No.5 Wisconsin (25-8, 13-7 Big Ten) vs. No.1 Michigan State (27-5, 17-3 Big Ten)

Date/Time – Saturday, March 15, 1 p.m.

Arena – Gainbridge Fieldhouse (18,345)

Television – CBS (Ian Eagle, Bill Raftery, Grant Hill, Tracy Wolfson)

Radio – Badgers Radio Network (Matt Lepay and Brian Butch), Sirius 85 or 382, stream online on iHeartRadio.

Series – Michigan State leads 87-69 (Michigan State leads 8-4 in neutral sites)

Last Meeting – Michigan State won, 71-62, on March 2, 2025, in East Lansing, Mich.

Follow Online: The Badgers’ Den

Twitter: @Badger_Blitz

Point Spread – Michigan State -2.5

Player to Watch: In Wisconsin’s 82-70 quarterfinal win over UCLA, Tonje finished with 26 points, going 9-for-10 from the field (6-6 3FGs). He matched his season-high with 9 rebounds and added 4 assists. With 631 points scored this season, Tonje is in third place on Wisconsin’s single-season scoring list.

Player to watch: Richardson scored 15 of his team-high 17 points in the second half and added three rebounds and two assists to lead the Spartans to a 74-64 quarterfinal victory over Oregon.

The two teams have split the last 10 meetings.

Saturday’s semifinal will mark the 53rd meeting between Wisconsin and Michigan State since 2000, marking the Badgers’ most-played opponent in that span (Illinois is next at 49 meetings).

UW and MSU are meeting for the 12th time in the postseason, including the 2000 Final Four and 11 meetings in the Big Ten Tourney.

The Badgers and Spartans are meeting in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament for the 8th time. UW is 2-5 in such games.

At least one of the two teams has been ranked in the last 44 meetings. The last game in which both were unranked was a 64-53 Wisconsin win on Feb. 11, 2003.

The Badgers have recorded six wins over a top-10 ranked Michigan State team since Bo Ryan and Greg Gard arrived in Madison, going 6-11 in such games. Before the 2001-02 season, Wisconsin was 1-13 against ranked Michigan State teams in the AP top 10.

The Badgers are participating in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals for the 14th time in the 28 tourneys and the fourth time under Gard. UW’s 14 semifinals appearances trails only Michigan State (17) for most trips to the semis. Illinois has also played in 14 semifinals.

The Badgers are 3-6 all-time against the No. 1 seed in the BTT, knocking off Illinois in 2004, Indiana in 2013, and Purdue in 2024.

Wisconsin is 27-for-57 (.474) from 3-point range through two Big Ten Tournament games. The Badgers are averaging 13.5 triples per game in the event. Wisconsin is shooting 49.5 percent (55-for-111) from the field through two games.

The Badgers held UCLA to just 22-of-68 (32.4 percent) from the field on Friday. Through two tournament games, UW has held its opponent to 34.4 percent shooting (42-for-122) from the field.

Wisconsin has 34 assists to 21 turnovers during the BTT, good for a 1.6 assist-to-turnover ratio.

The Spartans are 36-20 (.643) all-time in the Big Ten Tournament and lead the conference with six tournament titles.

Michigan State connected on 46.3 percent of its field goals (25-of-54), including 51.6 percent in the first half (16-of-31).

After Oregon shot 56.5 percent in the first half, the Spartans limited the Ducks to 40.0 percent shooting from the field (12-of-30), including 10.0 percent from 3-point land (1-of-10).

MSU held a 36-29 advantage on the boards, collected seven offensive rebounds in the first half and out-scoring Oregon, 13-0, in second chance points.

The Spartans received 27 points from the bench, the 30th time in 32 games with at least 20 points.

Blackwell and Kamari McGee controlled the offense in Thursday’s 70-63 win over Northwestern, playing under control and limiting their combined turnovers to three. The only thing that wasn’t up to task was their shooting, with Blackwell going 3-for-10 and McGee slightly better at 3-for-7.

It was a different story against the Bruins.

