Wisconsin Badgers
* Record: 18-2 (6-1 in Big Ten) * AP ranking: 5 * NCAA RPI: 9 * Best win: 82-50 over then-No. 25 Iowa * Worst loss: 67-62 at Rutgers * Best stat: Most teams are lucky to have one regular making more than 80 percent of his free throws. The Badgers' three top guards -- injured point Traevon Jackson, backup point Bronson Koenig and shooting guard Josh Gasser -- all hit 85.4 percent or better at the foul stripe with Koenig leading at 87.5 percent. * Difference maker: Seven-foot senior Frank Kaminsky not only leads the Badgers in scoring (16.9 ppg), rebounding (8.2) and blocked shots (1.8), but he's also tops in 3-point percentage (.401) and steals (19). Easily the country's most versatile big. * Reason to doubt: Despite winning by 18.5 ppg (currently sixth best nationally), the Badgers are without Jackson until at least the last half of February because of a foot injury. As good as Koenig is, if Jackson is less than 100 percent come March, the Badgers could struggle against quick, deep backcourts. * Will be trendy in Indy at the Final Four if ... Jackson fully recovers, the shooting defense improves (the Badgers are surrendering 40 percent from the floor) and the NCAA draw doesn't pit them against a physical, fast defense that makes them play quicker than they wish. * Prediction: Elite Eight * Coachspeak: "Watching Wisconsin on tape is ... you don't know what you're getting into until you get here. It's a heck of a basketball team. Just the way they play, I'm looking around here to find a weakness, and I'm not sure I can find anything." -- Boise State's Leon Rice after a 78-54 loss to Badgers
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga junior wing Casey Jones had just scored two of the 12 points he would total at nationally ranked Wisconsin last November when Badgers forward Sam Dekker decided to say something to him.
This is normally the moment when tempers flair, tensions rise, the concept of sportsmanship is challenged.
Not so with Dekker's remark.
"He said, 'Good shot,'" Jones recalled Monday of that 89-45 loss. "They were all really nice guys. We've played other big-time teams who were nice -- UCLA, Kansas. But Wisconsin takes the cake. They're the friendliest guys we've played."
Don't be surprised if these nice guys finish first in the NCAA tournament. Ranked fifth in the newest Associated Press poll, the Badgers look more than capable of winning two more tourney games than they did a year ago, when they lost a Final Four semifinal heartbreaker to Kentucky on a 3-pointer with less than six seconds to play.
"That's why I came back to Wisconsin for my senior year, to win basketball games," 7-foot post player Frank Kaminsky told the Big Ten's media in October.
"To be so close last year and not come away with a national title gives us a sour taste in our mouth. ... We've got a chip on our shoulders. We want to get back to there."
That goal looked easily attainable before Jan. 11. But then senior guard Traevon Jackson (former NBA star Jimmy Jackson's son) injured his foot in a stunning loss at Rutgers, and coach Bo Ryan had to rebuild the Badgers around sophomore point Bronson Koenig.
Wisconsin (18-2, 6-1) hasn't lost since, but the Badgers had to go to overtime to win at injury-depleted Michigan on Saturday and they've yet to face conference toughies Indiana, Ohio State and Michigan State.
But Jackson is due back by late February and UTC coach Will Wade believes the "W" will challenge top-ranked Kentucky, No. 2 Virginia, Duke and at least one dark horse -- "Possibly VCU or Wichita State," Wade noted -- once Jackson is back in the lineup.
"Number one, they never beat themselves," Wade said. "You have to hit tough first shots to beat them, and there are no second shots. It's also tough to shoot over their length. They're longer, more athletic and more physical than you think. They've got as good a chance as anybody to win it all."
If that's true, the advantage starts with Kaminsky, who not only leads the Badgers in scoring (17.2 ppg), rebounds (8.2) and blocked shots (1.7)but is second on the team in assists (2.4).
"He's kind of a big guard," Purdue coach Matt Painter said after a seven-point loss to Wisconsin. "He can dribble, and he's not a one-way driver. He can play in the mid-post, low post; he can play on the perimeter. It's easy to say how to stop him, but it's really hard to do."
It's also hard not to like the big fellow, who began a popular blog last season -- moosebball.blogspot.com -- where, among other things, he said he decided to return for his senior season at least partly because "I know the NBA has crazy fans and all, but ... there are games when teams like the (Charlotte) Bobcats get hardly any fans and it looks flat-out boring."
Of course, he also wrote of another year without a paycheck: "The thought of not being broke anymore was very appealing."
Yet apparently not nearly so appealing as attempting to deliver Wisconsin fans their first NCAA title since 1941.
Kaminsky even is willing to give a backhanded compliment to his coach to explain why the Badgers will be an even tougher out this year than last, telling Sports Illustrated over the weekend: "We're better because we over-prepare for everything."
At least one coach, Buffalo boss Bobby Hurley, the former Duke point guard who owns two NCAA championship rings, believes Wisconsin might be good enough to exact revenge on Kentucky should they meet again during this year's March Madness. And Buffalo has faced both the Wildcats and Badgers this season, losing by 19 at UK and 12 at UW.
"You have two different styles, two different teams," Hurley said last month. "I think Kentucky's defense, of all the basketball I've seen at the college level, is really as good as it gets. But just the skill at a number of positions and the ability to shoot the basketball the way Wisconsin is capable of, it would be an interesting thing to see."
For now, however, Wisconsin foes must worry about Iowa coach Fran McCaffery's assessment of the Badgers after watching Wisconsin commit only one turnover in a 82-50 win over the visiting Hawkeyes without Jackson in the lineup.
"It takes tremendous concentration and effort to beat a team of this caliber, (and) with this much experience," he said. "They're very efficient with their passing and their ball movement, very physical defensively, tough to rebound against. So anything short of complete effort and concentration, you're going to struggle."
But at least they'll behave nicely while they're running you out of the gym.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.