Badgers success means big money to Bo Ryan

University of Wisconsin men's basketball coach Bo Ryan has earned $100,000 in NCAA tournament incentives and could earn an additional $200,000 if the Badgers win a national title, according to a report in USA Today.

Ryan's contract called for him to get $50,000 if UW advanced to the NCAA tournament and an additional $50,000 if the Badgers reached the Sweet 16. He'll get $50,000 if the Badgers advance to the Final Four, an extra $100,000 if they reach the title game and an extra $50,000 if they win it all.

Ryan, who is UW's all-time winningest coach and has led the Badgers to five Sweet 16 appearances in 11 seasons, received a raise last fall that pushed his annual compensation package past the $2 million mark. The deal included $1.675 million from private gift funds at the UW Foundation earmarked by donors specifically for athletics and a base salary of $436,364 from UW athletics, giving Ryan an annual package worth $2,111,364. His contract runs through May 30, 2016, and the amount from the foundation increases $25,000 each year.I would love to see Bucky go all the way to the Final Four.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Badgers getting ready for the tournament

Greg Gard sounded more like a traffic cop than the associate head coach for the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team earlier this week when he explained what the Badgers need to do on offense to be efficient and avoid scoring droughts.

"You've got to know how to drive the speed limit," Gard said. "Drive 65 in a 65 — not 90, and not 40. So you've got to find where to set the cruise control at."

Too often this season, UW has found itself stopped at a red light for what seems like an eternity. The clock ticks away, yet the Badgers' point total remains the same.

Those slumps may ultimately be what keep the Badgers from making an extended run in the NCAA tournament. In other words, one drought and fourth-seeded UW (24-9), which opens against 13th-seeded Montana (25-6) on Thursday afternoon at The Pit, might be out.

"We've got to try to avoid those situations as best we can," sophomore guard Josh Gasser said. "Because if they happen, unfortunately we don't get another chance to play."

There's no universal definition of what constitutes a drought, but UW fans certainly know it when they see it.

Three times in Saturday's 65-52 loss to Michigan State in a Big Ten Conference tournament semifinal, the Badgers went at least five possessions without scoring. One stretch lasted nine possessions and 7 minutes, 49 seconds; another lasted seven possessions and 4:57.

UW had at least one stretch of five or more possessions without a point in 16 of the 20 games it played this season against Big Ten opponents. The longest, in the first half at Penn State on Jan. 31, covered nine possessions and 9:04. Remarkably, UW found a way to win that game.

If fans think stretches like those are tough to watch, imagine being one of the Badgers trying to find a way to make the light turn green.

"You can feel it," UW senior Jordan Taylor, "so it's just a matter of trying to keep the other team on their heels and make them make decisions."

No drought is the same, either. Some have been caused by the Badgers, a team filled with streaky shooters, going cold from 3-point range.

In Saturday's game against Michigan State, Gard noted sloppy play and poor shot selection had a lot to do with the 7:49 drought that came after UW had used a 13-0 run to pull within 46-40 with 12:17 remaining in the game.

During the nine possessions that followed that spurt, UW had three turnovers and missed four times from 3-point range. Three of those misses were by junior forward Ryan Evans, who entered the game shooting 19.2 percent from beyond the arc.

UW's offense is at its best when players are moving without the ball and making hard cuts through the lane. On the flip side, the Badgers are at their worst when the offense goes stagnant and there's a lot of standing around as they pass the ball around the perimeter.

Dissect the Badgers' worst droughts this season and one finds much more of the latter than the former.

"You still have to be aggressive, and I think this group has done a good job of growing in that area, of being smart, being efficient but still staying aggressive," Gard said. "We've become better at that, I think more consistent with that.

"If you become too cautious, then you start to play hesitant, then you become passive, then you stand around and become stagnant. If you become too aggressive, then you end up charging, turn the ball over."

Both Taylor and Gasser said the Badgers need to do a better job of finding ways to get easy baskets to break the ice. UW doesn't push the ball up the floor very often, but that's one way to break out of a scoring rut.

Most of all, UW needs to be mentally tough during slumps and not let the previous possessions affect the current one.

"We can score the ball," UW senior swingman Rob Wilson said. "But when those droughts come, when it's 1, 2 minutes, we've got to pick it up and not let our last shot affect our next shot."

Gard admitted the Badgers don't have a large margin for error to begin with because of their style of play. This time of year, that margin gets even smaller.

