Next game - Saturday, December 6th: Wisconsin at Marquette
Continuing Coverage at 8:00 p.m. on Newsradio 620 WTMJ
It's the state's annual water cooler war: Marquette-Wisconsin.
MU alums proudly sporting blue-and-gold ties....wait, blue and gold sweaters or sweatshirts on casual day.
Wisconsin faithful are resplendent in red with the flying "W" or Buckingham U. Badger.
Often, the alumni of one school, even the players who know each other and become friends while facing off on the court each year, are usually fans of the other....364 days, 22 hours out of the typical year.
For two hours, they become mortal enemies.
Those two hours come Saturday at 8:30 p.m. at the Bradley Center.
It's that intensity, and the fact that these squads have combined for 14 NCAA tournament appearances and two Final Fours in the last nine years, which makes Wisconsin-Marquette perhaps the best intrastate interconference college basketball rivalry in America (with the exception of Kentucky-Louisville.)
Who'll win this version of the annual grudge match?
"Our Experts" give their thoughts.
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Wisconsin at Marquette
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| Our Expert |
Keys for Marquette |
Keys for Wisconsin |
Prediction |
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Kyle Dlabay
Marquette Locker Room Insider, 620WTMJ
More
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Steals before the post.
The Golden Eagles need to pressure the basketball as much as possible and make it hard for the Badgers to pass into the post.
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Get to the foul line.
Wisconsin has to get Marquette into foul trouble to fully take advantage of the Badgers' strength down low.
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Marquette 85, Wisconsin 81.
The Golden Eagles speed things up and play the game at their pace.
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Greg Matzek
Co-Host, Wisconsin
Sports Weekend
Contributor,
Sportsbubbler |
Increase the on-court RPM.
Use speed to frustrate Wisconsin and get them to try to play the game at a frantic pace. A run-and-gun game will lead to higher percentage shots and favor MU.
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Make Marquette go half-court.
The Golden Eagles are not shooting the ball well lately, and they lack bench depth. The patience of the Badgers' offense will create foul trouble for the MU starters.
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Wisconsin 72, Marquette 66.
The Badgers will win this game because they will control the tempo and have excellent depth. Talent for talent, the teams are pretty equal, but the Badgers have an experienced man on the sidelines who is rarely out-coached.
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Jay Sorgi
News and Sports Anchor/Reporter,
620WTMJ
Contributor,
Sportsbubbler |
Experience at guard.
There may only be a handful of teams in America that can match Marquette's skill, wisdom and defensive effort than Marquette's trio of James, McNeal and Matthews. They've performed brilliantly in pressure games before, and in a game where UW would think to have a huge advantage inside and in the coaching realm, they can not only dominate on the defensive perimeter and in the fast break game, but in crunch time.
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Experience on the bench.
There may only be a handful of coaches in college hoops that can match Bo Ryan's ability to motivate players to buy into his system, and buy into playing hard. He has more NCAA tournament wins than Buzz Williams has in overall career wins. That will definitely play into Bo's hands, and his silver-quaffed head can outcoach the green-experienced Williams anyday. (Not saying Williams can't reach or surpass Ryan someday, but it won't happen by Saturday.)
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Marquette 81, Wisconsin 78.
Every year, MU-UW turns into Ali-Frazier, with Wisconsin's ability to pound punches to the body on the inside, Marquette's skill in counterpunching with a stalwart defense and using its often-undefendable speed. Wisconsin almost never loses to teams that are of lesser or equal skill - that's why they tend to advance farther than sometimes upset-prone Marquette in the NCAA's. UW tends to only get beaten by squads which own that skill advantage. That's what will happen Saturday, especially with McNeal and Matthews in the clutch.
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Todd "The
Llama" Welter
Producer,
Sports Central
Reporter/Blogger,
620wtmj.com
Contributor,
Sportsbubbler |
Limit the turnovers and keep the FG% above 45%
Most importantly, try to pressure the ball as much as you can to at least put the Badgers in a position where they MAY turn the ball over. It worked last year; there's no reason it can't work this season.
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Slow Marquette down and use your size in the paint.
The big key is to use Marquette's overaggressiveness on defense against them to get key players into foul trouble.
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Marquette 70, Wisconsin 66
My gold alumni sweater vest wants me to predict that, and my rational self thinks Marquette's Big 4 will step up at home..
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