Nick Boyd’s production is helping Wisconsin position itself nicely in the Big Ten standings while Lamar Wilkerson’s impressive output has not been enough for Indiana to climb out of the middle of the pack.
Two of the conference’s top scorers oppose each other when Boyd and Wisconsin visit Wilkerson and Indiana on Saturday afternoon in Bloomington, Ind.
Boyd’s 20.0 points per game are fourth in the conference and nine of his 13 games with at least 20 points have come in conference play. The Badgers (16-6, 8-3 Big Ten) are 10-3 when Boyd scores at least 20 and he is coming off consecutive 21-point showings in home wins over Ohio State and Minnesota last week that required comebacks.
Boyd shot 6-of-15 in last Saturday’s 92-82 win over Ohio State as the Badgers overcame an early nine-point deficit.
John Blackwell, who led the Badgers with 22 points, is eighth in the conference at 18.5 points per game. He was among five in double figures during Wisconsin’s ninth game with at least 90 points to date.
Coming off its long layoff, Wisconsin is tied with Purdue for fifth in the standings and is about to start a stretch where five of seven games are on the road. The Badgers visit No. 5 Illinois on Tuesday and host No. 10 Michigan State three days later.
“I think it was good just to come up for air a little bit,” Badgers coach Greg Gard said. “We’ve been in a pretty consistent routine of game, practice, practice, game. And I think just giving our guys a chance to get a day to relax a little bit and then also work on ourselves here.”
Indiana (15-8, 6-6) won three consecutive games by beating Rutgers, Purdue and UCLA following a four-game slide. The Hoosiers were unable to stay above .500 in league play when they shot 41.3% in Tuesday’s 81-75 loss at Southern California.
Wilkerson scored 33 points for his second-highest total this season while Tucker DeVries continued his slump. DeVries is averaging 13.7 points but shooting 32.8% from 3-point range and was a combined 3-of-17 from the floor over the past two games.
“I didn’t think we had the same juice and energy to start the game,” coach Darian DeVries said on the Indiana radio network after his team allowed 80 points for the seventh time this season. “As we started going, we never could get into sync. Every time we clawed back in it, we could never get enough stops to sustain anything.”
