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#16 Wisconsin Badgers (20-8) vs. #8 Ohio State Buckeyes (23-5) Preview and Prediction

February 26, 2012 by Jako

The Wisconsin Badgers head to Columbus to face the Ohio State Buckeyes and bounce back from a tough loss to Iowa.  America's Bookie has Ohio State as a 9 ½ point favorite at home.  The total for this game is set at 119 ½.

Wisconsin was not able to contain Matt Gatens, who scored 33 points and led Iowa to a sweep for the season over the Badgers.  This was the second straight career high for Gatens as he scored 30 against #18 Indiana last Sunday.  Josh Gasser and Ryan Evan each scored 14 points for Wisconsin in the loss. The Badgers were down by 13 points early in the second half and looked like they were finished, but they did manage to work themselves back into the game.  As they would get closer though, Gatens just kept killing them with long range shots.  He has been very hot shooting the 3 as his streak of 12 in a row ended in the second half.  Iowa didn’t get a field goal over the last 7:29 of the game but Wisconsin still couldn’t overtake them.

Ohio State had a fairly easy time of it in their last outing this past Tuesday.  They beat Illinois 83-67 on 65% shooting and 19 points from Deshaun Thomas.  William Buford added 17 and Aaron Craft had 11 points and 5 assists.  Jared Sullinger had an off night but wasn’t needed.  He scored 9 points before fouling out of the game.  It was a much needed win as Ohio State had lost 2 of their last 3 games with poor shooting from Buford.  They are still in the thick of the Big Ten and has a visit left to Michigan State, who is leading the conference by 1 ½ of a game. 

Ohio State shot very well on Tuesday compared to the dismal 38.8% they shot against Michigan last Saturday.   They are 5-4 against ranked opponents this season with one of those coming against then #19 Wisconsin on February 4th.  They beat the Badgers 58-52 with 24 points and 10 rebounds from Jared Sullinger.  The Buckeyes are 7-2 ATS in their last 9 home games and 7-3 ATS in their last 10 Big Ten games.  Wisconsin is 1-6 ATS in their last 7 games.  The home team has covered in 4 of the last 5 games between these two teams.

Ohio State needs the win to have a chance in the Big Ten. They seem to be back on track shooting wise and I really don’t see Wisconsin pulling off the upset on the road. However, I’m going to take a lesson from yesterday where most of the top teams won, but didn’t cover.  Instinct is telling me that the play is Wisconsin +9 ½.

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Game information
Date: 4:00 PM ET, February 26
Venue: Value City Arena
Coverage: CBS

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