"There's not a lot of mulligans that you can pull out of your pocket," he said. "You have to cash in any time you can. So you can't waste opportunities."

I sure hope the Badgers can make it to the sweet sixteen.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Badgers gearing up for March

Head coach Bo Ryan has been in the business of college basketball for a long time. That’s why when a reporter tried to ask if he had any regrets about losing out on a share of the Big Ten regular season title, Ryan didn’t even let him finish the question.

“I’ve been around a little too long for that, I don’t do that woulda, coulda, shoulda stuff,” Ryan said. “I like my guys and I like what they did this year.”

Outsiders to the program might remind Ryan had it not been for two losses to a sub-par Iowa team then No. 15 Wisconsin would have won the conference title outright, which would have been his sixth title as head coach of Wisconsin. However, the headman of the Badgers sees this season’s conference campaign from a different perspective.

“You know how lucky we were to steal those games from Illinois, Purdue, and overtime at Minnesota?” Ryan said. “If we hadn’t won those games we would have finished in seventh or eighth place.”

There is also something to be said for the difficulty of the conference as three teams tied for a share of the conference title, one of which being No. 13 Michigan who won a Big Ten title in men’s basketball for the first time in school history since 1988. Between Michigan, No. 7 Ohio State and No. 8 Michigan State, Bo Ryan’s bunch only went a collective 1-4 against the champions of the conference. With close losses to Michigan State and Ohio State at home, it is more than fair to say that the Badgers finished where they deserved to in the final standings.

“Obviously there wasn’t just a dominant team this year that just dominated everyone else,” Ryan said. “The league is pretty tough and I think that was proven this year.”

If there are any regrets about the season Ryan certainly doesn’t want to hear it from anyone. Especially now that the Badgers are entering into the Big Ten Tournament, which marks the beginning of the wildest and most unpredictable month in sports affectionately known as “March Madness.” At this point in the year it is not always the most talented teams, but usually the team that is playing the best basketball that ends up taking home the hardware.

“How about you had gallons and gallons of Gatorade and every time someone said ‘hot’ you had to take a drink,” Ryan added. “Could you imagine how bloated you would be?”

Though “hot” tends to become an overused word when it comes to postseason play in college basketball, ultimately it is the only quality that matters in March. Even if Ryan doesn’t like to use the word, it may be exactly what describes his scrappy group as they head into March. The Badgers have won three straight and 12 of their last 15 games, one of which came on the road against then-No. 9 Ohio State which was the first time in decades that a Wisconsin men’s basketball team had beaten a top ten team away from Madison.

“Tell me something better? It’s still a great sport and a great game. At this time of [March Madness] is all people want to talk about. At all levels,” Ryan added.

Either way a person looks at it the time for second-guessing is over, as hesitation and dwelling on the past will only earn a team a one-way ticket back home. The do or die nature of college basketball in March is something that captivates the nation, and this year Bo Ryan just might have the team to make a deep run. In many ways this year’s group is the true embodiment of the word team, as the Badgers have been able to bridge talent with suffocating defense and impressive mental toughness.

“With how hard they’ve worked on defense and how much they’ve accomplished given what they had, this group is good,” Ryan said. “Anyone who doesn’t know that doesn’t know basketball, trust me.”

It would be awesome if the Badgers could win the Big Ten tournament.   GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Badgers play at Iowa tonight

The No. 16/15 Wisconsin men’s basketball team (9-5 Big Ten, 20-7 overall) looks to get an important road win against Iowa (6-8, 14-13) in Iowa City on Thursday.

Although Iowa delivered the Badgers a shocking defeat at the Kohl Center at the end of December, no one considers it a revenge game.

“They exposed us a little bit. We obviously didn’t play our best game when they came down here and it kind of set the tone for the Big Ten that we didn’t want, obviously,” sophomore guard Josh Gasser said. “We think we’re back on track here and ready to go. We’ll take it to them again. I wouldn’t say revenge, but we’re playing to get a win.”

Though the Badgers will not call it a revenge game, they will certainly want to play better against the Hawkeyes this time around.

In their loss earlier this year to the Hawkeyes, the Badgers gave up a season-high 72 points, including 14 points off the fast break. The Badgers also struggled on the offensive side of the ball, turning in one of their worst shooting performances of the year.

