Five Things to Know: Illinois

Wednesday, January 23

Urbana-Champaign, IL

8 PM

Wisconsin Badgers

Illinois

Khalil Iverson and the Wisconsin bench react to a play during a game against Michigan

Photo by: Darren Lee

January 23, 2019 | Men's Basketball

Badgers head back on the road for game against Illini

Wisconsin

12-6, 4-3

Illinois

5-13, 1-6

Game Coverage

Jan. 23 | 8 p.m. | State Farm Center | Champaign, Ill.

MADISON, Wis. — Winners in four of its last five Big Ten road games, Wisconsin travels to Illinois for a game on Wednesday. The Badgers have won 13 straight over the Illini.

Up next, UW hosts Northwestern on Saturday. The Badgers are 14-3 all-time against the Wildcats at the Kohl Center.

1. 'NET' GAINS: Wisconsin checked in at No. 17 in Monday's NET rankings. The Badgers are one of just four schools with at least five Quadrant 1 wins this season. UW has played the fifth-toughest schedule in the NCAA (per ESPN's BPI) and only Penn State (10) has played more Quadrant 1 games than Wisconsin (9).

2. TOP-5 TAKEDOWNS: With Saturday's win over No. 2 Michigan, Greg Gard has now led the Badgers to four top-five wins (and seven top-10 wins) in his four seasons at the helm. That's the most in the Big Ten during that span.

3. GETTING DEFENSIVE: Wisconsin is ranked ninth in defensive efficiency according to KenPom.com. The Badgers are allowing 63.1 points per game and rank fourth in the NCAA with just 9.7 turnovers per game.

4. RISING REUVERS: Sophomore Nate Reuvers tallied career highs of 18 points and seven rebounds last week at Maryland. He has scored in double figures in six of the last 10 games for UW.

5. HISTORY HAPP-ENING: Senior Ethan Happ is three points shy of becoming just the sixth player in Big Ten history, and the first since Indian's Alan Henderson in 1995, to accumulate 1,900 career points and 1,000 career rebounds.

For more information, check out the full preview of Saturday's game.