It's a good thing for Florida International University that the Kohl Center does not have a sign on the door reading "No shirt, No shoes, No service" like so many gas stations and convenience stores. If it did, the Golden Panthers' tough weekend would've been a total loss.

As it was, FIU — victims of serious travel issues stemming from Midwestern snow storms — still had to endure more than its fair share of tough luck Saturday, including playing with makeshift uniforms harvested at the last minute by the Badger staff.

Florida International University head coach Sergio Ruoco knew his team was in for a difficult time by traveling into the Kohl Center to take on No. 12 Wisconsin. However, there's no way he could've known the toughest part would actually be traveling to get there.

"I'm proud of my kids because we came here with the mindset to play ball without any excuses, and that's the way we handled it," Ruoco said. "Life is not fair, and it will never be fair."

The Golden Panthers arrived at Miami International Airport on Friday at 10 a.m. only to be informed that their flight from South Florida to Chicago had been canceled, due to adverse weather conditions. It took hours to find a new flight for 22 bound for Minneapolis, but the wait wasn't over then.

"I've got a bunch of kids from a lot of different countries who come from hard situations," Ruoco said. "Being in an airport 18 hours, for them, is not a hard situation."

It then took an extensive search to corral a bus to transport FIU from the Twin Cities to Madison, due to a major conference in the area.

"Who has a convention in Minneapolis in December?" Ruoco asked rhetorically. "Must be the Eskimo Pie or something."

The Golden Panthers finally rounded up transportation and made it into Wisconsin's capital city at 5:45 in the morning Saturday. Unfortunately for Florida International, their gear was not with them, as it was stuck in Chicago.

UW assistant head coach Greg Gard then arranged for a set of basic black uniforms to be made specifically for Saturday's game, with numbers and sizes corresponding to each FIU player. Wisconsin also gathered shoes for the Golden Panthers. Ruoco wasn't at all upset with having to use makeshift uniforms, insisting that it wasn't important what they wore, or how they wore it.

"A lot of kids are pampered and spoiled through AAU Basketball," Ruoco said. "I don't really give a rat's ass about your tattoo showing or not showing. That's the way life is with me."

Badger head coach Bo Ryan joked that he had tried to arrange for slightly altered uniforms.

"I was hoping that wherever they got the stuff from would've had the old Magic Johnson, Larry Bird shorts," Ryan said.

In fact, the gear reached the Kohl Center during the game, but Ruoco declined to have his team change into their regular threads for the second half.

"I wasn't going to change my kids at halftime and make it a joke and a mockery," the third-year head coach said.

Despite all the chaos involved with being able to step onto the floor, the Golden Panthers gave Wisconsin a run for their money once the game started.

"We played a top-20 team at their place, and we played hard," Ruoco said.

"The best way to show your appreciation is to try and kick the other team's butt," Ryan said. "And they did. They gave us a heck of a hard-fought game."

Interestingly enough, both Ruoco and Ryan stated that the adversity could've been somewhat constructive for Florida International.

"The 18 hours together, I thought, meshed these kids well," Ruoco said. "I think we used it as a positive."

"Sometimes when things like that happen, it gets a team to say 'we're here and we're going to play' and they just play," Ryan said. "Maybe they used that adversity to play even better.

Ruoco believes the experience is one that his team can build on starting this week, when they will take their home floor for the first time in five games.

"I told them we play a division-II team on Tuesday," Ruoco said. "The worst thing that we can do is to go in there and stink up the place at our place."

Ryan understood and felt for Ruoco, and appreciated what the Golden Panther team had to go through to make it to Madison just to play the game, explaining that most teams at some time or another experience similar situations.

"We've all had those trials and tribulations," Ryan said, before deadpanning. "But my teams never got free uniforms out of it."