While national pundits focus on the success of the Indiana Hoosiers and Ohio State Buckeyes, most people have forgotten about the Wisconsin Badgers.
Or if they do remember, there is doubt that the Badgers can continue their success.
With this current team of Badgers, consisting of only two seniors, the more people doubt them, the more the players turn inward to find their resolve.
Coming home from a two-game road trip with losses against Northwestern and Michigan, it seemed that the magic carpet ride that was Wisconsin's Big Ten season was about to come to an end.
With games against Big Ten frontrunner Ohio State and the aforementioned Wildcats, Wisconsin's goals for a place in the upper division of the conference seemed to be fading away.
Evidently, someone forgot to say anything to the Badgers.
Prior to UW's 73-44 victory over the Northwestern Wildcats, the Badgers had a major challenge in the senior-laden Buckeyes. With a big overtime victory against Ohio State, UW now has four wins against teams ranked in the Top-25 this season. (Are you reading this, NCAA selection committee?)
Perhaps the best reason for the success of the Badgers are UW's five players: senior forward Charlie Wills, junior guard Kirk Penney, sophomore Freddie Owens and freshmen Mike Wilkinson and Devin Harris, who can all score in double figures on any given night, with the most recent example being Saturday night.
Wills likes what the balance forces opposing defenses to do.
\It always helps; you can't focus on one or two guys,"" Wills said. ""It definitely helps each one of us out.""
The potential of these five players was not lost on Carmody as he stated earlier in the week.
""What impresses me most about Wisconsin is that they have a lot of different guys who can score for them,"" Carmody said. ""Penney is a guy you have to always be aware of, they have the two freshmen [Wilkinson and Harris] who can really score and Wills gets his points.""
While the Badgers are not above the Buckeyes and Hoosiers in the conference standings, they do hold a unique spot in the collegiate sports world this year.
Wisconsin might very well be the most interesting and yet underappreciated team and phenomenon in an otherwise down year for the Big Ten.
Carmody himself had some very high praise for the Badgers.
""This team, Wisconsin, is the story of the Big Ten this year,"" Carmody said.
