This is no longer just the 125th team in the history of Wisconsin basketball, not according to head coach Greg Gard. After playing its seventh straight game decided by five points or less, two of which have gone to overtime, he’s given his young group of Badgers the moniker “Team Drama.”

With a smile stretched across in face, guard Chucky Hepburn said the label fits.

“We just play to the buzzer sounds, whether we’re down or up,” he said. “Sorry to the fans to give you all heart attacks.”

While the fan base may be suffering arrhythmia, Wisconsin’s players appeared calm and collected following their 78-75 overtime victory at Iowa Sunday night, another close triumph in what is becoming a common theme in the program.

Playing its seventh straight game decided by five points or fewer, the Badgers are 5-2 and haven’t coasted to a victory since the season opener on November 7.

“We have a tendency to not make it as easy as it should be,” Gard said. “The grit, the effort, the fortitude of our group they continue to show, night in and night out, can’t be questioned. That’s what it took to be able to come from behind in the overtime and seal things out.”

Nothing appeared easy at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Wisconsin missed critical free throws, played inconsistently on defense, and blew an eight-point lead in the final minute of regulation. UW trailed in overtime 63-60, 65-62, 67-64, 69-66, 72-69, and 73-72, but drove home joining the Boilermakers as the only 2-0 teams in the Big Ten, having committed borderline Highway 151 robbery.

It was a win UW had to have in a way, considering Iowa was undermanned without leading scorer/rebounder Kris Murray. Stealing wins in the Big Ten is key to winning a championship, much like the Badgers did last season in winning at No.3 Purdue or erasing an 18-point deficit to beat Indiana to help them go from preseason picked 10th by the league’s media members to co-champions. The Badgers were 8-1 in Big Ten games decided by five points or less last season, the only loss coming after they had clinched a share of the conference title.

On UW’s current six-game road win streak, the Badgers have won those contests by an average of 4.2 points.

“The thing you can control is playing hard,” forward Steven Crowl said. “I think all of us play hard. One through 16 on the bench, we’re going to compete.”

A year after relying on All-American Johnny Davis to shoulder the burden, Wisconsin has diversified Wisconsin’s offense, which is centered around a three-man veteran core.

Senior Tyler Wahl is averaging career bests in scoring (14.6), rebounding (6.9), and free-throw percentage (70.9). He missed two critical free throws that allowed Iowa to force overtime Sunday but made just his third three-point shot of the season (on 17 attempts) in the extra session on his way to a team-high 21 points.

Hepburn has shaken off an early season slump by scoring in double figures in each of the last five games, averaging 16.6 ppg over that stretch. Like Wahl, he’s become a stat stuffer. He had six rebounds, four assists, and matched his career-high with four steals against the Hawkeyes.

The Badgers have a budding big man in Crowl, who is averaging 9.8 points per game but has 17 assists in his last three games with at least six rebounds in eight of 10 games this season.

“He has so much more,” Gard said of him. “I see the potential in him. I don’t know if he sees it himself. I think he can be a terrific player in this league.”

That trio has helped others grow. Starting guard Max Klesmit has impacted the box score in numerous ways with his shot-making and diving on the floor for loose balls. Jordan Davis – Johnny’s younger brother – has picked his spots. After going nearly 20 minutes without taking a shot Sunday, he showed no hesitation in burying a three-pointer to tie the game with 1:43 left in overtime.

UW’s bench – a noticeable weak point last season – has been strengthened through recruiting and development. Guard Connor Essegian has scored in double digits six times in the last seven games and is one of five freshmen in the last 20 years at Wisconsin to average at least 10 points through the first 10 games.

Forward Carter Gilmore set a new career-high in scoring Tuesday only to reset it Sunday with eight points, adding to a defensive presence that goes underappreciated and undervalued outside the program.

“A lot of guys, they don’t really care who gets the shots,” Wahl said. “Everyone just wants to dive on the ground, get on the floor, and see other guys on the team succeed. When you have all 16 guys on the team looking forward to guys making plays, I think that’s really huge and really special about Wisconsin.”

All of that adds up to Wisconsin being on the right side of the Big Ten craziness. In just the last week, Illinois beat No.2 Texas on a neutral floor, only to get blown out at home by Penn State, the same Nittany Lions team that lost at home to Michigan State, which lost at home to Northwestern.

As for Purdue, now the top-ranked team in the country, they needed overtime Saturday to win by three at last-place Nebraska.

Gard quipped that Tuesday’s film session might be three hours long, breaking down how Iowa took advantage of how some poorly executed shots and not playing through the paint led to fast-break opportunities, poor fouling, and some bad decisions against pressures.

Those corrections could remove some of the drama for Wisconsin and might lead to a new nickname.

“Shoot, as long as we keep winning,” Wahl said, “I’m fine with whatever Coach Gard calls us.”

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