Wisconsin shot just 35 percent from the field and missed 25 of their 28 three-point attempts. Missing those outside shots not only hurt Wisconsin’s shooting percentage, but exacerbated the Badgers’ troubles in transition as well by allowing the Hawkeyes to grab the long rebounds and run.

A game with an up-and-down pace that the Hawkeyes like to play does not suit Wisconsin’s slug-it-out style, so it will be very important for the Badgers to slow the pace down this time.

One way to stop the Hawkeyes from getting in transition is by making shots. In order to do that, the Badgers must find an inside presence that has been somewhat absent in their last two games. In those games, Wisconsin was outscored by the Spartans and Nittany Lions in the paint by a combined 42 points.

“We’ve got to work the ball in the post a little bit more. I think we’ve got to establish a strong inside game, especially with [junior center] Jared [Berggren],” junior forward Mike Bruesewitz said. “I think we’ve got to get him back going on the block because he can be really dominant down there.”

Getting the ball in the paint also gives the Badgers more free-throw attempts, slowing down the Hawkeyes’ transition game even further.

“Getting to the line obviously slows them down. It just changes the pace of the game,” Bruesewitz said. “It kind of makes the tempo more of what we want it to be, a little more of a ground-it-out game than trying to get it up-and-down and run with those guys.”

Thursday’s game could be a big one for Wisconsin’s momentum and possible NCAA Tournament seeding moving forward. If the Badgers are able to slow down Iowa and get a road win in a tough environment like Iowa City, it could give them a boost of confidence they could use when they visit Columbus, Ohio. to battle the Buckeyes on Sunday.

Thursday’s showdown with the Hawkeyes is scheduled for 8 p.m. at Carver-Hawkeye Arena and can be seen on ESPN2.

Let's hope Bucky wins so they help themselves with tournament seeding.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Badgers beat Gophers in OT

The No. 21/22 Wisconsin men's basketball team (8-4 Big Ten, 19-6 overall) rebounded from its most recent loss against Ohio State, albeit not easily, as it defeated Minnesota (5-7, 17-8) in the 190th meeting of the Border Battle Thursday night, 68-61 in overtime. This was the Badgers' first win at The Barn since 2008.

"I'd be lying if I said this didn't mean a lot," senior guard Jordan Taylor said. "I'm elated to get a win here [at Minnesota]."

In sports, the saying goes that when one has an opponent down they have to step on their throat and finish them, but the Badgers were unable to do this to the Gophers. The Badgers led comfortably for most of the second half, even leading 49-36 with just under nine minutes left. But there is a reason they call it a rivalry. With the Badgers unable to deal the final blow, Minnesota got on a 15-2 run to tie the game with 1:02 to go. There was no scoring from that point on and the game was forced to overtime.

In the overtime period Wisconsin's nine-minute scoring drought was finally broken by a pair of free throws from sophomore guard Josh Gasser to put the Badgers up by two. Junior forward Ryan Evans then stepped up, hitting a jumper and a pair of free throws to put the Badgers back up by six. The Badgers continued to make their free throws down the stretch to finally vanquish their arch-rival.

The star for Wisconsin was a man who hails from the Land of 10,000 Lakes, senior guard Jordan Taylor. What a homecoming it was for Taylor as he was unstoppable in the first half, making 5-6 shots including 4-4 from three to score 14 points. Although he cooled off in the second half and overtime, he still finished with a game-high 27 points.

Evans also had a big game for the Badgers, posting a double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Evans was clutch in the overtime period, leading the Badgers with six points in the extra session.

One of the big reasons for the Badgers' disappointing loss to the Buckeyes on Saturday was their inability to hit the three-point shot, shooting only 5-26 on the day.

This was definitely not the case against Minnesota as the Badgers made nine threes and made more threes in the first half against the Gophers, seven, than they did against Ohio State. This quality three-point performance makes perfect sense if you look at the Badgers' season numbers. The Badgers came into this game shooting 40 percent from three on the road, but only 23 percent at home.

A big reason for this great shooting performance was the unselfish passing the Badgers displayed. Wisconsin found open man after open man, assisting on 13 of their 19 made baskets.

Wisconsin started the game off on fire, making five of their first six shots. Wisconsin then went on a 0-6 cold streak, however, that lasted over six minutes and found them down by two. But Taylor stepped up for the Badgers and propelled the team to a six-point lead by scoring eight straight Badger points. The Badgers would continue the momentum from there, taking a 32-24 lead into halftime.

