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Badgers hope to ride momentum into West Lafayette

The Wisconsin Badgers played maybe their best half of basketball this season in rallying to beat previously undefeated Ohio State on Saturday in Madison. Wednesday night we'll find out if now No. 10 Wisconsin can avoid a letdown as the Badgers hit the Big Ten road to visit No. 11 Purdue (6:30 pm Eastern, BTN).

Just part of another Wednesday full of good college hoops action at oddsmaker.ag.

Also Wednesday, the two teams tied for first place in Conference USA are both on the road, as 18-6 UAB visits 19-6 Memphis (7 pm Eastern, CBS-CSN) and 19-5 UTEP visits 18-6 Southern Miss (8 pm Eastern).

Down in the SEC No. 18 Vanderbilt, coming off a win over Kentucky on Saturday, visits 17-7 Georgia (7 pm Eastern, ESPNU).

In the beast that is the Big East No. 16 Louisville visits 19-6 Cincinnati (7 pm Eastern, ESPN), and No. 13 Connecticut hosts No. 9 Georgetown (7 pm Eastern, ESPN3).

Down in the Big 12 No. 3 Texas, with a 10-game winning streak and still unbeaten in conference play, hosts 16-8 Oklahoma State (9 pm Eastern, ESPN2).

And out in the Mountain West No. 6 San Diego State hosts 17-8 New Mexico (10:30 pm Eastern, The Mtn.).

Wisconsin fell behind by 15 points midway through the second half Saturday vs. Ohio State, then went on a 15-0 run to tie the game. And with help from four 3-pointers after that the Badgers came away with a 71-67 victory, the second time in four months a Wisconsin team has knocked off a top-ranked and undefeated Buckeyes outfit.

Purdue, meanwhile, beat Illinois Sunday 81-70. So the Boilers and Badgers enter Wednesday's game tied for second place in the Big Ten at 9-3.

In the first meeting between these two teams this season just two weeks ago in Madtown Wisconsin outrebounded Purdue 32-25 and committed just seven turnovers in winning 66-59. The Badgers covered the spread as 5-point favorites at oddsmaker.ag that day, and the game snuck UNDER its posted total of 126.5.

Louisville beat Syracuse on Saturday 73-69, covering as 2-point favorites, to get to 8-4 and fourth place in the Big East. Cincy, meanwhile, lost as 5-point favorites at home to St. John's Sunday 59-57 to fall to 6-6 and a tie for 10th in the conference.

UConn beat Providence on Sunday 75-57 but has still lost three of its last five games. So the Huskies sit at 7-5 and tied for fifth in the Big East. And Georgetown knocked off Marquette Sunday 69-60 to extend its winning streak to eight games. So the Hoyas are now in third place in the conference at 9-4.

What all those teams are really fighting for at the moment is seeding for the upcoming Big East Conference tournament. Seeds five through eight get byes into the second round, while the top four teams in the regular-season standings earn double-byes into the quarterfinals. Although that didn't work out too well for three of those top four teams in last year's tournament.