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With hopes to solidify its NCAA Tournament r?sum? and avenge a home loss to their longtime rivals, the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team heads to Minnesota to take on the Golden Gophers at The Barn tonight.

The teams’ last match turned from a Badger blowout to a classic Border Battle contest, as the Golden Gophers came back from a 14-point second half deficit to beat the Badgers at the Kohl Center in overtime, 78-74.

At that time, Minnesota was the 17th-ranked team in the country , sitting at 16-1, an unprecedented start for a program UM head coach Tubby Smith has overturned over the past two seasons.

“It was a very tough loss for us,” UW guard Jason Bohannon said. “Looking back on it, we had a [nine]-point lead or something with a couple minutes to go and you know, anytime we let a team get on a run like that and get back in the game with that much time remaining, it’s tough.”

Now, however, the two teams have switched positions. The first match Jan. 15 was the second of six straight losses for the Badgers. But with a big 60-55 win over Michigan on Sunday, the Badgers have picked up their game to win six of their last seven contests.

“Obviously, we learned from it,” Wisconsin forward Joe Krabbenhoft said. “We know how Minnesota wants to play and figured out Tubby Smith defensively, and we learned how we need to take care of the ball. They came from [14 points] down with a couple minutes to go; we just got to take care of the ball.”

In that game, Minnesota’s Lawrence Westbrook picked apart the Wisconsin defense, scoring 29 points, including a game-tying 3-pointer that sent the game into overtime. While the Badgers will need to focus on Westbrook, the Gophers also have several other players capable of having big games.

“They’ve got a lot of weapons,” UW assistant coach Gary Close said. “I mean [Westbrook] was the one that night, but they’ve got a lot of different weapons — that’s why they’re good. He was the guy the other night, but that’s not to say it couldn’t be someone else; there are a lot of guys we’ve got to guard.”

“He had a big stretch those last couple of minutes and overtime,” Bohannon added. “He’s another player out there; we’re not going to treat him any different from what we do, our same principles and stuff, and we just got to contain him like we do with every single player on the floor.”

The Badgers have good reason to be confident with their defense as of late. Against Michigan, they held the Big Ten’s leading scorer — Manny Harris — to 5-of-14 shooting and only 1-for-6 from 3-point range.

“It’s going to be the same principles we use against Manny,” Krabbenhoft said. “Just go out there and stick to him. It usually works when we stick to him and do things the right way. The players are going to make plays — that’s just part of the game. You just keep playing and try to get it back on the other end of the court.”

Now, though, while much of the focus is placed on both teams hoping to receive NCAA Tournament bids, the players are not so concerned with the Border Battle mentality. Instead, they are looking to take the rivalry and motivate it to boost their tournament r?sum?.

“We’re just taking it one game at a time, trying to build our r?sum?,” Bohannon said. “We got to go in there and get a win; it’s going to be a tough environment. Each possession is going to matter. We can’t take one possession off because that could mean the game. That one possession made the difference last game.”

Furthermore, the team continues to downplay the rivalry, especially with such a tough schedule. While they know the Gophers will come out particularly amped for the Border Battle, according to Bohannon, the Badgers are trying to think of it as just another tough conference match.

“It’s a great rivalry, but you know it’s another game, another Big Ten game,” Bohannon said. “They just happen to be next on our schedule. We’ve got to come ready to play, it should be a good game for us.”

As for playing in The Barn, the players are not too concerned with how to react to the Gopher fans. Regardless, they are expecting the worst, especially in a rivalry game.

“That’s a terrific home environment, but hopefully we’ll do the things we need to do to keep our advantage, but any time you go on the road that could be a factor,” Close said.

“The crowd’s going to sound a little different, the arena’s going to look a little different, but we just go out there and play,” Krabbenhoft added. “We’re just going to treat it like we have the others and go out there and play the same ball we’ve been playing.”