11/4 UW-R. Falls W, 101-46 11/13 Western Ill. L, 69-67 11/15 Siena 7pm 11/17 North Dakota 7pm 11/20 Georgetown * 4pm 11/22 Duke/VCU * TBA 11/25 Prairie V A&M 7pm 11/29 Oklahoma 1:30pm 12/2 Syracuse 6:15pm 12/5 Temple 11:30am 12/9 Milwaukee 8pm 12/12 Marquette 12:30pm 12/15 TA&M CC 8pm 12/23 Green Bay 8pm 12/29 Purdue 6pm 1/2 Rutgers 1pm 1/5 Indiana 6pm 1/9 Maryland TBA 1/12 Northwestern 6pm 1/17 Michigan St. TBA 1/21 Penn State 7pm 1/26 Indiana 6pm 1/31 Illinois 6:30pm 2/4 Ohio State 6pm 2/10 Nebraska 6pm 2/13 Maryland 5pm 2/18 Michigan St 8pm 2/21 Illinois TBA 2/24 Iowa 8pm 2/28 Michigan TBA 3/2 Minnesota 8pm 3/5 Purdue TBA Key: times CT Home Game Road Game * 2K Classic Printable Schedule 0 Will Decorah Jr. G 1 Brevin Pritzl Fr. G 2 Jordan Smith R-Sr. G 3 Zak Showalter R-Jr. G 4 Matt Ferris So. G 5 Aaron Moesch R-So. F 10 Nigel Hayes Jr. F 11 Jordan Hill R-So. G 13 Jackson Bax Fr. G 15 Charlie Thomas Fr. F 20 T.J. Schlundt R-Fr. G 21 Khalil Iverson Fr. G 22 Ethan Happ R-Fr. F 24 Bronson Koenig Jr. G 25 Alex Illikainen Fr. F 30 Vitto Brown Jr. F 33 Andy Van Vliet Fr. F 35 Riley Dearring R-So. G Complete Roster Wisconsin Men's Basketball - Like the team on Facebook  - Twitter: @BadgerMBB - Instagram: @badgermbb - All-Access Media | Photos - Notes | Record Book

WISCONSIN TIPS OFF REGULAR SEASON AGAINST WESTERN ILLINOIS AND SIENA
Wisconsin opens its 118th season of men's basketball in 2015-16 and the 15th season under head coach Bo Ryan, when it hosts Western Illinois on Friday and entertains Siena on Sunday. Friday's game against the Leathernecks is set for an 8 p.m. (CT) start and will be broadcast on BTN. Sunday's game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start on ESPNU.

NOTES TO KNOW
1 ALL-BIG TEN TANDEM: UW returns just 38% of its minutes played from last season, but welcomes back a pair of preseason All-Big Ten selections in juniors Nigel Hayes and Bronson Koenig. Hayes was 9th in the AP Preseason All-American voting. The Badger duo are also on the watch lists for the Julius Erving Award (Hayes) and Bob Cousy Award (Koenig), given to the nation's top small forward and point guard, respectively.
2 RANK AND FILE: UW opens the season in the preseason rankings (No. 17) for the 5th straight season. In each of the past 6 seasons, Wisconsin has finished the season equal or higher than its preseason ranking.
3 MADE 'EM BELIEVE IN 2015: Spirited by a "Make 'Em Believe" rally cry, Wisconsin put together arguably the greatest season in school history a year ago. UW set a school single-season record with 36 wins en route to Big Ten regular season and tournament titles and the school's fi rst national championship game appearance since 1941.
4 BO KNOWS: A 2015 Naismith Hall of Fame finalist, Bo Ryan enters the season ranked 9th in conference history with 172 career Big Ten wins and owns the highest Big Ten winning percentage in conference history. With a record of 740-228 (.764), Ryan also ranks 28th on the NCAA's all-time wins list.
5 HOME SWEET HOME: UW owns one of the best home-court advantages in basketball. In 14 seasons under Bo Ryan, the Badgers have amassed a 210-22 (.905) record at home, the 4th-best winning percentage in the country.

ALL-TIME VS. WESTERN ILLINOIS
Wisconsin will take on Western Illinois for the second time in history.
- The Badgers topped the Leathernecks 69-42 win on Dec. 7, 1989.
- The Badgers are 8-3 all-time against teams from the Summit League. Most recently, UW beat Oral Roberts, 76-67, on Nov. 23, 2013.
- Western Illinois assistant coach Mark Vershaw played for the Badgers from 1998-2001. He scored 1,066 points with 452 rebounds, and was the leading scorer on UW's 2000 Final Four team.
- Western Illinois junior Garret Covington is the brother of Wisconsin women's basketball assistant coach Anya Covington

WISCONSIN IN OPENERS
- Wisconsin has won each of its last 13 regularseason openers. UW's last loss in an opener came in Bo Ryan's first game as head coach when the Badgers dropped a 74-69 contest at UNLV.
- The Badgers have won their last 12 openers by an average of 28.2 points per game, including a 62-31 win over Northern Kentucky in last season's lid lifter.
- UW has won 17 consecutive home openers dating back to 1998-99. The Badgers' last loss in the home opener was a 65-60 loss to Marquette on Nov. 14, 1997 in the UW Field House.

