Time on road together has strengthened bond between Wisconsin's seniors

Wisconsin's initial starting five - one made up of five seniors at the time - being older than the Chicago Bulls was a fun fact that quickly became a staple of Wisconsin broadcasts early on this season. UW's group of six seniors in the current rotation have spent years together and have strengthened their bond during a season with little normalcy.

“Still, everyone is in their own room. We’ve minimized the things we’ve done as a group," head coach Greg Gard told the media over Zoom on Tuesday afternoon. "We do have a team room here in the hotel that they have a cornhole set up. They’ve been playing ping pong, things like that, so they can go down there and hang out for a little bit from time to time."

The Badgers have been in Indianapolis for over one week after arriving for the Big Ten tournament on March 10. With the NCAA tournament now on deck, protocol has been tighter, with UW going through two periods of testing and quarantining before it was able to resume team activities. Now cleared, the group has picked up an assortment of lawn games to pass the time in between prep for their meeting with the North Carolina on Friday.

"Spikeball has been a big hit. We just got a ping pong table, foosball table put into our team meeting room, so guys have been taking advantage of that. But spikeball has been the hot one," senior forward Micah Potter said. "I know Tyler Wahl, Trevor Anderson, they’ve been probably the most competitive out of the entire bunch.

"It’s been fun. Yeah, we’re in a bubble, but having a change of scenery outside of our apartments in Madison is nice as well, being in Indianapolis and being in a hotel room."

The bubble setting marks the end to a season that included a number of extended road trips. The Badgers got their first taste of the uncommon circumstances when they stayed on the road following a matchup with Maryland and headed straight to Penn State to battle with the Nittany Lions.

"Right now on the bus ride from Maryland to Penn State, we’ve been playing among us," Aleem Ford said prior to the matchup with Penn State. "So we’re all just yelling at each other, screaming and playing like that. We’ve spent a lot of time together so we’ve really just been hanging out, and it’s honestly been a great experience and I’ve been enjoying it for my last last go around, really."

The group's time together was highlighted by last year's magical eight-game run to close out the 2019-2020 season, one that Potter remembers fondly. Not only the victories on the court, but also the trajectory they laid out. And as it turns out, the players aren't much different from the fans.

"It was tough because last year the NCAA tournament got taken away from us so we didn’t get to have that long road trip. But I know specifically, me and Brad (Davison), during that eight-game win streak that we had to finish the year last year, because we're roommates, after each game we were literally mapping out the road to success and what we needed to do to win the Big Ten," Potter recalled. "It was after the Minnesota game - which is kind of funny because we knew at that point that we really needed to ramp it up - but we mapped out the rest of the games we had, whether we were home or away, who we were playing and figuring out what we needed to do to win.

"That was something that really helped us get close. Just figuring out what we needed to do to win the Big Ten."

Just before the run, Wisconsin fell to Iowa, 68-62, but saw a meaningful relationship on the court take a step forward. Senior point guard D'Mitrik Trice and Potter have established a two-man game that has been a problem for opposing teams. And, according to Potter, the loss to Iowa is when it all clicked.

"I want to say the Iowa game was where me and Meech, specifically, got a really good two-man going," he said. "We were getting it earlier in the year as well, but for me that was when I felt like that really took off for us. That’s probably the biggest nonverbal thing where we can assume where we’re going to be from a point guard to big man perspective."

This group of seniors has been through many ups and down, and while they haven't been able to replicate their success from a season ago, they will be looking to extend their stay inside the NCAA bubble.

"The years go by fast but there’s some long days in the middle of it that people don’t necessarily get to see," Davison said. "Those days is what bonds us together and gives us purpose and unites us and connects us and is what ultimately carries us through a season and makes us - not only tight-knit, but a tough team to play because we’ve been through a lot. We have been through a lot and we got through it and, ultimately, that’s what’s carried us to this point, that’s what put us in the position last year to do what we did and that’s what got us in the position to where we are right now to go on a run again. And that’s what we fully intend to do."

"There’s no specific stories that I can think of with this group, but this is one of the most together groups that I have ever been a part of," Trice added prior to senior night. "As far as being connected on and off the court, I truly feel that this group genuinely loves each other and we want the best for each other.

"A lot of the guys that are now seniors have been through a lot of different things. Whether that’s through social media or through coaching changes or bringing in other guys, it’s been tough. So I have to tip my hat to my guys, to the fellow seniors and hopefully we go out with a bang.”