[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′]
[/media-credit]Another weekend at the Kohl Center is another opportunity for the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team to go into the record books.
Last weekend it was Alando Tucker breaking the 2,000 career-points milestone; this weekend the No. 3 Badgers could record their 26th win of the season, which would go down as the most wins in a season in school history.
"It means a lot," UW senior guard Kammron Taylor said. "The guys on this team are going to down in history as having the most wins, and being a part of that feels great."
Records aside, Wisconsin (25-2 overall, 11-1 Big Ten) knows it still has to take care of business as Penn State (1-10, 10-14), the conference's last-place team, comes to Madison Saturday.
Despite the lowly record, Penn State is coming off a strong performance this past Wednesday at No. 2 Ohio State.
Trailing 40-19 at halftime, the Nittany Lions clawed their way back and pulled within two points, ending the game on a 29-10 run. After OSU forward Ron Lewis missed the first of a one-and-one free throw with 10 seconds left, the Lions had a chance to win the game, but PSU guard Mike Walker's 3-pointer bounced off the iron at the buzzer.
"It's tough to get a road win in the Big Ten and for [Penn State] to almost get one against that caliber of a team — we can't take them lightly come Saturday," Wisconsin guard Michael Flowers said.
In the Feb. 7 meeting between Wisconsin and Penn State, the Badgers won 71-58, but it was much closer than the score indicates. UW didn't get off to its best start, a recent trend the Badgers are hoping to soon end.
"That's been one of our Achilles heels this season," Taylor said of the team's slow starts. "When we find ourselves not doing well, it's because we come out sluggish and teams jump on that."
Wisconsin and Penn State exchanged leads back and forth in the first half and the Nittany Lions pulled within one point with 13 minutes remaining in the second half before the Badgers put the game away.
Losing preseason All-Big Ten selection Geary Claxton to early foul trouble certainly hurt Penn State's chances in the first meeting, and Wisconsin knows just how important the Lions' star junior forward is to the team's overall success.
"When [Claxton's] in the lineup, they're strong," UW senior forward Alando Tucker said. "He gives them so many different dimensions — he can score, he rebounds, he's just a beast inside. Once he's in the game, they're all confident."
Claxton and sophomore forward Jamelle Cornley will pose matchup problems for the Badgers in the post.
"They're double trouble," Tucker said.
Another issue for Wisconsin will be Penn State's zone defense. The Nittany Lions 2-3 zone is just as pesky as Northwestern's 1-3-1 set.
While the zone allowed Penn State to hang with Wisconsin the first time around, Flowers found space and connected on 4-of-5 shots, three of which were from behind the 3-point line. This time around, Flowers is hoping to do much of the same.
"I got a lot of good shots coming off them doubling [Tucker] in the post," Flowers said. "They gave a lot of attention to Tuck and Brian [Butch], so hopefully I can just knock them down again."
Penn State is currently on a 10-game losing streak, and the Badgers realize the Nittany Lions will be desperately searching for a win.
"The kind of teams you have to look out for are the teams that don't have much to lose," Flowers said. "Penn State, they're scrapping for everything right now."
Beating a top-ranked team like Wisconsin would certainly make up for Penn State's dismal season.
"[Penn State's] been in games; they've played in tough situations, but they just haven't gotten over that hump," Tucker said. "Coming in here looking for a win, that would kind of get them over the hump and get them started for the Big Ten tournament."
Whether Wisconsin picks up its record-setting win Saturday or soon thereafter, it's just another milestone along the way for Tucker.
"It's constantly adding on to the legacy here I have had in my career," Tucker said. "We have a chance to do something that no other team has in the past, and we're proving it. This is just going to be another record that we've set this year, but we won't stop there."