Badgers solidify NCAA standing by routing Hoosiers

If the Wisconsin Badgers somehow managed to lose to last-place Indiana in the final game of the Big Ten regular season, coach Bo Ryan's team would have found itself squarely on the bubble on the eve of the conference tournament in Indianapolis. The March Madness mainstay was a huge favorite against Tom Crean's kids, but one bad day at the office would have put UW's NCAA Tournament prospects in doubt. This was not a time to fool around for one of the most consistent programs in the conference, and everyone in the Kohl Center knew it.
 
Happily for cheeseheads everywhere, Wisconsin played the businesslike game it needed to produce. The Badgers, powered by their best offensive performance of the entire year, rolled to an 85-61 win that should take the drama out of Selection Sunday for the men of Madison.

The tone for this tussle was established in the first four minutes, as UW sniper Jason Bohannon--inconsistent for much of the season--banged in three jumpers, two of them beyond the 3-point arc, to immediately loosen up Indiana's defense. Seemingly spooked by Bohannon's dead-eye dominance, the Hoosiers pinched on the perimeter and made themselves vulnerable in the paint. After the early flurry from their best outside shooter, the Badgers were able to get to the rim at will and earn nearly three dozen free throws. Ryan's roster made 32 trips to the line and nailed 26 of them, a factor that weighed heavily on the visitors from Bloomington as the game wore on. Not only did Wisconsin make a regular march to the foul line; the ability to pound the ball inside allowed the white-shirted Badgers to go back to their perimeter game when needed. Starting forward Marcus Landry and reserve guard Jordan Taylor also knocked down 3-pointers for UW, who scored 40 or more points in each half for the only time in conference play this season.
 
Ryan, a defense-first coach who knows how to put the clamps on opponents, might have cringed if you had told him in a pregame conversation that the Hoosiers would ring up 61 points behind 23 from Verdell Jones III and 19 from Nick Williams, but because Wisconsin maxed out at the offensive end, the Badgers didn't need their best defense today.

The Badgers would love to thrive once again at the Big Ten Tournament, an event they've enjoyed during the Bo Ryan era. But now, with this victory, the Badgers won't have to win a single game in order to reach the NCAA Tournament.

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