Instead of Alando Tucker, the Badgers had Mike Wilkinson. Wilkinson was the second leading scorer for the team going into the game and left it after scoring 29, a new career high. Wilkinson was repeatedly fed the ball inside and was very effective thanks to the foul trouble by Ohio State's Terence Dials. With Dials on the bench, Matt Marinchick was unable to contain the faster and more aggressive Wilkinson.

Wilkinson added 10 rebounds to his total but by far, the most important board of the game was grabbed by Clayton Hanson with less than a minute remaining in the ball game. On Wisconsin's previous possession, Zach Morley drew a foul, but missed both shots from the free throw line. On the second shot, Hanson grabbed the rebound as Wilkinson blocked out the bigger Dials. Hanson was fouled and went to the line where he hit both shots. The next possession for Ohio State resulted in a turnover as Brandon Fuss-Cheatham threw the ball over the head of the running Dials. Wisconsin made 5 more free throws in the last thirty seconds while Ohio State was only able to counter with one basket of its own.

Despite leading for most of the first half, Ohio State was consistently cold shooting the basketball, especially from three point range. The Buckeyes started the game 2 for 10 from the arc and finished 7 for 23. Tony Stockman, who hit 5 of 7 from three in the Ohio State win against Iowa was especially off from long range and the rest of the floor. He finished 4 for 17 shooting including only 1 of 9 from long distance. Bo Ryan commented after the game that "it was a combination of both" Ohio State missing the open shots they were given and good pressure by the Badger defense.

Still, the best thing that Wisconsin did all night was to take Dials out of the game. He still managed 15 points and 8 rebounds, but it came in only 24 minutes as he repeatedly had to go to the bench, including the last six minutes of the first half when Wisconsin was able to grab the lead from Ohio State and extend it to 5 by the break. Dials picked up his third foul a little over a minute into the second half and was a non-factor on defense especially after he received his next one just 3 minutes later. Without Dials, and given the poor shooting of the Buckeyes, they continued to fall behind. When the shots finally did fall, they were down by 11 and Wisconsin was able to keep ahead just enough to outlast them. J.J. Sullinger and
Matt Sylvester were big in the run that Ohio State tried to make, but it was just not enough.

Not everything Wisconsin did worked. When Wilkinson went out of the game, he was replaced by red shirt freshman Brian Butch. Butch had sat out last season to get stronger and was effective in keeping the Buckeyes in check at the defensive end. Where he still needs to work is in his shot selection. He took two three point shots late in the first half while Dials was sitting on the bench. This was the time when he should have been getting the ball down low as he had the advantage over the Ohio State players. You can be sure that Ryan reminded him of this during a time out after the second shot refused to fall.

With the win, Wisconsin extended its home winning streak to 37 games. Asked about the streak after the game, Ryan was nostalgic for a bit, referring to streaks he had while at Wisconsin-Platteville earlier in his career. Still, Ryan was all business. "I really haven't talked about [the streak]," said Ryan. "This right here, when you have a team coming in the next night...that's all we concentrate on." Ryan will need to have the team concentrating. Their next game is Sunday against Michigan State, who will try and counter Wilkinson with Paul Davis. Wisconsin will be looking to extend the winning streak to an NCAA-leading 38.

Ohio State's next game is a non-conference match against 6-5 LSU.