{"id":21211,"date":"2012-01-22T10:48:51","date_gmt":"2012-01-22T15:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=21211"},"modified":"2012-01-22T10:48:51","modified_gmt":"2012-01-22T15:48:51","slug":"big-ten-showdown-wisconsin-badgers-at-illinois-fighting-illini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/big-ten-showdown-wisconsin-badgers-at-illinois-fighting-illini-21211\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Ten Showdown: Wisconsin Badgers at Illinois Fighting Illini"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wisconsin Badgers at #25 Illinois Fighting Illini
\nAssembly Hall – Champaign, Illinois
\nSunday, January 22, 2012, 2:00 pm Eastern, TV: Big Ten Network<\/strong>
\nOpening Line: Wisconsin -1
\nCurrent Line: Wisconsin -1
\nOpening Total: 108 1\/2
\nCurrent Total: 110
\nOpening Money Line: Wisconsin -115 \/ Illinois -105
\nCurrent Money Line: Wisconsin -125 \/ Illinois +105<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
The Wisconsin Badgers and Illinois Fighting Illini meet Sunday in Champaign in a key Big Ten game. Wisconsin is a slight road favorite.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though Illinois is 4-2 in the Big Ten and Wisconsin is 4-3, both teams are right in the thick of the conference race. There is a 3 way tie between Ohio St, Michigan, and Michigan St at 5-2, but three other teams are within a game of first including the Illini and Badgers. Wisconsin is 15-5 overall and Illinois is 15-4 this season as the two two rivals meet Sunday in Champaign. Illinois leads the series 110-75, including 68-21 at home. Wisconsin has won 8 of the 12 against Illinois, but they split the series last year with each winning on their own home court.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin is coached by Bo Ryan. The Badgers have losses to North Carolina, Marquette, Iowa, Michigan St, and Michigan. The Badgers have won 3 straight games since a 3 game losing streak dropped the Badgers to 1-3 in conference play. Wisconsin has wins over Colgate, Wofford, Bradley, BYU, Green Bay, UNLV, Milwaukee, Nebraska twice, Purdue, and Northwestern Wednesday night 77-57.<\/p>\n

Illinois is coached by Bruce Weber. The Illini have losses to UNLV, Missouri, Purdue, and Thursday night at Penn St 54-52. Illinois has wins over Loyola-Illinois, Richmond, Illinois St, Maryland, Gonzaga, Cornell, Minnesota, Northwestern, Nebraska, and Ohio St.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin is outscoring opponents 66-49 this season. The Badgers are number one nationally in points allowed & opponent’s field goal percentage and #5 in opponent’s 3 point percentage. Badger opponents are shooting 35.4% from the field, and 26.5% from\u00a0 three point range. The Badgers are shooting 43.5% from the field, and 37.3% from 3 point range. Wisconsin makes 71.7% of their free throws. The Badgers average 35.5 rebounds a game, with a rebounding margin of +4.3. Wisconsin averages 12 assists, 9 turnovers, 5.7 steals, and 3.6 blocks a game. Wisconsin forces 11.5 turnovers a game.<\/p>\n

Wisconsin guard Jordan Taylor averages 13.9 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and 1 steal a game. Taylor leads the Badgers in scoring and assists. Jared Berggren averages 10.6 points, 5.1 rebounds, 1.2 steals, and 1.5 blocks a game. He leads the team in steals and blocks. Ryan Evans averages 9.9 points, 6.8 rebounds to lead the team, 1.3 assists, 1 steals, and 1.3 blocks a game. Ben Brust averages 9.6 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 1.1 assists a game. The top 9 scorers for the Badgers all shoot over 30% from 3 point range.<\/p>\n

Illinois is outscoring opponents 68-61 this season. The Illini are shooting 45.1% from the field, including 33.1% from 3 point range. Illinois makes 71.7% of their free throws. The Illini average 34.2 rebounds a game and have a rebounding margin of +4.1. Illinois averages 13.2 assists, 14.2 turnovers, 5.8 steals, and 4.7 blocks a game. Illini opponents are shooting 40.6% from the field, including 35.8% from 3 point range. Illinois forces 14.5 turnovers a game on defense.<\/p>\n

Illinois guard\u00a0 Brandon Paul averages 14.2 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 1.6 steals a game. He leads the Illini in scoring, assists, and steals, and is making 35.5% of his three pointers.\u00a0Meyers Leonard averages 13.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 2.1 blocks a game. He leads the team in blocks and rebounds. D.J. Richardson averages 12.6 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 2.1 assists a game. He is shooting 35.5% from 3 point range. Sam Maniscalco averages 9.3 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 2.9 assists a game. Guard Devin Langford is out indefinitely with a broken finger.<\/p>\n

Illinois is 8-9 against the spread and the total is also 8-9 this season. Wisconsin is 11-6 ATS and the total is 6-11 this season. The favorite is 6-2-1 ATS recently in this series, and 4 of the last 5 played at Illinois have gone over the total. The Badgers are 9-3 ATS after a straight up win, 1-4 in Sunday games, and overall. The Illini are 4-0-1 ATS as an underdog of 6.5 points or less, 5-1 after a straight up loss, and at home against teams with losing road records, 5-2 as an underdog, 2-5 at home, 2-8 as a home underdog, 2-8 as a home underdog, 1-6 in Sunday games, and 2-12 as a home underdog of 6.5 points or less.<\/p>\n

When any team in a conference can beat any other team on a given day, it makes for some exciting, unpredictable basketball. It also makes it difficult to handicap those games. Wisconsin is the hotter team, but so was Ohio St 3 weeks ago, but Illinois shocked them at home. I don’t really like either side in this game but I like the under, as this could be played in the 40’s.<\/p>\n

Maddux Sports is off to a hot start this basketball season, dont miss anymore winning picks, Click Here Now To Get These Winners!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wisconsin Badgers at #25 Illinois Fighting Illini Assembly Hall – Champaign, Illinois Sunday, January 22, 2012, 2:00 pm Eastern, TV: Big Ten Network Opening Line: Wisconsin -1 Current Line: Wisconsin -1 Opening Total: 108 1\/2 Current Total: 110 Opening Money Line: Wisconsin -115 \/ Illinois -105 Current Money Line: Wisconsin -125 \/ Illinois +105 Though […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40249,"featured_media":9800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,1444],"tags":[737,4354,9528,3887,3631,6030,697,30,437],"class_list":["post-21211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college-basketball","category-headlines","tag-big-ten","tag-big-ten-network","tag-college-basketball","tag-college-basketball-betting","tag-college-basketball-handicapping","tag-college-basketball-odds","tag-illinois-fighting-illini","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-wisconsin-badgers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40249"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21211"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21520,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21211\/revisions\/21520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}