have two programs that are fully committed to playing some sort of defense and making it somewhat competitive in this game that something crazy could happen and you would never know because you were too busy watching the morning game instead of this one period and with the Wisconsin laying 3.5, that is a very favorable spread to at least get northwestern on the side of possibly winning this game. But it's very hard to go into Madison this time of year and when a game.

 

I really like northwestern because they will forever have crying kid dot GIF and we will forever cherish that memory. But there will be no crying children this time because we at least know the outcome of this game and Wisconsin will get the job done. Wisconsin 64, Northwestern 60

Northwestern is 23-29 ATS against conference opponents the last 3 seasons.

Northwestern is 6-0 ATS after covering 2 of their last 3 this season.

Wisconsin is 2-8 ATS at home this season.

Wisconsin is 17-26 ATS after 3 straight conference games the last 3 seasons.

PG: Boo Buie

SG: Chase Audige

SF: Ty Berry

PF: Robbie Beran

C: Matt Nicholson

PG: Chucky Hepburn

SG: Max Klesmit

SF: Connor Essegian

PF: Tyler Wahl

C: Steven Crowl

Points: Boo Buie -- 16.2

Rebounds: Matt Nicholson -- 6.2

Assists: Boo Buie -- 4.5

Points: Chucky Hepburn -- 12.4

Rebounds: Steven Crowl -- 6.8

Assists: Chucky Hepburn -- 3.3