The Wisconsin Badgers take on the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Sunday, January 26th, at noon back home in Kohl Center. This will be the first and only time this regular season that the Cornhuskers and the Badgers will see each other. Last season, they played twice and split the series. This basketball season looks a little different as UW is sitting in fifth place in the Big Ten while Nebraska is in the bottom three.
I spoke with Fansided's site expert, Oliver Vandervoort, for HuskerCorner.com, a Nebraska Cornhuskers site, to ask how he expected this Big Ten basketball game to go, and he provided less than optimism for Nebraska.
Describe the Nebraska basketball team. What are their strengths and weaknesses?
I'm not sure I can actually come up with a strength right now. There isn't anything this team does really well at the moment. Earlier in the season, it seemed like defense, in general, was going to be a hallmark, but something seems to have shifted over the last month. As far as weakness, the biggest problem has been a problem for the entire Fred Hoiberg era. The Huskers run a defense that tends to collapse in the paint, and that allows for teams to be far too wide open on the perimeter.
Expectations for Nebraska vs. Wisconsin
Taking Vandervoort's concern and Wisconsin's strength, we can see that if the Badgers can take advantage of the Hoiberg patented collapse in the paint, there should be a ton of opportunities for the three-point shot. Kamari McGee sitting open in the corner may be a consistent point of production. However, if the bigs can't be physical like they weren't against UCLA, it could be a problem to create these chances.
Finally, what does Vandervoort predict?
I think the Badgers will win by at least 10 points and it could get ugly the way the Huskers have been playing of late.