Pregame glance: Wisconsin

Are you ready?

Buckeyes.  Badgers.  Basketball.  Big Ten.

Bo Ryan…

Are.  You.  Ready.  Question mark.

On Saturday, Ohio State will face its toughest challenge of the 2010-11 basketball season to date.  Playing Wisconsin is never easy.  Playing Wisconsin at the Kohl Center is even less easy.  Playing Wisconsin when you’re ranked #1 in the country probably makes it even less easy.

To state it a different way, let’s hope that the Buckeyes welcome a challenge, because they’re sure to get all they can handle this weekend.  Coming into the game at 24-0, this is the game that most people are picking as the first loss on the season for Thad Matta’s squad.  While Michigan State started the year as the Big Ten team to beat, they have fallen by the wayside and Ohio State quickly stepped up to fill their spot.  For awhile Illinois appeared to be the team that would present the Buckeyes with the biggest challenge in conference play, but they too have fallen off the pace.  Purdue took their shot and was soundly drubbed in Columbus.  Wisconsin remains, and history is not in Ohio State’s favor.

Bo Ryan has only lost while playing at the Kohl Center on 11 occasions since he took the helm at Wisconsin in 2001.  His lone home loss to the Buckeyes came in the 2002-2003 season, a 58-50 final that occurred prior to Thad arriving on the scene in Columbus.  Overall Thad has posted a 4-7 record against the Badgers while at Ohio State, making the Badgers a bit of a thorn in the side.

And what a maddeningly solid, slow-it-down thorn it is.  Of Wisconsin’s games this season, 12 games have seen scores for the Badgers below 70 points, while only nine games have crossed that threshold.  Interestingly, of Wisconsin’s five losses, two have come in especially low-scoring affairs (58-51 against Notre Dame and 56-52 against Penn State).  In those two games, Wisconsin shot a measly 4-4 and 2-3 on free throws, respectively, and against the Irish the team only shot 35% overall from the field.

While Wisconsin’s style may be painful to watch, you can’t say it isn’t successful.  The Badgers have gone to the NCAA Tournament every year that Bo Ryan has been with the program, and those trips have included two Sweet 16 runs and one Elite 8 finish.  This year Wisconsin is poised for another strong seeding, currently checking in as the #14 ranked team in the country.

Jon Leuer has been highlighted this season as the team’s All-American candidate, leading the team in scoring at over 19 points per game while yanking down 7 boards per game and shooting a very high percentage from both the floor and the free throw line.  Leuer is a versatile player, standing 6’10 but demonstrating the ability to shoot from outside, drive the lane, or finish with a variety of post moves.  While Leuer has gotten most of the press, point guard Jordan Taylor has been a star in his own right, notching 17 points per game to go along with over 4 rebounds and 4 assists on average.  Taylor will present a tough assignment for Aaron Craft in that the junior guard is strongly built, similar to Demetri McCamey from Illinois but with more of a focus on attacking for his own scoring opportunities than McCamey.

Wisconsin just pulled off an overtime victory against Iowa last night, so they’re riding a three-game winning streak coming into Saturday’s contest.  For Ohio State to beat the Badgers, it will require a few key ingredients: limiting the second chance opportunities for Wisconsin, seeking to draw fouls early and knocking down the resulting free throws, and crisp, on-point passing out of traps and double-teams.  Wisconsin won’t shoot you out of the gym, but they won’t let you shoot them out of the gym either, so the fundamentals must be sound.  With that said, if ever there was a game for a player like Jon Diebler to be on from outside, this would be it.

The game is set to tip at 2:00pm and will be shown on ESPN.  For those who want to get their liveblog on, we’ll be here ready for the action around 1:30, so be sure to stop by!