Wisconsin Badgers Mens Basketball Tickets
The Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team is a Division I program for the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The team is located in Madison, Wisconsin and play their home games at the Kohl Center. The Kohl Center has a capacity of 17,230 people and was built in 1998. The arena is particularly difficult to play in for opposing teams, with the Badgers compiling a phenomenal record at home. This included a 38-game home winning streak, which lasted from 2003 to 2005. The student section, the Grateful Red, is one of the more raucous student sections in the country and creates an atmosphere that is especially difficult to play in for opposing teams. For the last eleven years, the team has been coached by Bo Ryan, who has compiled a 268-101 record with the team including a NCAA Tournament berth every year and five Sweet Sixteen’s.
The team played its first game in 1899, and since that point, the team has reached a consistent level of success few teams can reach. After their first player, Christian Steinmetz, was named an All-American in 1905, Big Ten Championships and other success followed shortly thereafter, winning the Big Ten in both 1907 and 1908. Coach Walter Meanwell led the team to eight Big Ten Championships in his more than 20 year career as coach of the team. 1947 saw the team’s last NCAA Tournament appearance for 47 years. In 1993, under the direction of Stu Jackson, the team made it back to the NCAA Tournament. Dick Bennett took over the reins of the team in 1995, and led the eighth seeded Badgers to the Final Four in 2000. The team has featured five consensus All-Americans in their history, most recently Jordan Taylor in 2011. The team has featured 28 NBA draft picks, six of which were selected in the first round.
Wisconsin has a large series of rivalries. The team’s most prominent rivalry is between the Badgers and the Minnesota Golden Gophers. The Golden Gophers hold a small 92-89 advantage in their meetings; however, the Badgers have won their last three matchups and sixteen of the last twenty. Wisconsin also plays annual rivalry games between them and Michigan State, as well as in-state rival Marquette.
