With the way the Big Ten season unfolded, all 11 teams in this weekend's conference tournament know that anything can happen. The fact that any game can be won by any team has to be comforting for the Wisconsin men's basketball team, who, despite grabbing the No. 4 seed, will play Indiana, perhaps the hottest team in the Big Ten.
The Badgers (9-7 Big Ten, 19-10 overall) ended the regular season on a slide, losing three of their last four games. Meanwhile, the Hoosiers (9-7, 17-10) ended their season with three straight wins, propelling them back into consideration for an NCAA tournament berth. Indiana knows that a victory over Wisconsin on Friday would help their case.
The Badgers will be looking to put last week behind them and turn around their recent misfortunes.
Everybody is basically starting out 0-0. We're just going to have to shut off the old season and start new,\ junior guard Kammron Taylor said.
Indiana has been riding the back of senior forward Marco Killingsworth all year, but Wisconsin has the confidence of knowing they can stop him as they did last month at the Kohl Center in a 72-54 victory over the Hoosiers.
""I think it was just the hard work that we put forth trying to stop [Killingsworth] from touching the ball,"" freshman forward Kevin Gullikson said. ""We were just working on him, trying to make him tired, and we got him in foul trouble.""
The Badgers will most likely use a similar game plan on Friday with a four-guard lineup constantly helping sophomore forward Brian Butch or junior forward Jason Chappell on Killingsworth. Attacking the Hoosier big man on the offensive end will be a key factor into forcing him into foul trouble again.
Wisconsin cannot look at the February contest for comparison too closely, however, because that meeting occurred during a long Hoosier slide that ultimately led Indiana head coach Mike Davis to announce his resignation, effective at the end of the year. Since that announcement, the Hoosier players have rallied around their coach.
""You have a couple players on that team that say they might leave and go where Mike Davis is going. That just shows how much support he has from his players,"" Taylor said. ""They've come on strong these last couple of weeks in the conference. That's always good to see when the players support the coach like that.""
Another element Wisconsin will be facing is that the tournament is being held in Indianapolis. If the Badgers thought they were getting out of playing a road game against the Hoosiers this season, they were wrong.
The virtual road game does not seem like it will be bothering sophomore center Brian Butch, however, who said after practice, ""Like the ‘Hoosiers' movie, no matter where you go, the court's the same, the hoop's the same height and you just go out there and you play.""
If Wisconsin can squeak by Indiana in the quarterfinals, they are most likely looking at a semifinal match-up against the Big Ten champion Ohio State Buckeyes, who the Badgers split with this season. Looking ahead, however, probably won't help any team, because every player knows that anything can happen in Indianapolis this weekend.
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