EVANSTON, Ill. - As a sea of red covered Welsh-Ryan Arena and shouts of Big Ten Champs"" drowned out the faint whimpers of ""Let's go Cats,"" it was clear this Saturday in March would not be remembered as Senior Day for the Northwestern Wildcats, but as the day the Wisconsin Badgers won another regular season conference championship.
""The first season is over and there's one team that stands alone,"" UW head coach Bo Ryan said. ""And it's the team that's in that locker room.""
""You can tell by how our guys reacted, this is pretty exciting,"" he added.
Although the Badgers received their championship trophy Wednesday night after defeating Penn State to claim at least a share of the title, sophomore guard Jason Bohannon said Saturday's win was also special.
""It was our own,"" Bohannon said. ""We weren't sharing it with two other teams in the Big Ten. It's a big deal for one team to win it outright like that. We haven't done that in a couple years and that meant a lot to us.""
Both senior forward Brian Butch and junior forward Marcus Landry said the team felt it had some unfinished business even after beating PSU.
""We did an excellent job of closing it out,"" Butch said. ""It's a great feeling to be able to close it out like that and to have the Big Ten Championship outright. It speaks volumes of this team as to what we want to do and how far we want to go.""
Wisconsin also won Big Ten regular season crowns in 2001-'02 and 2002-'03 under Ryan. In 2001-'02 the Badgers finished with a record of 11-5 and tied with four other teams for the conference's top spot.
Former UW forward Kirk Penney and current New Jersey Nets point guard Devin Harris led the 2002-'03 squad that won the title outright after defeating Illinois in the final game of the season.
Yet neither of those teams won 16 conference games like this year's team. Nor did they have a Big Ten road record of 8-1 like the 2007-'08 team.
According to most preseason polls and projections, the Badgers were not supposed to finish anywhere near the top of the conference. But game after game, Wisconsin continued to improve.
""I never compare teams,"" Ryan said. ""But ... this team has come as far as any I've ever had.""
Ryan noted how the current Wisconsin players stepped in to replace last season's graduating seniors on both offense and defense.
""Our bigs picked up for Chappell's post defense,"" Ryan said. ""But the scoring definitely had to come from four or five, not two.""
Butch credited the team's chemistry as one of the reasons for its success.
""We all believe in each other,"" Butch said. ""We all care about each other on and off the court. And it's not a fake thing either. It's a unique thing to have.""
According to Ryan, few people outside the state of Indiana were upset by UW's victory.
""I already got a couple e-mails from Jostens [ring company],"" Ryan said. ""Only one team gets rings. They missed out on some business.
