College Basketball Picks:: The 2nd-ranked Wisconsin Badgers visit their instate rival, the Marquette Golden Eagles on Saturday in a game that can be seen on CBS. The Badgers will have to be careful of having a letdown as they played a huge game on Wednesday at home against Duke. What does help them in this game is that Marquette is not as good as in past seasons. Let’s look at the match-up and college basketball predictions.
Badgers Dominating on Defense
Heading into their game against Duke, the Badgers were allowing just 50.6 points per game which was 6th best in the country. The team always plays great defense under head coach Bo Ryan and this year is no exception. The team also has a good offense this season as they were averaging almost 75 points per game before the match-up against Duke. They should not have much trouble holding down a Marquette team that isn’t doing much offensively.
Marquette Golden Eagles 4-3 SU, 4-3 ATS
The Golden Eagles are in rebuilding mode this season but they are getting better quickly. They played well in neutral site losses to Georgia Tech and Michigan State and then they beat Tennessee. Whether they are playing good enough to hang with Wisconsin is another story. The team is only averaging about 71 points per game while allowing the same number of points. They have struggled at home against the spread going 0-3. They will have had plenty of time to get ready for this game as they haven’t played since Sunday.
Game Notes
This will be the first true road game of the season for Wisconsin as all of their games so far have come at home or at a neutral site. The Badgers normally are a decent road team but it is worth noting that this game comes right after the contest at home against Duke. The Badgers and Golden Eagles normally meet once every season so we do have some trends to consider.
The teams have split their last ten meetings overall with two of the last three going under. It was the Badgers winning 70-64 at home last season. Two years ago it was Marquette winning 60-50 at home. The teams have split their last four games at Marquette. Most of the games recently at Marquette in this series have been low scoring with five of the last six going under.
College Basketball Predictions
This should be a defensive struggle so we’ll look for the Badgers and Golden Eagles to go under.
