Wisconsin Badgers vs. Penn State Nittany Lions
Free NCAA Pick: Wisconsin -17.0 (-110)
Wed Mar 5 ‘08 9:00p
The Badgers will look to take one step closer towards securing another Big 10 Championship this evening when they welcome in the Penn State Nittany Lions. With Purdue falling in overtime to Ohio State last night, the Badgers currently hold a half game lead over the Boilermakers and a 1-game lead over the Indiana Hoosiers. Wiscy’s almost had a week to lick its wounds and prepare for its final game in the Kohl Center this season. They’ll also be dead set on securing their 11th consecutive win over the Nittany Lions in Madison. They’ve won seven in a row overall against the Nittany Lions (14-14, 6-10), including an 80-55 road victory back on January 15th. That game all but sealed the Nittany Lions fate when leading scorer, Geary Claxton, suffered a season ending knee injury early in the first half. However, Head Coach Ed Dechelis’ kids haven’t given up. They come into tonight’s contest winners of two in a row, and in 3 of their L/5. “We are just excited to be playing extremely well and we are just trying to get as much momentum as we can at the end with the Big Ten tournament,” senior Mike Walker said. That said, PSU is 2-10 SU on the road/neutral venues this season, and they’ve lost six straight Big 10 road games. They haven’t been able to win three straight conference games since February of 2001.

PSU last took the court on Saturday when they upended the Michigan Wolverines by a 69-61 final count, ultimately covering the 2.5-point spread. The ATS win was just their fourth in their L/10 games.

As for Wisconsin, they last laced ‘em up on February 28th and pounded the MSU Spartans into submission. The 57-42 final count saw the Badgers easily cover the 6-point spread, and the 99 combined points fell comfortably Under the posted ‘total’ of 126. It was the Badgers third straight ATS victory and 6th in their L/10 overall.

As mentioned earlier, the Badgers have flat out owned the Nittany Lions of late. They’ve beaten PSU 9 of the L/10 times they’ve met, and covered the spread in 8 of those 10 contests. PSU has a pair of goose eggs going for them tonight as they’re 0-4 ATS their L/5 trips to Madison and 0-7 ATS in their L/7 meetings regardless of venue. I’m well aware that Wiscy has cholked laying tall chalk at home all season long (0-5 ATS as double-digit home favorite vs. B10 this year), but the Badgers will roll much like Kansas did in their final home game of the season. PSU has competed well of late, but they’re up against it on “Senior Night” with the Badgers hunting down another conference title.

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