Blackwell was a part of Wisconsin’s hot start with two three-point makes, as well as being opportunistic in crashing the glass for an offensive rebound on a short three-point shot for as an easy lay-in. McGee shot at least 80 percent for the first time since February 15 and made multiple three-pointers in a game without a miss for the first time all season.

“We’re the point guards, the head of the snake,” McGee said. “It starts with us. We can’t just go out there and tell our guys one thing and not do it. We’ve got to lead by example. I feel like we picked that up.”

Both players agreed that some of Wisconsin’s losses this season were the result of them not leading by example. The March 2 loss at Michigan State was one of them, as McGee went 1-for-8 from the floor with three fouls and two turnovers, and Blackwell missed a team-high 12 shots. The two were a combined 0-for-11 from three.

“The couple games that we lost, it’s on us,” Blackwell said. “We’ve got to keep going, keep our energy high, even when we’re not playing it that good, not shooting it that good. I think as point guards, that’s our job.”

In tying the Big Ten Tournament record with 19 three-pointers, the Badgers started 12-for-17 from beyond the perimeter. The first three threes were shot in rhythm and came from exceptional ball movement. That was the case for 10 of Wisconsin’s three-pointers in the first half, including a work of art with 6:47 remaining in the first half.

With Crowl possessing the ball outside the paint and drawing the double, he fed the ball to Tonje on the wing. From there, snap passes from Tonje to Carter Gilmore to Blackwell to Klesmit in the corner for a three made it 33-20.

Wisconsin dished out 22 assists on the day, the team’s second-highest total of the season after collecting 26 against Iowa on 1/06/25, with Blackwell and McGee assisting on four each.

“We have a lot of talented guys, and we kind of feed off each other,” Tonje said. “When we’re able to be unselfish and kind of look for each other, the ball just kind of finds its way back to you. I think everyone’s kind of bought in now, and we’re not pushing our own agendas. We’re just trying to compete and doing everything we can to get the win.”

Nobody was better from behind the three-point line than Tonje. He hit all six of his three-point attempts in the first half, including two where he simply pulled up and fired. He attacked more in the second half, knifing through four defenders into the lane to finish off the layup.

It took him until 5:26 remained to miss a shot, with Wisconsin comfortably ahead by 27 points.

“I think I was just trying to be aggressive within the flow of the game, trying to figure out how they’re guarding me, and how I can adjust and just really be effective,” Tonje said. “With all these guys around me that balance the floor and make it easier to open up and make it the right decision, I think it’s just having talented guys around me that help me make plays.”

That aggressiveness was lost in the meeting against the Spartans less than two weeks ago. One of the more physical teams in the league with how they play and how deep into the bench they go, the Spartans challenged the Badgers at the rim and forced them to shoot from the outside, where they rank third in the country in percentage defense (28.0 percent).

UW went 5-for-32 from three against the Spartans, 11-for-22 at the rim, and 6-for-15 on other shots, the latter category showing the Badgers settled for jumpers instead of challenging defenders.

“I feel like we didn’t go in the paint enough at their place,” McGee said. “I feel like we can really eat inside and find guys and spread. That’s where we can get our threes from inside out. If we just attack the paint more than we did in the last game, we’ll have better results.”

Blackwell put the onus on himself, considering the offense scored only two points in the final seven possessions to allow the Spartans to pull away.

“Down the stretch, we’ve just got to execute a little bit better,” Blackwell said. “I know you’re on the road and it’s a tough environment, but you’ve just got to execute better as a point guard to do that. I think we didn’t do that there. We’re careless with the ball and gave them a few more possessions.”

UW has struggled with effort plays at points against bigger teams. The Spartans turned 13 offensive rebounds into 12 second-chance points. It gets lost under UW’s three-point shooting Friday, but UCLA had 20 offensive rebounds that led to 18 second-chance points. UW needs to cut those numbers in half to have a chance.

Wisconsin’s offense played its best game in nearly a month Friday, while the Spartans have picked up eight Quad-1 wins in the past month. I wouldn’t be surprised either way with the result, but I’ll lean toward the more consistent team.

Worgull’s Prediction: Michigan State by 5

Record: 25-8 (23-10 ATS)

Points off Prediction: 289 (8.8 per game)