jimotis4heisman
Banned
Huge game tonight
http://www.dispatch.com/sports-story.php?story=dispatch/2005/01/25/20050125-D1-04.html
http://www.dispatch.com/sports-story.php?story=dispatch/2005/01/25/20050125-D1-04.html
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
No. 1 Illinois will try to end Wisconsin’s home streak
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
When Bo Ryan left Wisconsin-Platteville in 1999 to coach at Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he left intact a streak of 92 consecutive regular-season home wins.
When Wisconsin plays host to No. 1-ranked Illinois tonight, Ryan’s current team will put a 38-game home winning streak, the longest in the nation, on the line.
Ryan has, however, been on the other end of it.
In his 15 seasons at Platteville, his team’s toughest road test annually was at Wisconsin-Eau Claire. The Blugolds had beaten Platteville at home for 20 straight years before Ryan’s 1994-95 team ended the streak in his 11 th season at the school.
"The people in Platteville were so excited, they built a case for the basketball from that game," Ryan said. "It was a little overdone."
He feels likewise about the attention being paid the current streak.
"I’ve never heard so much conversation about home and away in all my life," Ryan said yesterday.
He might have only one more day to listen to it.
In their most recent home game Jan. 16, the Badgers needed a Michigan State meltdown in the final minutes to keep the streak alive. The Spartans, who controlled play for 38 minutes, gave up an 11-0 run in the last two minutes and lost by three points. It was their sixth straight loss to Wisconsin, a streak that started when the Badgers snapped Michigan State’s home win streak at 53 in 2002.
Illinois is 19-0 and has won 15 straight Big Ten games dating to last season.
"When they’re on top of their game, they’re almost unstoppable," Wisconsin forward Mike Wilkinson said. "But this is the Big Ten. You never know what can happen."
This same cast of Illini lost by 20 points at Wisconsin last season — their last Big Ten loss — and by 17 to the Badgers in the championship game of the conference tournament. Last Thursday, they were listless, shot poorly and needed overtime to beat Iowa at home. After a busy week that included added attention from national media jumping on the bandwagon, coach Bruce Weber put his players offlimits the last four days so they could concentrate on the game tonight. He also declared them the underdog because no one has beaten Wisconsin in the Kohl Center since Wake Forest on Dec. 4, 2002.
"I would say we’re the underdog until somebody starts beating them at their place," Weber said.
Weber is waging his own psychological war against the streak possibly preying on his players’ minds, because it definitely is something Wisconsin players feed off of.
"I think the fact that the guys believed we could (come back against Michigan State), it certainly doesn’t hurt that you have something like (the streak) going," Ryan said.
Weber and other coaches say the most important factors in Wisconsin’s success are tangible: good players, an efficient offense that forces opponents to defend big men outside and guards inside, and a sound halfcourt defense that shuts off penetration.
"And then they have a great crowd," Weber said, "so when you do struggle like (they did) against Michigan State, that’s when the crowd adds that extra juice and maybe gets you a win that you probably shouldn’t have gotten."
Ryan said the crowd against Michigan State was louder than he’d ever heard it. He might have to amend that statement tonight.
"When you have a very good team, and good fans, the momentum grows," Izzo said, "and the other teams say, ‘How can we win in there?’ "
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