Wisconsin basketball's keys to victory vs. No. 15 Purdue
· Yahoo Sports
The Wisconsin Badgers improved to 21-9 (13-6 B1G) with their 78-45 victory over Maryland on Wednesday, March 4.
Wisconsin triumphed in its final home game of the season; the triumph was the team's second in a row and third in its last four.
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Arguably, no team looked more dangerous than Greg Gard's squad from February 7-10 when they took down No. 8 Illinois and No. 10 Michigan State.
Since those games, the team has gone 3-2 with a pair of losses to unranked teams. Now, all eyes are on its regular-season finale at Purdue against the No. 15-ranked Boilermakers. Here are two major keys to a Wisconsin victory.
1. Win the Three-Point Battle
The first time these teams met, Purdue was 10-of-27 from 3-point range, while Wisconsin was just 4-of-25. That's unlike the Badgers and was a clear deciding factor in their 89-73 loss at home.
Now, Wisconsin is tasked with playing at the Mackey Arena. It's going to be incredibly hard to top a team that is averaging 9.4 made three-pointers per game, but Wisconsin at least needs to get its average up to avoid another 16-point defeat.
2. Keep Nolan Winter Healthy
Even if Wisconsin doesn't defeat Purdue, the biggest thing the team needs to do is keep its star center healthy. According to Jon Rothstein, Winter is listed as day-to-day. He'll be questionable going into this game, but the Badgers need to look at the bigger picture.
Winter dropped 18 points on Purdue the first time these two teams met, but it's not worth risking his long-term health. Wisconsin needs the junior around for the Big Ten and NCAA Tournament, so it's not worth putting him out there if he isn't at 100%.
This article originally appeared on Badgers Wire: Wisconsin basketball Purdue preview keys to victory