And now comes the time to gauge the best of Bo's boys.
Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan has coached at Wisconsin for eight seasons, and in that time has seen many talented players don the cardinal and white. Here is a look at the five best Badgers to ever suit up for Bo's team.
No.5 Marcus Landry: Call him the best of the rest. Landry provided defense and shot-blocking along with inside-outside scoring skills during his four-year stay in Madison.
Despite Landry's contributions as a good rotation player and a team leader in his final season, there is a big gap between Bo's fourth and fifth best players.
No.4 Kirk Penney: Only played two seasons under Ryan but in those years he was special. Penney was ideally suited for the swing offense, as he could attack other guards in the post or pull up and drop in buckets from long range.
Furthermore, he was Wisconsin's top scorer during both seasons he played under Ryan, earning all-conference honors both years and even All-American recognition as a senior. Those two seasons also ended in the Badgers' first league titles in a half-century.
No.3 Mike Wilkinson: Although he was never the top player on a Badger team, Wilkinson was the epitome of consistency and the development that Bo's players usually have. He was by far the best rebounder in Bo's tenure, and by the end of his career became a smart, pesky defender who overcame his physical limitation.
And then there was his offense.
Wilkinson stood at just over 6'8"" and had an array of post moves, a good face up game and could hit 3-pointers as well as any big man under Ryan's tutelage. He ranks this high since he was one of the best players on Wisconsin's winning teams, getting to both a Sweet 16 and an Elite Eight.
No.2 Devin Harris: Ryan never had a player more talented than Harris. He started as a freshman and became a force in the league.
Harris could score any way you wanted: jumper, using his speed to blow by opponents, or even unleashing a drop step out of the post which few guards could stop. He put together his most complete season as a junior in 2004, earning the conference MVP while scoring 19.5 points per game and handing out 4.4 assists, still the most for any of Ryan's Wisconsin players.
Only two things keep him from the top spot. One is the fact that he couldn't lead Wisconsin to the Sweet 16 in 2004, despite playing the first two rounds in Milwaukee, and the other is that he left after his junior season, creating the tantalizing thought that with him Wisconsin could have beaten UNC and gone to the Final Four in 2005.
No.1 Alando Tucker: Wisconsin's all-time leading scorer presents a fascinating conundrum. There was so much success, so many great plays and yet something so off about it.
Throughout Tucker's career, his game radically shifted away from the basket and thus, away from his strengths. As a freshman he was an energetic, short (6'4"") power forward who once pulled down 18 rebounds in a game. The next season he was the team's top scorer and was considered an excellent post defender.
In the next two years he became more of a wing, driving more and taking more 3-pointers, which he did not do exceptionally well. So much of his scoring came on difficult shots that when, they didn't fall, he had some bad games.
Tucker's resume, however, overcomes most of that.
He was clearly the best player on the Elite Eight team. He was a two-time conference scoring champion and Big Ten Player of the Year in 2007. His inside-outside scoring skills made him perfect for Bo's offense and ultimately the best of Ryan's players.
Do you believe Greg Stiemsma or Boo Wade could have been better than anyone on this list? Share that with Ben at breiner@wisc.edu.
