The Badgers started their Big Ten season with a win over Purdue and that is just how they would like to finish it. They play host to the Boilermakers Saturday in a game with more subplots than an episode of Desperate Housewives-none as scandalous, but all surrounded by intrigue.
Wisconsin sits at 19-7 overall and 10-5 in the Big Ten (good for 3rd in the conference) but will likely need an impressive run in the conference tournament to impress the NCAA Selection Committee far more than they will need a win on Saturday. However, a victory would grant the Badgers the instantly hallowed \20-win season"" and an indisputable position in the nation's Top 25 heading into the postseason. While this may sound important, tournament positioning will seem momentarily unimportant when the buzzer sounds-the end of regulation will be the end of the regular season. More to the point, it will mark the end of five playing careers, and close the final chapter in one coaching legend's book.
Senior forwards Mike Wilkinson, Zach Morley, Andreas Helmigk, guards Sharif Chambliss and Claton Hanson will take the floor for the last time in their silky white duds while Purdue head coach Gene Keady will make his last visit to Madison as the sideline skipper, after 25 years at the helm.
When asked if there were any particular emotions he was experiencing considering the fact he was about to play his final game at the Kohl Center, Wilkinson employed an answer as focused as it was predictable.
""You know I hadn't really thought about it,"" he said. ""There's too much to play for to be thinking like that.""
Always reluctant to give a scouting report of the upcoming opponent or acknowledge an emotional aspect to the game ahead, head coach Bo Ryan did what his player's stubborn humility would never allow-he took some time, in his own way-to thank his five seniors for the uncommon and often unsung sacrifices they had made over the years for the basketball program at UW. Ryan made a point that his five graduating players are as unique a group of seniors as one can find.
Chambliss left a scholarship at Penn State to come play for Ryan, agreeing to pay his tuition to do it. Similarly, Hanson turned down a scholarship to walk on at Wisconsin. Morley went to junior college to perfect his skills in order to one day compete at the Division I level and Helmigk left his home country of Austria for the same opportunity.
Finally, there is coach Keady, about whom Ryan speaks with a subtle but unmistakable admiration.
""He's a professional,"" Ryan said. ""He promotes the game; he lives the game-squeezes in a little golf.""
Following Ryan's brief homage to one of the finest coaches in Big Ten history, he was asked about the engraved set of golf clubs he and his assistant coaches were planning to present Keady with as a token of their appreciation for everything he had done for Purdue, the Big Ten and the game of basketball. Ryan captured Keady's legacy-roaming the sidelines with intensity that rivaled the legendary Bobby Knight's-with an appreciative wisecrack.
""We're going to take [the clubs)]away from him so he can't have them during the game.""
