Julian Edlow provides his preview, prediction, and pick for Thursday’s college basketball game between Wisconsin and Washington.
Wisconsin vs. Washington College Basketball prediction, preview
Wisconsin gets underway in Big Ten Tournament play on Thursday afternoon, facing off against a Washington team that defeated USC on Wednesday afternoon to advance. This is a terrific spot for the well rested Badgers, who hold significant advantages over the Huskies.
Washington holds a slight defensive edge in the matchup, but should struggle to keep up with a Wisconsin offense that ranks 13th in efficiency on KenPom. Washington wants to try and play slow, but the Badgers will be looking to speed this game up, which will play to their strengths. It will also work against the Huskies, considering they played on Wednesday afternoon, and had to play extra minutes in overtime to get past a bad USC team.
We saw Washington come out flat to begin the game against the Trojans, and if the same happens this time around, I expect the Badgers to go wire-to-wire in this one. The early 2:30pm ET tip time might play more of a role in this one, while it didn’t matter as much on Wednesday with both teams traveling out from the west coast.
Wisconsin recently went out west and smashed the Huskies by 17 points on their home floor, and I expect a similar showing in Big Ten play. I feel the consecutive early tip offs combined with the travel out east should really set Washington back in this game, and the Badgers speeding up tempo and playing at a high level offensively will just be too much to keep up with. I laid the points with Wisco and also put them in a moneyline parlay with Villanova, who I like to defeat Georgetown on Thursday night in the Big East Tournament.
CBB Pick: Wisconsin -6.5 (-110)