The team that Wisconsin fans dread to see reappeared once again late in the game as the Badgers went on one of their patented cold stretches and shot 28 percent in the second half.

The leading scorers for the Golden Gophers were freshman guard Andre Hollins with 20 and junior forward Rodney Williams with 16 points.

The Badgers will now have a week to gear up for another Big Ten road showdown against Michigan State next Thursday.

It is good to see the Badgers are living up to the hype.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Badgers Beat Penn State

The Wisconsin men's basketball team (7-3 Big Ten, 18-5 overall) got its sixth straight win Tuesday night and now stand alone in second place in the Big Ten, but it did not come as easy as maybe one would have suspected against a 12-loss Penn State team.

Penn State came out like a team with nothing to lose in the first half, giving the Badgers all they could handle and taking a 23-17 lead into halftime.

Despite taking the Badgers' best shot, Penn State would not go down without a fight. Leading the charge for the Lions in the second half was junior guard Tim Frazier. The Big Ten's second-leading scorer answered every time it looked like the Badgers were going to pull away, scoring 17 of his game-high 21 in the second half.

With the Wisconsin lead cut down to 40-38, senior guard Jordan Taylor once again stepped up for the Badgers and hit a big three to put the Badgers back up by five. Taylor and the rest of the Badgers hit their free throws down the stretch and Badgers were able to hold on for a 52-46 win.

Taylor finished with a team-high 18 points, with most of them coming in crunch time as he scored 13 of the Badgers last 16 points.

The Badgers' shooting woes reared their ugly head once again in the first half of the game as the Badgers missed 19 of their first 26 shots, including nine of their first 11 three-pointers. Reliance on the outside shot combined with anemic shooting kept the Badgers in single digits for the first 16 minutes of the game.

Penn State on the other hand exploited the normally sound Badger defense in the first half, shooting 46 percent from the field.

Penn State also dominated Wisconsin on the glass as the Nittany Lions outrebounded the Badgers by seven in the first half.

The leading scorer for Penn State in the first half was sophomore guard Jermaine Marshall, scoring 10 points on 5-7 shooting.

Wisconsin turned things around in the second half by making an early emphasis to get the ball inside. By pounding the paint, the Badgers got easy inside shots and regained the lead. Junior center Jared Berggren and junior forward Ryan Evans were instrumental in the Badger comeback, scoring Wisconsin's first 10 second-half points.

The Badgers also shot the ball much better in the second half overall, making 10 of their 22 second-half shots.

Wisconsin returned to form defensively as well, holding Penn State to 7-of-26 shooting.

The Badgers will now gear up for a showdown at the Kohl Center with Big Ten leader Ohio State at 1:00p.m. Saturday. If the Badgers are able to win this game, they will take the outright lead in the Big Ten standings.

One thing is for certain, the Badgers will have to be much more consistent offensively and defensively if they are going to have any chance of beating a team with as much offensive firepower as the Buckeyes.  

Let's hope the Badgers can go on a roll when tournament time comes around.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Badger Basketball is picking up

Just two weeks ago it appeared the Wisconsin men’s basketball team’s (5-3 Big Ten, 16-5 overall) season was headed for disaster. With three straight losses, including a rare stretch of back-to-back home losses the Badger’s streak of 12 consecutive NCAA tournament births was in jeopardy. Fast forward just sixteen days later and Wisconsin suddenly finds itself only a half game out of first place in the conference after an impressive four-game Big Ten winning streak.

“So much of the schedule is who you play, when you play, who you played before, how many days off you get,” head coach Bo Ryan said.

Indeed the fickle nature of college basketball scheduling can sometimes either emphasize the struggles of a team, causing a team to quickly pile up loses, or trigger a win streak in a similar stretch if a team is hot.

“Because of the popularity and media coverage of college basketball, no sport is as controlled as college basketball,” Ryan said.  “Some weeks you could be playing on Monday-Tuesday, or Tuesday-Thursday, Thursday-Sunday, or you could have nine days off.”

Right now the schedule is working for the Badgers, as a combination of hot shooting and improved defense has allowed Ryan’s group to pull out a string of quality conference wins, including impressive road wins over Purdue (4-3, 14-6) and Illinois (4-3, 15-5).

“Anytime you have an object that you are trying to put in a target, you will have some nights that are better than others,” Ryan said. “In basketball you have the defensive end, which can allow you to fight through slumps and give you a chance to win.”

