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.”