Sweet 16 Match-up: Wisconsin vs. Davidson

I enjoy listening to ESPN radio throughout the day, not necessarily for the sports commentary or even the interviews that they have, but for the personalities and the quirkiness that is each host. While listening to the Mike Tirico Show one day, one of his co-hosts (he has like 3 or 4 that co-host on different days) Scott Van Pelt made a hilarious observation. He essentially said that watching Big 10 basketball is like watching fat people having...you can guess the rest. Basically he was saying that it wasn't pretty. His point however was clear, teams in the big 10 are not flashy and don't play very 'watchable' basketball, but they still get the job done. This is most evident in the Wisconsin Badgers. In order to see if their style of ugly basketball will be enough to beat a hot Davidson team we need to look at each team's season and tournament schedule thus far.

Regular Season

Wisconsin did quite well during the regular season compiling a 29-4 record with their only loses coming to Duke, Marquette and to Purdue twice. Wisconsin compiled this record by focusing on defense and leading the nation in scoring defense. However, what was shown during the regular season is that Wisconsin has a major weakness: speed and scoring. Just like in football, the Big 10 is slow and doesn't score a lot of points. Duke crushed them by 24 points and they let Marquette score 81 points in that loss. So while Wisconsin has done well with containing most teams, if they face a team that can shoot and run, they might get into trouble.

Davidson has had a different season. While going 28-6 they actually went 20-0 in their conference. In fact, their last loss was on December 21st. Since then, they have gone on a winning streak and have one of the best known names in college basketball: Stephen Curry. Curry averaged 25 points per game and shot 43% from 3-point range. Three of their loses came to some good teams: University of North Carolina, UCLA and Duke. So while they started off pretty slow, they have been hot since the beginning of 2008 and are looking to continue to build upon that in the tournament.

The Tournament

Wisconsin continued to shut down offenses and play their type of slower, low-scoring games by holding their opponents to an average of 55.5 points per game while scoring an average of 71.5 points per game. This was not surprising since both of their opponents were unable to shoot from the 3-point range and light up the scoreboard like Duke or Marquette.

Davidson has had what first appears to be quite a tough draw. They first beat the number 7 seeded Gonzaga team that was considered pretty good. They then took out the number 2 seeded Georgetown Hoyas in the second round. It was this win that surprised a lot of people. Georgetown was considered one of the teams to make it to at least the elite 8. However, as Davidson has shown, they are not the typical number 10 seed in this tournament. They have not lost since December and they showed why during those two wins scoring an average of 78 points per game.

Match-up

Again, Wisconsin has trouble with teams that can run and shoot the 3-pointer. Davidson has one of the best shooters in the game with Curry. This is the one Cinderella team that is going to keep the dream alive in the Sweet 16 round. Davidson is ranked far below their actual talent and potential. Wisconsin has had trouble in tournament play over the past couple of years, being upset in the first round two years ago and being upset by UNLV in the second round last year. This is going to be the case again as Wisconsin's slower play and focus on defense is not going to be enough to beat a talented and hot Davidson squad that is focused on making it to the Elite 8.

Final score: Davidson 76, Wisconsin 70.