MSU v baajers

It is always tought to play at the JCPenney center. Err, Sears&Roebuck, or was it...Fashion Bug? I forget. Oh right, Kohl['s] Center.

However, this team is only 3 players deep. One is hurt. Hughes can play. Leuer can play, but is out. Taylor can play, and is getting better with each game. The rest are system players. Sure, one could go off for 18 on a hot night. But in any other system, on any other major DI team, they simply wouldn't play.

Wisconsin is tough to figure out. They don't really need to get lucky or hot to beat good teams, like Michigan, Northwestern, Iowa and other teams that rely on the 3 ball. They don't pound you inside, necessarily. They don't use backdoor Princeton schemes. The offense is atypical, but not so much that it is necessarily a gimmick. Truthfully, Wisconsin just doesn't beat Wisconsin.

Wisconsin hangs around, plays defense, keeps the turnovers down, and hits free throws. They don't commit bad fouls, they don't take very many bad or early shots. They make layups. They make the right pass. They just play fundamental and wait for you to screw up. It's boring. It's the reason, in my mind, the B10 is thought of as slow and painful to watch. Purdue can run, MSU runs, Michigan fires up 30+ 3's in most games. The B10 is not boring, except Wisconsin.

If MSU hits free throws, STAYS OUT OF FOUL TROUBLE, limits Wisconsin to very few 2nd chance points, and keeps the turnovers under 15 they win. Raymar needs to have a big bounce back and Lucas has to be clutch, again. Lucious has got to get himself under control. This is the sort of team that lures you in to making bad passes and turning the ball over with very little pressure.

MSU -- 66
Wizconsin -- 63