When Bo Ryan entered the Kohl Center media room for his post-game press conference, he was quick to explain his delay.

"I was watching it, too," Ryan said, referring to the tight Indiana-Iowa game being shown on TV in the pressroom.

Even for the Badger head coach, it can be tough to get the mind off the Hoosiers, making UW's victory Saturday all the more impressive.

Regardless of the aesthetic value of a win over Northwestern, Wisconsin was able to bounce back and didn't let its first Big Ten loss to Indiana lead to a second.

"We're not the type of team that we are going to dwell on the past; we have to move forward," senior Kammron Taylor said. "We are a mature team now. Our young guys aren't playing like they're young anymore."

Senior forward Alando Tucker even gave the impression that last Wednesday's 71-66 loss in Bloomington was a positive.

"It relit our fire," Tucker said. "We always talk that we have to stay aggressive every game. At times, some losses are key. … Just like when we lost to Missouri State, we came back out, and we were so aggressive, and we attacked hard every game."

It's hard to argue that the Badgers played physically on offense, going to the line 18 more times than the Wildcats, but on defense Wisconsin appeared to keep its cool, only committing five fouls the entire game and allowing Northwestern only two free throws.

"That was one of the stats that was unbelievable," Tucker said. "I saw it and I was like, 'Wow.'"

Tucker surmised that it was more Northwestern's lack of aggression with the ball that led to the free throw and foul deficit, as a by-product of the Princeton-style offense.

"They weren't attacking the paint as hard or as aggressive as other teams do, so that left room for us to only foul five times," Tucker said.

Wildcat head coach Bill Carmody was less receptive to that theory and called it "impossible" to win a game with such a free throw discrepancy.

"I wasn't pleased with that at all," Carmody said, before cracking a joke at Tucker's expense. "When did Tucker start making foul shots?"

The 20 free throws Wisconsin was able to take do represent a positive trend and illustrate the Badgers' continuance of getting to the line even against zone defenses, which have become a greater part of opposing teams' game plans.

"We were kind of shocked against Ohio State, that they came out and played zone. Maybe that's something that teams see that we are struggling with," Taylor said.

Indeed, the Badgers have seen zone defenses against Ohio State, Iowa and even Indiana in recent games, though not as exclusively as they did against the Wildcats.

"We lead the Big Ten in free-throw shooting, and [opposing teams] want to stop us from getting to the free-throw line, and the best way to do that is to play a zone," said Taylor, who went on to call the Northwestern zone the best the Badgers will see this season. "We're not getting sick of it, because we are still winning games."

The biggest factor in Wisconsin's loss to the Hoosiers, however, was Indiana's hot three-point shooting, as IU hit 5-of-6 threes in the second half. The Badgers showed immediate improvement against Northwestern, holding the team to 29 percent from beyond the arc, although Northwestern is statistically the worst perimeter shooting team in the league.

"It's just one game, so it's too early to tell," Taylor said. "Overall, as a whole I think we played pretty good."

While UW avoided the start of a losing streak, Carmody wasn't even sure the Badgers had any huge concerns following the loss and coming into Saturday's contest.

"I didn't think they played that badly against a pretty good team away from home," Carmody said. "It's not like they collapsed or anything."

Wisconsin was able to avoid the fate of Indiana, who lost to Iowa in its first game since the emotionally draining contest in Bloomington. The Badgers now see the loss as possibly even a positive in continuing the rest of the season.

The loss ended a 17-game win streak. Another 17-game winning streak would end with UW winning the national title.

"It came at the right time," Tucker said of the loss to Indiana. "Now we got that loss and we don't want to lose again. We've got that hunger back."