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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. |
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