The University of Wisconsin men's basketball team (8-4 Big Ten, 18-7 overall) will head into Evanston tonight to take on Northwestern as the team begins a critical four-game stretch to close out the Big Ten regular season.
'This is just as important as the Ohio State game. It's on the road,' junior guard Alando Tucker said. 'Northwestern is always tough at home. We have to be solid off the bat. We know this is a dangerous team.'
Despite the Wildcats' (4-8, 12-12) lowly ranking within Big Ten standings, they have proved a difficult opponent of late, notching their marquee win of the season two weeks ago in a home victory over Iowa, and most recently taking Ohio State to the wire.
Earlier this season in Madison, the Badgers overcame a slow start to defeat the Wildcats 68-52. Sporting a Princeton-style offense, which emphasizes passing and cutting, Northwestern has made a living out of exploiting its opponents' inability to stop its irregular style of offense. However, on this night, Wisconsin was aided by a Wildcat field-goal percentage of 35 percent, their second-worst mark of the season.
'They're different than every team you have to guard, because they're offense is just so much different than every other offense,' junior center Jason Chappel said. 'You gotta really be disciplined on defense and make sure you don't get beat on the back door.'
Northwestern is led by First Team All-Big Ten candidate Vedran Vukusic, a senior forward who is averaging a conference-leading 20.1 points per game. Despite being 6'8' and 245 pounds, Vukusic excels at putting the ball on the floor and shooting from deep. 'Vukusic is a big man that can step out and come off screens, goes to the post. That always poses a threat to other teams when you got a big guy that's versatile,' Tucker said.
Senior guard Mohamed Hachad has begun to emerge as of late, scoring 48 points over his last three games (against his season average of 11.3), with his most recent effort being a 19 point, nine-rebound performance against Ohio State.
'The main thing is, when you're playing a Northwestern team, they're going to be a lot more confident at home,' Tucker said.
