[media-credit name=’AJ MACLEAN/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]After posting an emotional and important victory Jan. 15 over Michigan State, the No. 24 Wisconsin Badgers (12-3, 2-1 Big Ten) will travel to Ann Arbor Saturday to face conference dark horse Michigan (12-6, 3-1) at Crisler Arena. Fresh off a tough loss Wednesday to Indiana at Assembly Hall, the hungry Wolverines will host Wisconsin with key contributors still recovering from injury.

In addition to the loss of junior scoring threat Lester Abram early in December, Wolverine forwards Graham Brown, C.J. Mathis and point guard Daniel Horton have each battled injuries all season long.

After a slovenly showing at Indiana — a game in which the Wolves committed 19 turnovers — head coach Tommy Amaker will finally return to Crisler with his preseason arsenal almost entirely intact.

“Every time you look at Michigan, you see the same things when they have all their players,” Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan said. “We have game film of them when they had some guys out, and now they got what they need.”

One thing the Wolverines needed was Horton. The Michigan one-guard returned earlier in the month, showing signs of his old spark, but nevertheless struggled offensively. Against Indiana, Horton landed just two of nine shots from the field, committed several costly turnovers and nearly fouled out trying to contain the fleet-footed Bracey Wright.

Regardless, there’s little doubt of the impact Horton makes for the Wolverine attack while running the point and as a threat to penetrate inside.

“What a difference on some of those game tapes where we saw Horton not on the floor,” Ryan said.

“He’s a great shooter,” Wisconsin guard Sharif Chambiss added. “Obviously, you can’t leave him open. We gotta make sure we stick by our principles and find him in transition.”

Brown, on the other hand, appeared back to his old form on the offensive end of the floor. At Assembly Hall, the junior tallied eight points and 11 rebounds. On the other end, however, Brown and defensive standout Courtney Sims failed to contain Hoosier forwards D.J. White and Robert Vaden, who combined for 31 of Indiana’s 62 points.

Despite Wednesday’s poor performance, the Wisconsin frontcourt can ill afford to take lightly a Michigan defensive front that has showed so much ability in spite of frequent injuries.

“This year, we’re fortunate enough to have guys in practice like Greg [Steimsma], in there blocking shots to try and simulate [Michigan] as best we can,” Wisconsin guard Clayton Hanson said. “That’s all you can do, and just prepare like you do every game.”

From the Badgers’ side, the presence of one key player remains in doubt. Struggling all season long with an injury to his lower left leg, swingman Alando Tucker reappeared on the court against Michigan State at the Kohl Center after missing a start against Ohio State earlier in the week. Though he registered 26 minutes during the Spartans’ visit, the sophomore proved relatively ineffective in a game Wisconsin ultimately won from the perimeter.

In the Michigan State matchup, Tucker shot just 3-for-9 and displayed a slight limp in his gait. Tucker participated in Wisconsin practices this week in a limited capacity. When asked to comment on the likelihood of Tucker starting in Ann Arbor, Ryan declined to speculate, but compared the sophomore’s on-again-off-again status with that of legendary Browns tailback Jim Brown.

“You thought that [Brown] was done for the game after his second run from scrimmage. He’d grab four different parts of his body, limp to the huddle and then go gain another 12 yards,” Ryan said. “He might be looking like he might not be 100 percent. All these guys watch these cards shows now — he might be bluffing. You never know with Alando.”

With Tucker’s presence on the penetration largely nullified in the Badger victory last weekend, Wisconsin depended more on the outside shooting of Hanson, who scored 15 points from beyond the arc. Although Ryan’s squad will look to establish more of an inside game against Michigan, Hanson remains a critical component of the game plan.

“Nobody has drawn more charges, nobody has rotated and protected the rim any better, nobody on this team has moved better away from the basketball, and nobody on this team has given the better effort than Clayton Hanson,” Ryan said. “The main thing is that the other players just try to draw off of that same energy.”

Saturday against Michigan, the Badgers will look to eliminate the kind of sloppy ball that cost them road games against Pepperdine, Marquette and Indiana. According to Hanson, the difference between success and failure on the road has been largely psychological.

“I think we just have to have the mentality going in there [of] knowing that we’re not going to get outworked,” Hanson said.