MADISON, Wis. — Bo Ryan never outwardly expressed his concerns before the season began about Wisconsin's basketball team, but deep down, he had plenty of cause for apprehension.
Ryan, the Badgers' 11th-year coach, had just two returning starters in Jordan Taylor and Josh Gasser and a ton of unanswered questions. Would the remaining cast be able to grasp his defensive philosophies? Could they score enough to compete consistently? Did they have the toughness to grind through a taxing Big Ten season?
The answers didn't materialize immediately, but Ryan once again discovered his players possessed the familiar traits that made past Wisconsin teams so successful.
Now, the Badgers are back in yet another familiar place: The NCAA tournament.
Wisconsin (24-9) earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament and will play No. 13 seed Montana (25-6) on Thursday in Albuquerque, N.M. in the East Region. The tournament selection committee released its pairings Sunday night.
The Wisconsin/Montana winner will play the No. 5 Vanderbilt/No. 12 Harvard winner on Saturday in the round of 32.
"I'm so happy for our guys because this is a gritty group," Ryan said. "I didn't know we'd be sitting here. Wasn't quite sure at times, and there's not a person in this room that can't agree with what I've just said. So let's see if we can't keep it going."
This year marks the third consecutive season in which the Badgers have earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament. Wisconsin has qualified for 14 straight NCAA tournaments, tied for the fourth-longest active streak in college basketball behind Kansas (23), Duke (17) and Michigan State (15).
For a brief period this season, continuing that streak appeared to be in jeopardy.
Wisconsin lost three straight Big Ten games in late December and early January to Iowa, Michigan State and Michigan, falling to 12-5 overall, 1-3 in the conference and out of the national top-25 rankings. At that point, Ryan figured the season could swing either way.
His players made certain the only direction acceptable for Wisconsin was back up the Big Ten standings.
In the very next game, Wisconsin knocked off Purdue 67-62 to snap the Boilermakers' 26-game home-court winning streak. It was a game in which five Wisconsin players —Taylor, Gasser, Ryan Evans, Mike Bruesewitz and Ben Brust — scored in double figures.
It also showed Ryan his team's full capabilities in moments of adversity. In addition to the play of Taylor and Gasser, he now had a group of role players that understood what it took to win tough games in the Big Ten.
"You cannot go to Purdue and walk away there with one on the left hand side and not say that you've got a group that you're busing back with in that bad weather and knowing we've got something here," Ryan said. "We can turn this into something."
Wisconsin rode that momentum to 12 wins in its next 16 games, setting the Badgers up for their No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament.
"We battled back from a 1-3 start," Badgers center Jared Berggren said. "I think we've showed a lot of stuff that can help us be successful. We've had games where a lot of different guys chipped in and helped us be successful.
"It doesn't matter who it is. If guys are looking to be aggressive and playing with confidence and looking for their shot, sticking to their rules defensively, we can be a tough team to beat."
Montana also has shown that it, too, can be a tough team to beat.
The Grizzlies won 14 consecutive games to close the season, including beating Weber State 85-66 to capture the Big Sky tournament championship and an automatic NCAA tournament bid. Montana, making its second NCAA tournament appearance in three seasons, has its best record since 1992.
Montana's two leading scorers, Will Cherry and Kareem Jamar, earned first-team All-Big Sky honors this season. Cherry, a 6-foot-1 junior guard, also earned the conference's defensive player of the year award.
"They're obviously a good team," Taylor said. "They're in the tournament for a reason."
The same can be said for Wisconsin. It just took longer than expected for the Badgers to make certain they belonged in the NCAA tournament field once again.
And now that they're here, they plan on staying a while in a region that includes Syracuse, Ohio State and Florida State as the top three seeds.
"You can't look at the whole region and expect to walk through it and get to the Sweet 16," Berggren said. "You have no idea who you're going to get matched up with. It doesn't matter. All we're focused on is Montana on Thursday. That's going to be our focus. Hopefully we can survive and advance and move on to the next one after that."
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