CHICAGO -- Before Wisconsin took the floor Friday morning as the Big Ten tournament's team to beat, seniors Josh Gasser and Frank Kaminsky provided a stern reminder to teammates about what was now at stake.
Forget the 28-3 regular season that vaulted Wisconsin into the discussion as perhaps the finest team in program history. Now? Now, they said, the work really begins.
"Josh and Frank both said it's like we're 0-0," Badgers forward Sam Dekker said. "Like the first game of the season. You've got to put everything behind you."
If Wisconsin needed a refresher on how tenuous life can be in tournament play, the Badgers got the wake-up call they desired. No. 1 seed Wisconsin pulled away for a 71-60 victory against No. 9 seed Michigan on Friday afternoon at the United Center in a Big Ten tournament quarterfinal game.
Of course, the result did not come before the Wolverines injected quite a scare into the Badgers and demonstrated that, yes, a regular-season body of work that included a conference title and the school's best 31-game start really is a thing of the past.
"That championship's done," Kaminsky said. "We won that championship. Now we know that every team, like Michigan, is playing for a championship so they can get into the (NCAA) tournament. So we knew we were going to get their best effort. We've got to treat every game like the Super Bowl now. We know we want to win another championship, and we've got to play like champions."
Wisconsin (29-3) advanced to the tournament semifinal to face No. 4 seed Purdue (21-11), which slipped past 13th-seeded Penn State, 64-59, in the second quarterfinal game. The teams will meet at noon CT on Saturday.
For a stretch during the early game, it looked as if Wisconsin might stumble before its quest to earn a No. 1 NCAA tournament seed really began. Michigan took a 22-13 lead with 8:11 remaining in the first half on guard Spike Albrecht's second 3-pointer. The Badgers spent the next six minutes fighting to regain the lead and finally did so when guard Bronson Koenig buried consecutive 3-pointers to give Wisconsin a 31-26 halftime edge.
Victories have come so easily this season for Wisconsin, and other opponents would have surrendered at the mere sight of the Badgers shaking off a poor start. Instead, Michigan dug deep and actually stole the lead back following an atypically poor stretch from Kaminsky.
The Big Ten's player of the year missed consecutive layups -- he screamed "Oh my God" to himself afterward in frustration -- and then threw two bad passes that resulted in steals and scores. When Muhammad-Ali Abdur-Rahkman converted a difficult layup in transition, Michigan led 44-41 with 12:28 remaining, and Kaminsky went to the bench.
"It was obviously a frustrating stretch," Kaminsky said. "They took the lead back, and I just had to recuperate mentally and go back out on the court and bring some energy."
For an idea as to how unusual the whole situation was, consider that the game marked only the sixth time all season that Wisconsin has trailed in the second half. But the Badgers' overall talent took over, keyed by reserve Duje Dukan's eight points. Kaminsky and Dekker then helped Wisconsin to break out of a 54-all tie by scoring the team's next nine points. Dekker finished with 17 points, while Kaminsky contributed 16 points and 12 rebounds.
The stretch from Wisconsin's two most consistent offensive players was enough to put away Michigan (16-16), which scored only four points over the final four minutes, and leave the Wolverines looking toward NIT plans.
For Wisconsin, meanwhile, there was another postseason game to play Saturday against a Purdue team that played UW close in a 62-55 loss in Madison on Jan. 7. Badgers coach Bo Ryan said he recently purchased a James Patterson novel with the intent of staying in Chicago longer than one day, and he got his wish.
In the process, Friday's game also taught the Badgers a valuable lesson: A couple of subpar stretches in subsequent weeks during the NCAA tournament, and a season filled with promise for the program's first national championship since 1941 could fall flat well before players anticipate.
"If you don't play up to your capabilities for 40 minutes, teams can bury you," Kaminsky said. "Luckily, we were able to get out of that hole."
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