When the Wisconsin men's basketball team takes to the court Sunday night against Indiana, playing to win will be playing to stay alive in the NCAA tournament hunt. The Badgers (9-8 Big Ten, 18-11 overall), who compiled an impressive five-game winning streak to start off the month of February, will need to keep the Hoosiers (1-16, 6-23) at bay to avoid dropping their third game in the last four contests as they end the regular season.
Doing so will be easier said than done. Indiana comes into the game playing for pride, having a record that is far from consideration as an at-large bid in postseason play. These fact alone make them a dangerous opponent. A final win on the road to end the conference season against a team on the bubble would be a solid finish to an otherwise lackluster season and provide momentum entering the Big Ten tournament.
A win against Wisconsin on Sunday is not a very far-fetched notion, considering that Indiana's last two games were lost by five points or fewer, and one of those games was against No. 8 Michigan State Tuesday night.
In addition, the Hoosiers have a horde of young players who have been steadily improving their play as the season has progressed. Four of the top five scorers on the team are freshmen, and junior guard Devan Dumes leads Indiana and will likely do so next year as well. Freshman guard Verdell Jones III and freshman forward Tom Pritchard lead the team in assists and rebounds, respectively, and both average more minutes than any other player on the team.
To fend off the young Hoosier attack, the Badgers will likely rely on their defense, which has been dominant in all but one of its games during the past month. Aside from the loss at Michigan State, Wisconsin has held its opponents to 50.4 points per game and has the best rebounding defense of any team in the conference, allowing only 28.4 boards per game.
Wisconsin senior forward Joe Krabbenhoft has arguably contributed the most to the Badgers' defensive success, shutting down many of the Big Ten's best and reeling in a team-high average of 6.6 rebounds per game. However, junior guard Jason Bohannon has been receiving praise from teammates and coaches alike in recent weeks for his ability to chase and cover on the court and will likely match up well on Dumes Sunday evening.
Repercussions of this weekend's matchup will affect Wisconsin's seeding in the Big Ten tournament next week, which took a hit after the loss to Minnesota Wednesday. Instead of taking a temporary hold on the No. 4 position in the conference with a win over the Golden Gophers, the Badgers have slipped into the No. 7 spot and into a pack of four teams that have nine wins each.
The only way for Wisconsin to get back into the No. 4 position would be to win Sunday and have Penn State lose to Illinois and Iowa, Ohio State lose to Northwestern, and Minnesota lose to Michigan in the final days of conference play. If the Badgers lose or if two of the three teams immediately ahead of them win, they will lose a first day bye and would have to play four consecutive days to win the conference tournament.
Without a Big Ten tournament win, Wisconsin would have to rely on its meager resume to be called out for the NCAA tournament on Selection Sunday. The Badgers currently hold an RPI of 31 and have the sixth-best strength of schedule, but not having 20 wins by the end of the regular season does not help their case, nor does their 4-9 record against top-50 RPI opponents. A loss this weekend would leave them with a .500 conference record and little hope of impressing the selection committee at the most critical of times.
Tipoff will be Sunday at 6 p.m. at the Kohl Center.
