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March Madness – (2) Arizona vs. (1) Wisconsin

Zack Garrison

by Zack Garrison in News

Updated Jan 17, 2018 · 9:40 AM PST

(2) Arizona Wildcats (-1.5, 133.5 o/u) vs. (1) Wisconsin Badgers

The No. 2 Arizona Wildcats (34-3, 16-2 Pac-12) will be looking for revenge today when they face the No. 1 Wisconsin Badgers (34-3, 16-2 Big Ten) in the Elite Eight for the second year in a row (6:09 PM Eastern Time at the Staples Center in LA).

The Wildcats lost 64-63 in OT to the Badgers in 2014. After downing Xavier in the Sweet 16 (68-60), the team will get another crack at Frank Kaminsky and company. Arizona has consistently struggled at this stage under current coach Sean Miller, though, going 0-3 in the Elite Eight.

“The next step is a big one,” said Miller. “The fact that we’re playing Wisconsin … it’s almost as if we had a summer to think about it, and we have to somehow make that to our advantage.”

Arizona didn’t look like a top-team for much of their Sweet 16 tilt with the Musketeers, trailing for most of the second half before consistently getting to the free throw line.

Point guard T.J. McConnell struggled in the first half, but wound up the highman for the Wildcats with 17 points. Center Kaleb Tarczewski chipped in with 12 points and 12 boards.

Wisconsin, meanwhile, topped No. 4 North Carolina 79-72 in the Sweet 16, getting a career-high 23 points (and ten rebounds) from forward Sam Dekker, along with 19 from Player of the Year candidate Frank Kaminsky.

“It’s just great to have so many voices understanding what needs to happen and what we need to do out on the court, which was getting stops … and then coming down and getting good, easy looks at the bucket, and we were able to do so,” Kaminsky said after the win.

The Wildcats are 1.5-point favorites at the moment, and the game total is at 133.5. Wisconsin leads the series 2-1 both straight up and against the spread.  In the trends, the Wildcats are 1-4 ATS in their last five NCAA Tournament games, and the Badgers are 8-3-1 ATS in their last 12 tourney games.

(Photo credit: Beaverbasketball (flickr) [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode]. Photo has been cropped.)

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