Wisconsin Badgers vs. Illinois Fighting Illini
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Big Ten betting action takes center stage in Champaign, IL on Sunday afternoon as the Illinois Fighting Illini (18-12, 12-17 ATS) look to take one of the steps that they need to in order to get to the NCAA Tournament when they clash with the Wisconsin Badgers (22-7, 16-11 ATS). Wisky knows that it is already going to be a Top-4 seed in the upcoming Big Ten Tournament, but the question is where it will fall between #2 and #4. The Illini are going to be ranked 5th in that tournament, but their bigger concern is what is going on with their NCAA Tournament status. Illinois has lost four of its L/5 overall to slip into a very dangerous position of badly needing a win and some help to get into the field.

If you look up the definition of “stifling defense” in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of Bucky the Badger. Wisconsin is only allowing 56.1 points per game this year, the third best mark in the country. Part of that is the fact that it forces the other team to play to its tempo, which is a slow and leisurely pace. The rest is that there are constantly men flying at the basketball, which forces opposing teams into bad shots on a regular basis. Don’t kid yourself though, as there are scorers on this team. Look for F Trevon Hughes (15.4 PPG) to step up in a big way on Sunday.

The Illini aren’t afraid to get down and dirty either, though they prefer to play a bit better pace than the Badgers do. Unfortunately for HC Bruce Weber’s sake though, Illinois doesn’t have much of a choice, as there aren’t many scorers on this team that can step up and nail big shots over and over again. If F Demetri Carney (15.1 points per game) isn’t on his game, the Illini will sometimes struggle to figure out who is taking the big shot as the shot clock is expiring.

These two teams historically match up very tightly with each other. Illinois won earlier this year at the Kohl Center, which is traditionally one of the toughest places to play in the NCAA basketball betting world, by the count of 63-56. Wisconsin holds a slender 6-4 SU and a 5-4-1 ATS advantage over the L/10 clashes with the Illini.

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