Opponent Snapshot: Wisconsin

Qualification: At-large. 4-seed in East. Advanced with wins over Montana (73-49, Thu.) and Vanderbilt (60-57, Sat.).
RPI: 23. Strength of Schedule: 16. 4-7 vs. RPI top 25, 20-2 outside of that. Two defeats by Iowa defeats are the only losses to come to a team that didn't make the tournament.
Season Review: 26-9/12-6 Big Ten. Seven of nine losses were to ranked teams. Only losses in 12-2 start were back-to-back at North Carolina and against Marquette No shame in that. Dropped three straight near start of conference schedule. Beaten three times by Michigan St., split with Ohio St., swept Indiana.
Common Opponents w/Syracuse: Crushed Colgate (68-41, Nov. 16) and lost to Marquette (61-54, Dec. 3). Syracuse was 2-0 against the Raiders and Golden Eagles.
Key Players: 6-1 SR PG Jordan Taylor averages 14.7 points and 4.0 assists per game. He's been among the national leaders in assist-to-turnover ratio for three seasons, actually dropping off a bit this year to 2.6:1. 6-6 JR F Ryan Evans (11.1 p/g) and 6-10 JR F/C Jared Berggren (10.3 p/g) are the only other players averaging double figures.
Coach: Bo Ryan. 268-100, .728 in 11 seasons at Wisconsin, 28 years overall. One of the game's most highly respected and consistent coaches. Won four Div. III national championships at UW-Platteville.
NCAA History: 25-16, 16-10 under Ryan. In Sweet16 for second straight year and sixth time beginning with 2000.
Strengths:

• Defense, defense and defense. Stingiest team in America, allowing just 52.8 points per game. Wisconsin ranks 8th in field goal percentage defense (42.5) and 7th in 3pt defense (29.0). In 19 games starting Jan. 8, only Michigan St. (69, Feb. 16) and Iowa (67, Feb. 23) have scored more than 63 points against the Badgers.


• One of the ways Wisconsin keeps the opponent from scoring is holding onto the ball. They turn it over nine times per game, second best in the nation.

Weaknesses:

• See above. Wisconsin isn't in a hurry and generally doesn't fill it up. Wisconsin went six weeks without scoring 70, but has in three of its past four games. They've averaged 64.1 points per game.


• Wisconsin ranks 214th of 338 shooting 42.5% from the floor.