Improved quality and consistency from All-American senior point guard Jordan Taylor has elevated the Badger’s play during the win streak. During conference play, Taylor has taken more control of the offense, which at different points has yielded mixed results. During the four-game winning streak, Taylor’s play has brought the team out of shooting slumps and has kept them in close games.

“Jordan is always going to find a way to make the team more successful; which is what all players will do. It’s just he’s better at it,” Ryan said.

The Badgers look to continue their streak this week against No. 17 Indiana (4-4, 16-4) who come in as a surprising contender for the Big Ten title after finishing in the conference’s bottom tier for two consecutive seasons. After posting wins against the likes of No. 1 Kentucky and No. 2 Ohio State, the first time in Indiana’s prestigious basketball history that the basketball team beat a No. 1 and a No. 2 team in the same season, many are projecting Indiana to make a run deep into March. The credit goes to Indiana head coach Tom Crean, who has been able to attract talent back to Indiana with the likes of freshmen forward sensation Cody Zeller (15.1 ppg, 6.4 rpg). Combining young talent with the veteran presence that has learned Crean’s system has gotten the Hoosiers back into college basketball’s elite programs.

“There’s a lot of the same players, they have the experience and have played in the toughest environments,” Ryan said. “90 percent of [Indiana] players have been there for a long time. Everyone in the conference expected them to be good this year.”

Finding a way to contain Zeller will be key for Wisconsin. In addition, limiting Indiana offensively as a team will be key, as the Hoosiers shoot 50 percent from the field, which is sixth in the nation. The Badgers are up for the challenge, as they lead the conference in opponent field goal percentage. Wisconsin has been especially stifling from behind the arc, as it is allowing opponents to only shoot 26 percent from three-point range.

“There are a lot of things that go into that. Like other teams we look at a scouting report and try to stay consistent with our roles,” Ryan said. “There’s no magic formula, just a lot of hard work from our players who try to limit our opponent’s looks.”

Let's hope the Badgers can return to the NCAA tournament and make some waves.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Badgers out of NCAA Tournament

In the Badgers first two possessions Thursday night, what seemed like reason for optimism actually served as a grim foreshadowing of what was to come.

On each of UW's first two trips, Wisconsin worked the ball into the post and got good looks from senior forward Jon Leuer. He missed each, but usually going inside ensures some level of consistency.

Not on this night.

Wisconsin fell behind early and looked flustered throughout. It was a bad shooting night from its two top scorers until late in the second half, but Butler opened up a commanding lead and held on late to top UW 61-54 and end the Badgers' season.

The Bulldogs will face Florida Saturday night for a trip to the Final Four. 

Wisconsin caught fire late and trimmed what was a 20-point gap to just four with 1:38 remaining when junior guard Jordan Taylor hit a three. The junior finished the night with 22 points on 6-19 shooting (3-10 three-point attempts).

However, before the late-game frenzy, UW's offense was lethargic at best.  

Leuer frequently caught the ball in the post, but where the First Team All-Big Ten performer usually converts on a near-automatic basis, he found unfriendly results with Butler.

The Orono, Minn. native finished the game with an ugly 1-12 mark from the field (1-6 on three-point attempts) and three points.

"Overall, if you look at a shot chart, I like most of the shots we got," Ryan said. "At some point, you just have to make some of them."

Leuer certainly was not alone in his struggles, though.

In one stretch that spanned the final portion of the first half and beginning of the second half, Wisconsin went 10:05 without a field goal.

"We touched the ball in the post four out of five times [to start the second half] and came up with nothing," Ryan said.

Junior point guard Jordan Taylor—who struggled shooting in a 2-of-16 performance last Saturday against Kansas State—added carelessness with the basketball to shooting woes against Butler.

The point guard, despite his astounding numbers when it comes to protecting the ball—he entered the game leading the NCAA in assist-to-turnover ratio at 4.18—was credited with two turnovers in the first half and generally forced the issue on the offensive end.

"We made [poor] plays that are uncharacteristic of how we play," Leuer said. "We tried to force some things offensively … and just did some things [we] normally don't."

Butler capitalized nearly every time UW stumbled and led 33-24 at the half, largely because the Bulldogs outscored UW 15-1 in points off turnovers.

