Wisconsin's men's basketball head coach Bo Ryan didn't have much time to celebrate his 100th career Big Ten victory. After a close loss to Purdue on Thursday, No. 5 Michigan State (9-0 Big Ten, 19-3 overall) comes into the Kohl Center tonight.
Of all the accolades and statistics Ryan has achieved, one that might go overlooked or surprise someone unfamiliar with Badgers basketball is his success against the unofficial king of Big Ten basketball, Spartan head coach Tom Izzo.
When Ryan took over as the Badgers' coach in 2002, he started his reign over Izzo with a bang and introduced himself to the Michigan State faithful by snapping the Spartans' 53-game home winning streak, at the time the longest home winning streak in the nation.
He has since gone on to build an 11-5 record against Michigan State, and still has yet to lose to the Spartans at the Kohl Center.
But, in classic Bo Ryan style, he downplayed any mention of a rivalry.
""I don't look at Michigan State as being any more of a rival than a whole list of schools I could name for you,"" he said. ""I think it became that because they had beaten Wisconsin so many times, or a great percentage of the time for a while.""
Wisconsin's Grateful Red and Spartan fans in ""The Izzone"" might disagree.
Two perfect streaks are in jeopardy tonight as No. 16 Wisconsin (6-3, 16-5) and the Spartans battle for the second time this season. The Badgers are looking to hand Izzo and Michigan State their first Big Ten loss of the year, and the Spartans are out to erase Ryan's undefeated home record against the coach.
In their first meeting the Spartans and Badgers put on a tough physical battle. Wisconsin was held scoreless for almost the first five minutes before senior guard Jason Bohannon finally got an open layup. The Badgers struggled to find their stroke and finished the game shooting a miserable 33 percent. Junior forward Jon Leuer finished with a game-high 21 points, but Wisconsin is now without his abilities due to an injury.
Just like the last five games without Leuer, other players will need to step up if Wisconsin wants to upset the Spartans and keep its Big Ten title hopes alive. Junior forward Keaton Nankivil finally showed the ability to take over a game after scoring a career-high 25 points while going 7-of-8 from behind the arc against the Boilermakers.
""He's staying aggressive to take advantage of if people are going to defensively do certain things to shut off other players on the team or other actions in our offense that enable a big to get the looks at he's been getting,"" Ryan said about Nankivil on Monday. ""Defensively he just gets better because he's learning things that do not come naturally to him.""
Nankivil was unheard of when the Badgers took on the Spartans in East Lansing. The Madison native played only 15 minutes, and his points total—two—matched his turnover total.
The play of sophomore guard Jordan Taylor could be key if the Badgers want to control the game. Taylor leads the nation in assists-to-turnovers ratio, and after some struggles he has had solid games against Penn State and Purdue.
His play could determine if Wisconsin can keep up with Michigan State, especially because senior guard Trevon Hughes seems to have a hard time finding his shot against the Spartans. Hughes finished with only seven points on 3-of-13 shooting in East Lansing.
The game tips off at 8 p.m. and will air on ESPN.
