[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]Two games into the 2006-07 season, and the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team already feels as though it has some momentum going.

"When you can start the season out 2-0, any team would be happy with that," senior guard Kammron Taylor said. "We do have some momentum going into the game on Sunday, but we can't take that for granted."

Wisconsin hosts Southern University Sunday, and the game will serve part of the first round for the South Padre Invitational Basketball Tournament. The Badgers will travel to South Padre, Texas, for the rest of the tournament over Thanksgiving break, with Auburn and Oklahoma State also competing.

After a rollercoaster ride last year in which the Badgers finished 19-12 and lost to some unsuspecting teams such as North Dakota State, Wisconsin has certainly learned from its mistakes.

"This year, we're not going to make the mistake of overlooking anyone," Taylor said.

And Southern should not be a team Wisconsin overlooks.

Despite opening the 2006-07 season with a disappointing 97-37 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens, the Jaguars are a team that made the NCAA tournament last year.

After winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference, Southern earned a No. 16 seed in the tournament. Matched up against No. 1 Duke, the Jaguars actually gave the Blue Devils a run for their money, only leading by nine heading into halftime, but eventually lost 70-54.

This season, Southern is picked to finish second in the SWAC, and head coach Rob Spivery — in just his second season in Baton Rouge, La. — has scheduled a tough non-conference game. Aside from already playing at Georgia and traveling to Wisconsin this weekend, Southern will also be playing at Oklahoma State and defending champion Florida.

The Jaguars are led by senior forward Deforrest Riley-Smith, a former Penn State transfer who averaged 11.1 points per game, 4.1 rebounds per game, 1.5 assists per game and 1.1 steals per game last season, but Southern loses three starters from a year ago.

And to make matters worse, starting sophomore guard Javaris Bradford will not be ready to play until the second semester.

"The question about our team would be the unknown," Spivery said in a SWAC teleconference. "I, as coach, don't know exactly what we have yet until we get deep into the season.

"There's a lot of questions about our team."

One thing that's certain about Southern's team, however, is that it relies on perimeter play, rather than inside. Six-foot-10 Costa Rican center Jefny Anderson-Brown is the Jaguars' tallest player, but they often go with a four-guard lineup.

Inside or outside, the Badgers have a deep lineup that is able to adjust to any style of play. This was evident in Wednesday night's game, in which Wisconsin took UW-Green Bay out of its transition game plan.

"We get up and down the court just as fast as anybody in the country; we just pick our spots," Taylor said. "People look at us as a half-court team, but we have different styles of basketball; we're not just a half-court team."

And with the swing offense UW head coach Bo Ryan runs, the Badgers believe they have the perfect inside-outside combination.

"The swing is based on getting the ball inside and then looking for the open guy on the perimeter," junior guard Michael Flowers said. "We try to set each other up and set ourselves up."

Regardless of the opponent, Wisconsin will be looking to defend its home court advantage at the Kohl Center, where it has only lost five games under Ryan in his six seasons at the helm.

"Even if we weren't ranked, we always want to protect our home court — that's a mentality we always have to have," senior forward Alando Tucker said. "And we've always been good at protecting our home court.

"The rankings don't mean anything."