| Big Ten Men's Basketball No. 16/15 Wisconsin vs. No. 8/9 Ohio State | ||
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| 20-8 (9-6 Big Ten) | 23-5 (11-4 Big Ten) | |
| Feb. 26, 2012 3:00 PM CT Value City Arena (19,500), Columbus, OH | ||
| TV: CBS (Tim Brando, Mike Gminski) Radio: 1070 FM / 1310 AM (Matt Lepay, Mike Lucas) | ||
| All-time Series: OSU leads 82-66 Last Meeting: OSU won 58-52 (2/4/12) | ||
The Badgers find themselves playing the role of spoiler today. Jordan Taylor has never won at Ohio State, and the team's last trip to Columbus turned ugly. But Taylor gets one more shot this afternoon with fellow senior Rob Wilson, who is coming off one of his best games in a Wisconsin uniform.
Each team has struggled with consistently shooting from the outside this year, though the Buckeyes can usually rely on sophomore big man Jared Sullinger to give them production inside. For Wisconsin to be effective, both Taylor and Jared Berggren need to bring their A-games. Aaron Craft has limited Taylor to 10 ppg in these teams' last two meetings.
Both Wisconsin and Ohio State are the cream of the conference when it comes to their current regimes. Bo Ryan (129-54, .705) and Thad Matta (96-39, .711) own the two highest winning percentages in Big Ten history. Wisconsin has the Big Ten's best road winning percentage (.504) since Ryan arrived. Besides the typical motivation, the Badgers need to win Sunday to keep Purdue and Indiana at bay in the race for a first-round bye in the Big Ten tournament.