Tonight at 6:30 p.m. ET, Minnesota and No. 12 Wisconsin go head-to-head live from Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indiana. The game can be live streamed for free here.
These two teams meet for just the second time in conference tournament play.
Wisconsin will look to return to form after starting out hot and stumbling down the stretch. These teams split their regular-season meetings by each winning at home.
The Badgers rattled off eight wins in a row between Feb. 4 and March 5, the longest winning streak in franchise history since they won 11 straight in the 1940-41 season. There were a lot of expectations that Wisconsin may enter the tournament as the No.1 seed, but they were dashed with a 77-68 loss to Nebraska in the team's regular-season finale.
Head coach Bo Ryan isn't thinking about that.
"I don't even know what that is. I don't even know what you're talking about," said Ryan via ESPN. "...No. 1 seed for what? We're the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten tournament. That's the only thing I know."
Ryan is taking Wisconsin to a 16th straight NCAA tournament, and the 13th of his tenure.
The Badgers lost to Ohio State in last year's finals and are seeking their first tournament win since 2008.
Minnesota is coming off of a 63-56 victory over Penn State on Thursday and knows that a victory on Friday can help their chances of an at-large bid.
"I thought that if we won tonight and things went our way, we could be in," coach Richard Pitino said, according to ESPN. "You get to 20 wins, you get a top five strength of schedule in the country, I believe that you're rewarded when you play a great schedule. That's normally what happens."
Austin Hollins and Andre Hollins will each try to pace Minnesota after Austin scored 18 points on Thursday and Andre has scored 18 or more points in five or six career matchups against Wisconsin.
Minnesota and Wisconsin tip off as part of the Big 10 tournament tonight in Indianapolis.
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