Badger of Honor
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Wisconsin Basketball: Breaking down every game on the schedule

By Tanner Nestle

NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 28: Ethan Happ #22 of the Wisconsin Badgers celebrates their 61-54 overtime win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in an NCAA college basketball game at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - JANUARY 28: Ethan Happ #22 of the Wisconsin Badgers celebrates their 61-54 overtime win over the Rutgers Scarlet Knights in an NCAA college basketball game at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 2017 in New York City. (Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images) /
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NASHVILLE, TN – MARCH 16: J.P. Macura #55 of the Xavier Musketeers drives to the basket past Derrick Bruce #2 of the Texas Southern Tigers during the game in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 16, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

At Xavier

Though Wisconsin will be the away team for this one, the Badgers should have a great shot at exacting revenge on Xavier after last season’s 80-70 loss at the Kohl Center. The Musketeers’ two studs from last season, Trevon Blueitt and J.P. Macura, are gone, as are two other key contributors in Kerem Kanter and Kaiser Gates. In addition, head coach Chris Mack took the job at Louisville and has been replaced by Travis Steele, one of his assistants.

Those are definitely some brutal losses, but Steele returns some talented players poised for breakout seasons in Quentin Gooden, Naji Marshall, Tyrique Jones, and Paul Scruggs, and also added three of the top grads transfers on the market over the offseason. Make no mistake, Xavier should still hover around the Top 25 and contend for an NCAA berth once again this season.

These teams are pretty evenly matched and this should be another contest that goes down to the wire, but in the end, I think Wisconsin will get the win by a few points.

Houston Baptist

Similarly to the Coppin State game to kick off the season, consider Wisconsin’s matchup with Houston Baptist out of the Southland Conference a tune-up game before the team heads to the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament a few days later.

Though the Huskies do return four out of their top five leading scorers from last season, led by senior center Josh Ibarra (16 ppg, 10 rpg), they are still coming off a horrendous 6-25 season in which they lost by an average of 32 points to the five high-major programs they faced.

I would expect Wisconsin’s margin of victory in this one to be right around that.

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