Wisconsin @ Penn St. preview

Wisconsin at Penn St.

Last Meeting ( Jan 11, 2020 ) Wisconsin 58, Penn St. 49

Wisconsin coach Greg Gard was not happy with his team's failure to establish the post game in a loss to unranked Maryland on Monday.

After going back to the inside game and cruising past Minnesota, you can bet the sixth-ranked Badgers will use the same formula against undersized Penn State when they visit University Park, Pa., on Sunday.

"That film session the next day (after the Maryland loss) was pretty harsh on a lot of guys," Wisconsin guard D'Mitrik Trice said. "But we took it, we learned from it and the next two days of practice were intense."

Micah Potter had 18 points and 11 rebounds and the defense held No. 21 Minnesota to 31 percent shooting (20 of 64) in taking care of the Golden Gophers, 71-59 on New Year's Eve. The Badgers (9-2, 3-1 Big Ten) didn't take a 3-pointer for the first six minutes and took just 15 the entire game. Wisconsin led 29-22 at the half but pushed the lead to 26 in the second half.

"That (energy) was lacking in the Maryland game," Potter said afterwards. "I'm sure it was visible from where you guys are, where you watch the game. That was the biggest thing, just keeping the same energy that we had in the first half."

Trice added 14 points, five rebounds and five assists as the Badgers won for the fifth time in six games. He leads Wisconsin in scoring at 14.2 points while the 6-foot-10 Potter adds 12.7 points and a team-high 7.3 rebounds and 6-11 Nate Reuvers chips in 10 points and 1.5 blocks.

At 6-foot-9, John Harrar is the Nittany Lions' lone rotation player over 6-6. Wisconsin will be sure to attack the smaller Nittany Lions, as each opposing center in the last three games has scored at least 20 points against Penn State.

Penn State (3-4, 0-3) is coming off an 87-85 overtime loss at Indiana on Wednesday. Sam Sessoms missed potential game-winners in regulation and the extra session.

Indiana tied the game with seven seconds left on a free throw after a questionable foul call on Myles Dread. On the ensuing possession, Penn State interim coach Jim Ferry, who was standing right next to the play, felt Sessoms was fouled on his jump shot.

"I obviously would have liked for it to have been called a foul," Ferry said. "And there were two sequences, right? It was the last possession at the other end (where Dread was called for a defensive foul), where I thought Myles got a hand in and stole it."

Myreon Jones led the Nittany Lions with 20 points, but Rob Phinisee hit a tough, turnaround jumper just inside the free-throw line with 13 seconds left to provide the winning margin.

--Field Level Media