Wisconsin Badgers at Minnesota Golden Gophers: Game Info, TV, Live Stream, Odds and More
By Jim Oxley
The Wisconsin Badgers head to Minnesota for the Border Battle Wednesday
Only two games remain in the regular season for the Wisconsin Badgers, and the Border Battle Wednesday night will knock one of those games off of the list. Wisconsin heads to Minnesota Wednesday night for the only matchup between the two teams this season.
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The Badgers (19-10, 11-5 B1G) are currently tied with Michigan State and Maryland in second place in the Big Ten standings. The Indiana Hoosiers clinched the Big Ten title Tuesday night with a win over Iowa, which helped clarify an increasingly complicated Big Ten tournament seeding scenario.
Still, only the top spot is claimed, and the Badgers can assure a top-4 seed and a double bye in the Big Ten Tournament if they win their final two games, starting with Wednesday’s contest against a very depleted Minnesota Golden Gophers roster.
The Gophers (8-20, 2-14) are second-to-last in the Big Ten behind winless Rutgers, and have more pressing issues at hand than their record. The Gophers dismissed a player last week and suspended three more this week for off the court conduct.
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That leaves Minnesota with just two of their top six scorers on the season and just six of the 10 players who average at lest 20 minutes per game.
Minnesota will lean heavily on their top two remaining players – senior forward Joey King and freshman forward Jordan Murphy – who each average 11.8 points per game. Murphy leads the team with 8.1 rebounds per game.
The next highest scorer for the Gophers (among the eligible players) is junior guard Charles Buggs, who averages 5.4 points in 22.8 minutes per game. No one else on the active roster averages more than five points per game.
The Badgers, however, can’t look past this Minnesota team, as they need to keep their momentum rolling into an important matchup with Purdue on Sunday.
With Minnesota likely sending several less-experienced players out onto the court, look for Nigel Hayes to take control of the game. Hayes averages 16.4 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. The Badgers will likely look to pound the ball inside against the Gophers two regular starters, looking to get them in foul trouble early, so Ethan Happ could be in for a big night as well. He averages 11.9 points, 7.8 rebounds and 1.8 steals per game.
Bronson Koenig is adding 13.7 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game, while Vitto Brown adds 9.4 points and 5.1 rebounds. Zak Showalter averages 7.6 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.1 steals per game.
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Here’s what you need to know about Wednesday night’s game:
Arena: Williams Arena
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Time: 8:00 p.m. CT
TV Channel: Big Ten Network
Live Stream: BTN2Go
Radio: Badgers Radio Network or iHeart Radio Stream
Live Stats: UWBadgers.com
Odds: Wisc -9.5, O/U 132
Next: Badgers One Spot out of Latest AP Poll
Stay tuned to Badger of Honor for more coverage of the Wisconsin basketball team.