Wisconsin men’s basketball: Badgers visit Oregon for NIT Quarterfinal

Mar 21, 2023 - 12:25 AM

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Following their win against Liberty on Sunday afternoon, the Wisconsin Badgers are headed to Eugene, Oregon to face the Oregon Ducks in the NIT Quarterfinals.

The last time these two teams faced, the Ducks got the best of the Badgers in the first round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament. The Badgers entered the tournament as a 5-seed and were dominated 72-54 in a lopsided game. Now, the Badgers have a shot at redemption on Oregon’s home court.

Oregon is coming off wins against UC Irvine and UCF, both games where they shined from start to finish.

The Ducks have now won 6 of their last 7 games and were one of the bubble teams ahead of the Badgers in regard to the NCAA Tournament.

The Ducks are led by center N’Faly Dante who is averaging 13.4 points and 8.4 rebounds per game, however, he hasn’t made his NIT appearance yet due to injury.

Senior guard Jermaine Couisnard is averaging 12.8 ppg while shooting 40% from the field. He is also yet to make his first NIT appearance due to injury as well.

In the Ducks' recent win vs UCF, sophomore center Nate Bittle led all scorers with 21 points. He also grabbed 13 rebounds in his second double-double of the season.

At the moment, the Badgers are 4.5-point underdogs entering the game, and it will most definitely be their toughest challenge of the postseason.

It will be entertaining to see whether Steven Crowl can continue his impressive stretch of games into the next round and whether Connor Essesgian can bounce back from poor shooting performances in back-to-back games.

The game will be broadcasted on ESPN at 8 PM CT on Tuesday night.