Full Wisconsin Preview and Prediction For the West Region

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Second Round

All right, this is where it gets interesting. Wisconsin plays the winner of 8-seeded Oregon vs. 9-seeded Oklahoma State. I’ll start with Oregon, who should be very familiar to Badgers fans.

Oregon is a very dangerous team with Joseph Young, easily one of the best players in college basketball. But you already knew that. Remember last year? Oregon had a 15-point lead in the second half of the Round of 32 game. Young had 29 points, and the Badgers season flashed before our eyes before they made a furious comeback.

This year, Oregon can be just as scary. They won 13 out of their last 16 games, including two wins against fifth-seeded Utah. Young is still scoring, averaging over 20 ppg. I think Wisconsin will still beat them, due to their far superior size. But it will be closer than most people expect.

Oklahoma State has no shortage of talent. 6 foot 7 forward Le’Bryan Nash is a future pro, averaging over 17 ppg. It’s going to take Sam Dekker’s best effort to contain him. Point guard Phil Forte is also very skilled. He scores 15 points per game and hits 39% of his 3’s. More concerning is the fact that they’ve beaten some highly regarded teams. The Cowboys hold wins over 2 seed Kansas and they swept third-seeded Baylor. When they’re on, they can play with anyone. I’m not saying they will beat Wisconsin, but they can definitely challenge us.

Prediction: Oregon vs. OK State is basically a coin flip, so I’ll make predictions for each.

UW vs. Oregon: 75-70 Win

UW vs. OK State: 68-61 Win

Next: The Sweet 16