The No. 23 Wisconsin Badgers (12-2) enter Sunday’s contest against Maryland (8-6) one a four game winning streak.
Maryland on the other hand had lost their last two games to Big Ten opponents Iowa and Illinois.
It’s been an up and down season for the Terrapins who saw their long-time head coach Mark Turgeon step down back in early December.
Maryland still has yet to win a game in Big Ten play, and has won just three game’s over KenPom top 100 teams (Vermont, Richmond, and Florida).
Meanwhile, National Player of the Year contender, Johnny Davis enters the game having scored 20+ points in each of his last six games – and leading a young Badgers team that’s really beginning to play some of their best basketball.
Greg Gard had a 6-4 record against Maryland for his career.
Notable KenPom Rankings:
Wisconsin: 29th ranked team, 36th in ADJ Defense, 2nd in turnover%.
Maryland: 63rd ranked team, 269th in 3P%, 61st in ADJ Defense.
Maryland projected starters:
Guard: Fatts Russell (12.5 ppg, 3.7 apg)
Guard: Eric Ayala (15.3 ppg, 4.6 rpg)
Forward: Hakim Hart (9.6 ppg, 3.7 rpg)
Forward: Donta Scott (11.7 ppg, 7.1 rpg)
Forward: Qudus Wahab (9.4 ppg, 7.0 rpg)
Wisconsin projected starters:
Guard: Chucky Hepburn (7.6 ppg, 2.1 apg)
Guard: Brad Davison (14.8 ppg, 4.4 rpg)
Guard: Johnny Davis (22.6 ppg, 7.4 rpg)
Forward: Tyler Wahl (9.4 ppg, 5.3 rpg)
Center: Steven Crowl (8.7 ppg, 4.4 rpg)
As Greg Gard has championed, there are no get right games in the Big Ten.
A road test against the Maryland Terrapins won’t be a walk in the park. The Terrapins are 48-16 against Big Ten schools since joining the league.
However, it would be really hard to pick against the Badgers who have found a healthy offensive balance between pushing the pace and running their half-court sets.
The Badgers remain undefeated this season (12-0) when scoring 61 or more points, while losing both of the games in which they failed to reach that number.
Maryland is 0-5 this season when scoring 66 points or fewer, and the visiting Badgers defense allows just 64.6 points per game on the season.
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