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To Badger and Seminoles fans, this East Region matchup will look familiar, as the two schools met a few months back in late December’s Champs Sports Bowl, a 42-13 FSU victory.

But there’s a chance the No. 5 seed Seminoles might not top that 42 points on Friday night if the No. 12 Badgers can slow the game to their style in Boise. OK, I’m exaggerating at little, but if the game is in the 40s or 50s, then UW will be thrilled.

FSU is a 2.5-point favorite on WagerWeb.com with an over/under of 121.5.

The Seminoles are in their first NCAA Tournament since 1998, which has earned coach Leonard Hamilton a contract extension. They have a big but young stable of frontcourt players, but FSU’s best player is no doubt senior guard Toney Douglas, who led the Seminoles to the ACC Tournament final, including a semifinal victory over North Carolina.

Douglas, who had 80 points in the four ACC Tournament games, has 725 points this season, just 17 fewer than Jim Oler’s school record set 53 years ago. He led the league in scoring in conference games (he’s the only Nole averaging double figures in points) and is the ACC’s defensive player of the year. Yet he wasn’t named the conference’s player of the year – that went to Carolina’s Ty Lawson.



With Douglas on the perimeter and 6-foot-9 forwards Chris Singleton and Uche Echefu, along with 7-foot-1 redshirt freshman Solomon Alabi at center, FSU is a great defensive team, allowing allowing opponents to score only 65 points per game and shoot just 38.6 percent from the field this season – both of which are the best marks in the ACC. The Seminoles have yet to lose consecutive games this season; they enter off a loss to Duke.

As for Wisconsin, it lost six straight games in January and looked like it would miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time under Bo Ryan. But the Badgers regrouped by winning seven of their final 10 games.

The Badgers allow only 59 points per game this year, but that number is helped by the slow, rugged style of play in the Big Ten. UW will be severely outsized in the frontcourt, as the Badgers start 6-10 Jon Leuer, 6-7 Marcus Landry and 6-7 Joe Krabbenhoft. Landry was a first-team All-Big Ten pick and is the team’s best player.

And in fairness, the Badgers finished second in the Big Ten with a plus-3 rebounding margin, and their interior defense has improved as the season has progressed.

The Badgers are in their 11th straight NCAA Tournament and have never been a No. 12 seed. The lowest seed Wisconsin has earned prior to this season was a No. 9 slot on two occasions

The winner of this game will meet the winner of No. 4 Xavier and No. 13 Portland State on Sunday.

WagerWeb.com Trends
* Badgers are 6-1 ATS in their last 7 vs. Atlantic Coast.
* Badgers are 4-1 ATS in their last 5 NCAA Tournament games as an underdog of 0.5-6.5.
* Badgers are 11-5-1 ATS in their last 17 games following a ATS loss.
* Badgers are 2-5-1 ATS in their last 8 games following a S.U. loss.
* Badgers are 2-6-1 ATS in their last 9 Friday games.
* Badgers are 1-4 ATS in their last 5 neutral site games.
* Badgers are 1-4-1 ATS in their last 6 games as an underdog.
* Badgers are 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games overall.
* Badgers are 0-5 ATS in their last 5 games vs. a team with a winning S.U. record.
* Badgers are 0-5 ATS in their last 5 games vs. a team with a winning % above .600.
* Seminoles are 8-0-1 ATS in their last 9 games following a ATS loss.
* Seminoles are 7-1 ATS in their last 8 games following a S.U. loss.
* Seminoles are 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games vs. a team with a winning S.U. record.
* Seminoles are 4-1 ATS in their last 5 Friday games.
* Seminoles are 7-2 ATS in their last 9 games as a favorite of 0.5-6.5.
* Seminoles are 6-2 ATS in their last 8 neutral site games.
* Seminoles are 6-2 ATS in their last 8 vs. Big Ten.
* Seminoles are 10-4-1 ATS in their last 15 games vs. a team with a winning % above .600.
* Seminoles are 22-10-2 ATS in their last 34 games overall.

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