The Wisconsin Badgers welcome the UCLA Bruins to the Kohl Center on Tuesday, January 6th. Tip-off is at 8:00 P.M. on Peacock, and the Badgers are 3.5-point favorites.
Last Saturday, the Purdue Boilermakers
dominated the Badgers 89-73, dropping Wisconsin to 9-5. It was another poor three-point shooting night for Greg Gard’s team, as the Badgers shot 4-of-25 from long distance.
With the loss (and TCU’s win over Baylor), the Badgers are now 0-5 in Quad 1 games, with each game ending in a double-digit loss for Wisconsin.
The Badgers have an opportunity on Tuesday to add a Quad 2 win to their resume. What should Badger fans know about this year’s UCLA Bruins squad?
Opponent Preview
Like Wisconsin, Mick Cronin and the UCLA Bruins are doing some soul-searching this season. The Bruins have a 10-4 record, but aside from an impressive win at Washington back on December 3rd, they have not recorded any other significant wins. Last Saturday, a Bruins’ second-half comeback came up short in Iowa City, falling to the 25th-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes, 74-61.
Cronin, an always quotable coach with the media, was less than thrilled with the first half of that game, where the Bruins found themselves down 40-22 at halftime.
“It’s disappointing how soft we were the first 20 minutes, extremely disappointing that I have to throw my coat and rip a suit to get guys to play with some toughness.”
Tyler Bilodeau leads the Bruins in scoring for the second straight season. Bilodeau is now up to 18.2 points per game in 14 games this season, an improvement from his 13.5 points per game from last season. Against Iowa, Bilodeau was held to 10 points and was 0-of-4 from behind the three-point line.
Last offseason, UCLA landed one of, if not the top player in the transfer portal, in New Mexico transfer guard Donovan Dent. Dent averages 13.5 points per game but is third in the Big Ten with 6.5 assists and sixth with 1.6 steals per game. In addition to Dent, Skyy Clark leads the Bruins with a stellar 48.6 percent rate from three. But, he suffered a hamstring injury last Saturday.
The Bruins rank 16th in the Big Ten with 32.6 rebounds per game, with 6-foot-8 guard Eric Dailey Jr. leading the Bruins with 5.5 rebounds a contest.
Rounding out the starting lineup for UCLA is former Michigan State forward Xavier Booker. Booker averages 8.4 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 1.2 assists per game. He is also the Bruins’ shot-blocking leader with 1.3 blocks per game.
Score Prediction
If the Badgers want any shot at making the NCAA tournament, they cannot afford to drop this game with their current trajectory. Sure, Wisconsin needs to stop settling for threes, but the Badgers need a much better defensive effort. The Boilermakers shredded the Badgers on Saturday, and a veteran head coach like Cronin surely took notes on what he saw on film.
Thankfully, UCLA does not have the same offense as Purdue, and I think the Badgers use their size advantage to earn their second Big Ten victory of the season.
Prediction: Wisconsin 79-74.
