Preview: TCU vs. Wisconsin
SAN DIEGO — Wisconsin (5-1) goes for its fourth holiday tournament in the last five seasons as the Badgers take on TCU (4-2) at the Rady Children’s Invitational. Badger Blitz previews and predicts Friday’s title bout…
GAME INFO
TIME: 4:30 p.m. CT
WHERE: Jenny Craig Pavilion (San Diego, Calif.)
TV: FOX
STREAM: Fox Sports Go
VEGAS LINE: Wisconsin – 6.5
SERIES HISTORY: N/A
LAST MEETING: N/A
NUMBERS TO KNOW
1: Friday marks the first-ever meeting between TCU and Wisconsin.
.717: Wisconsin is 33-13 (.717) in November tournaments since 2005.
3: The Badgers have won three of its last four holiday tournaments.
12: UW has won 12 of its last 14 neutral site games.
17: UW has competed in a November tournament in 17 of the last 19 seasons.
50: The Hornded Frogs are 50-9 in the month of November under head coach Jamie Dixon.
STARTING LINEUPS
PROVIDENCE
G Brock Harding (6-0 Jr.) – 9.0 ppg, 6.3 apg
G Jayden Pierre (6-0 Sr.) – 11.8 ppg, 2.7 rpg
G Liutauras Lelevicius (6-7 Jr.) – 7.7 ppg, 2.8 rpg
F David Punch (6-7 So.) – (12.0 ppg, 6.7 rpg)
F Xavier Edmonds (6-8 Jr.) – 8.3 ppg, 3.7 rpg
WISCONSIN
G Nick Boyd (6-2 Sr.) – 22.0 ppg, 3.2 apg
G John Blackwell (6-4 Jr.) – 17.2 ppg, 5.3 rpg
G Andrew Rohde (6-5 Sr.) – 6.7 ppg, 2.0 apg
F Austin Rapp (6-10 So.) – 11.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg
F Nolan Winter (7-0 Jr.) – 15.0 ppg, 10.2 rpg
WHAT TO WATCH
Can Wisconsin break through TCU’s stingy defense?
The Badgers aren’t going to score 100 points in this game like they did against Providence. TCU enters Friday ranked No. 34 in KenPom’s defensive efficiency rankings. The Horned Frogs have held opponents to 66.3 ppg and surrendered just 67 to Michigan. TCU is also getting 10 steals per game, which ranks No. 19 in college basketball.
UW’s 104 points against Providence were the most versus a power-conference foe since they beat Georgia Tech in 1963. Averaging 91.3 ppg, UW has its third-best scoring average through six games in program history.
PREDICTION
Bart Torvik gives Wisconsin a 65 percent chance of winning and predicts a 78-74 victory.
TCU is one of the smallest teams in the country, No. 315 according to KenPom in terms of average height. That didn’t matter on Thursday against Florida, a team that lives on the offensive glass. The Gators had just 10 offensive rebounds, while TCU posted eight themselves.
This isn’t a TCU team that I think is going to bother Wisconsin too much. We know the Badgers are susceptible against size and physical interior play. The Horned Frogs are a very good shot blocking team (5.3 bpg), but based on Friday, they rely very much on packing and collapsing the paint. This feels a bit like a mismatch problem for the Horned Frogs, as the Badgers want to use their 3-point shot to set up drives and transition buckets.
UW is coming off a game in which they attempted a school record 40 3-pointers. The Badgers are making nearly 12 3-pointers per game. Against a team that prefers to take away easy 2’s, TCU may have to switch up what they do defensively. In the halfcourt, however, TCU is very fundamentally sound and plays a gritty brand of basketball. This isn’t a team the Badgers can just walk over.
Florida did TCU a lot of favors with bad turnovers and defensive breakdowns. Also, think UW has quite an advantage with their backcourt play. The Badgers seemed to turn a corner defensively on Thursday, really smothering a Providence team that plays about as fast as anyone. If the Wisconsin team that played Thursday shows up, they’ll be fine.
Wisconsin 81 TCU 75
