The Wisconsin Badgers are playing the Notre Dame Fighting Irish tonight in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament. Tonight’s game will be played inside the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where it will have a start time of 7:27 p.m. and it will be televised nationally on TBS. Currently the Vegasodds for the game have the Fighting Irish favored by a bucket to get the victory and advance.

Tonight’s matchup features the Badgers, a seventh seed, and sixth-seeded Notre Dame. Both are making a repeat appearance in the Sweet 16, Wisconsin still is looking to make a third straight Final Four if they can win the next two games.

The Badgers have gone through a well-documented season, where they lost head coach Bo Ryan to retirement midway through the year at 9-9 and Greg Gard has led them to this point. The 11-3 record the final few months was key for the Wisconsin run that has led to this point, the Badgers have won two straight really close games in the tournament as well.

Bronson Koenig knocked down a fallaway 3-pointer to beat Xavier in the last round, the shot went in as time expired as the Badger bench stormed the floor. Wisconsin played well enough in that game to win, though they shot just 61.5 percent from the foul line and hit only 8-of-27 triples, though the last two from Koenig proved to be huge.

Notre Dame won a pair of close games as well, beating Michigan in the opening round before getting a putback as time expired over Stephen F. Austin last round. The Irish will want to play at a bit of a faster pace than the Badgers, ND ranks ninth best in the country in offensive efficiency numbers, compared to the slower Badgers, who are 87^th.

Defensively, though, Wisconsin has a big edge. The Badgers are the 11^th best defensive efficient team in the country, allowing less than 94 points per 100 possessions while Notre Dame comes in 172^nd in the country, allowing 103.9 points per 100 possessions.

Many will argue ND plays in a better conference from an offensive standpoint, but Wisconsin will look to slow this one down. The defense will be key, where Wisconsin is just simply better.

Free Pick: Wisconsin 

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