As uncharacteristic as the cough-ups were for Taylor, he also missed four free throws in the first half. Coming into the season, Taylor converted his free throws at an 85 percent clip.

The junior finished the night with 22 points on 6-19 shooting.

The Bulldogs got exceptional play from senior forward Matt Howard, who finished with 20 points. In addition to scoring, he grabbed 12 big rebounds (three offensive) and seemed to track down the ball whenever the situation required it. Howard scored inside and outside and aptly closed out on Wisconsin shooters like senior forward Keaton Nankivil, who scored nine points in his final game as a Badger.

"We just needed to put a few more minutes together here tonight so we could keep dancing," Ryan said. "Unfortunately, the music stopped playing."

As a team, UW shot just 30.4 percent from the field (17-56) and 24.1 percent from beyond the arc (7-29)

The Badgers exceeded expectations this whole this season. Needless to say, though, Thursday's performance fell short.

Let's hope that next year they can go farther.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Badgers advance to Sweet 16

Having to come from behind yet again, the Badgers looked very much at home in erasing a six-point deficit over the final eight minutes to grab a 70-65 win over Kansas State (23-11).

In order to move on to the Sweet 16 next weekend in New Orleans, UW (25-8) had to overcome a poor shooting night for junior guard Jordan Taylor (2-of-16 from the field) while also matching the points that Kansas State senior guard Jacob Pullen put up on seemingly every possession. Pullen finished with 38, but the loss means that his career performance will also be his last in a Wildcat uniform.

Though Pullen clearly came out victorious in what many media types had billed "Jacob vs. Jordan," Jordan will be the one in uniform for Thursday's regional semifinal.

"The scoreboard on the bottom of the TV doesn't say Jordan vs. Jacob," Taylor said after the game. "It says Wisconsin vs. Kansas State, and we won."

With Taylor unable to get going on the offensive end, it was up to the supporting cast to keep the Badgers' season alive.

Senior forward Tim Jarmusz had eight points on 3-3 shooting. Freshman guard Josh Gasser collected 11 points on 3-4 shooting from the field, adding seven rebounds and four free throws in the process, the last two of those icing the game with 1.1 seconds to play.

"We just made plays," senior forward Jon Leuer said. "Everybody stepped up, right down the line."

But perhaps the biggest contribution came from sophomore forward Mike Bruesewitz. No longer known simply as the team redhead, the hero of the Feb. 12 victory over No. 1 Ohio State came through again. In only his second game since suffering what, at the time, appeared to be a serious knee injury in the Big Ten Tournament, Bruesewitz gave UW 11 points and six rebounds. None of those points were bigger than the three that came with just over 90 seconds to play, giving the Badgers the lead for good.

"He's done it against Ohio State and he did it again tonight," Taylor said. "He's one of the toughest kids I've known and he's a heck of a teammate."

After relying on the production of Taylor and Leuer for much of the season, the supporting cast seems to have found its footing just in time for a tournament run. Ultimately, the 15 bench points, not to mention the 19 from Gasser and Jarmusz, proved to be the difference with UW's two first team All-Big Ten performers just 8-of-26 combined from the field.

"I think guys are realizing that we need to be confident," Bruesewitz said. "Confidence is a big thing in March."

While the shooting stats seem to indicate a night of frustration for Taylor, he was able to control possession throughout the game and make plays down the stretch that were crucial in getting UW out on the left side of the scoreboard.

"His 6-to-0 assist to turnover ratio says that he stayed focused when he was having a rough time scoring," UW head coach Bo Ryan said. "He's a taskmaster of his own skills and his own abilities and he's not going to throw the rest of it away simply because some things have gotten away from him."

Taylor controlled the Wisconsin offensive and kept his leadership role, eventually making a big play of his own by blocking Pullen's attempt at a game-tying three-point shot.

"I was just trying to do something to slow him down and play my part in the win," Taylor said. "And that happened to be it."

Despite some who have criticized Wisconsin's style for its lack of excitement, the Badgers are in the Sweet 16 and remain alive for a title run.

"We come out and play hard every day," Taylor said. "If people think we're boring, there are a lot of channels on TV they can watch."

"We just try to be on the left-hand side when the buzzer sounds," Ryan said.

Ultimately, the Badgers did just that in both games in Tucson and earned their way into a regional date in New Orleans against No. 8-seed Butler Thursday.

It sure would be nice if the Badgers can make to the Final Four.  GO BUCKY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!