NON-CON NO-CONTEST
- Last season Wisconsin finished the nonconference portion of its schedule with a 12-1 record. Overall, the Badgers have won 28 of their last 29 regular-season, non-conference games dating back to Dec. of 2012.
- The Badgers have also won 51 consecutive regular-season, non-conference games against unranked teams. The last time UW lost to a team that was not ranked in the AP poll was a 58-51 defeat to Notre Dame at the 2010 Old Spice Classic (11/28/10).
- Under Bo Ryan (since 2001-02), UW is 143-31 (.822) in non-conference games, including a mark of 104-8 (.929) at the Kohl Center.
- Ryan's teams are 87-2 (.978) at the Kohl Center against teams outside of the 6 major conferences, including a streak of 60 straight wins.

2015-16 TEAM INFO
Starters Returning/Lost: 2/3  |  Letterwinners Returning/Lost: 9/5 
- Wisconsin looks to replace five of the top seven scorers from a year ago, but does return a pair of starters in juniors Nigel Hayes and Bronson Koenig. Overall, the Badgers bring back 38.1% of their minutes played from last season. UW will bring back 34.3% of its scoring, 31.5% of its rebounding and 40.5% of their assists.
- The 2015-16 season will mark the first year under Bo Ryan in which the Badgers do not have a scholarship senior. The only senior on the roster is walk-on guard Jordan Smith. Wisconsin has had at least one senior starter in each of Ryan's first 14 seasons in Madison. In fact, the Badgers have started at least two seniors in 10 of those 14 seasons.
- UW returns four players from last season's nine-man rotation:
FRONTCOURT: 
    Nigel Hayes, Jr., F (12.4 ppg, 6.2 rpg) - Third-team All-Big Ten; 9th in Big Ten shooting 49.7% overall and 3rd on UW shooting 39.6% from 3s; 4 career double-doubles
    Vitto Brown, Jr., F (2.8 ppg, 1.5 rpg) - Played in 34 games as a soph. averaging 6.3 mpg
BACKCOURT
    Bronson Koenig, Jr., G (8.7 ppg, 2.5 apg) - Started final 24 games; 4th on the team in points and 2nd in assists; 2nd on team shooting 40.5% on 3s; 3.0 assist-to-TO Ratio
    Zak Showalter, Jr., G (2.1 ppg, 1.3 rpg) - Redshirt junior averaged 7.6 minutes off the bench; career-high 9 points vs. Indiana (Feb. 3, 2015)
- The Badgers will gain the services of redshirt freshmen Ethan Happ and T.J. Schlundt in 2014- 15, who both redshirted in their first year on campus. UW will also add five true freshmen to their roster in 2015-16, Alex Illikainen (Grand Rapids, Minn.), Khalil Iverson (Delaware, Ohio), Brevin Pritzl (De Pere, Wis.), Charlie Thomas (Highland, Md.), Andy Van Vliet (Brasschaat, Belgium).

NOTES Complete men's basketball game notes in printable PDF format.

ALL-BIG TEN DUO: HAYES, KOENIG
A pair of Badgers were named to the 2015-16 Preseason All-Big Ten Team, as Nigel Hayes and Bronson Koenig were each selected by a vote of the league's media. This is the second consecutive season Wisconsin has had a pair selected to the conference's preseason team as Frank Kaminsky and Sam Dekker earned the distinction last year.
- Hayes and Koenig were also named to watch lists for the Julius Erving Award and Bob Cousy Award, respectively, as announced by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
    Each watch list contains the top 20 players at its position, as the Julius Erving Award recognizes the top small forward in the nation and the Bob Cousy Award recognizes the top point guard in the country.
    Dekker was a finalist for the Erving Award last season. Jordan Taylor (2012) was UW's last finalist for the Cousy Award.
- Junior Nigel Hayes was named a preseason All-American by The Sporting News and finished 9th in the AP preseason All-American balloting.

PRESEASON RANKINGS
Wisconsin is ranked No. 17 in both the AP and Coaches preseason polls. The Badgers have now been ranked in the AP preseason poll in each of the last five seasons and 7 of the last 10.
- In each of the past 6 seasons, Wisconsin has finished the season equal or higher than its preseason ranking.
- Defending Big Ten regular season and tournament champions, the Badgers enter the 2015- 16 season seeking back-to-back conference titles for the first time since 2002-03. Wisconsin will also take aim at a third-consecutive Final Four appearance, something only 11 schools have done in the history of the NCAA tournament. The most recent team to turn the three-peat was UCLA (2006-08).
- Wisconsin will play a total of 13 games vs. teams in the 2015 NCAA Tournament field, with 8 of those coming away from home. During the non-conference schedule, the Badgers will travel to Oklahoma and Syracuse, host Marquette and Temple, as well as taking on Georgetown and either Duke or VCU at the 2K Classic in NYC.

LOOKING BACK ON 2014-15
Record: 36-4  |  Big Ten: 16-2 (1st)
- Playing in its 17th-consecutive NCAA tournament after earning the first No. 1 seed in school history, Wisconsin returned to the Final Four for the 2nd-straight season and the 4th time in school history. UW is just the 9th Big Ten team in history to reach back-to-back national semifinals. With a 71-64 win over No. 1 Kentucky, the Badgers advanced to their first national championship game since 1941. UW would fall to Duke in the title game, 68-63.
- UW set a new school single-season record with 36 wins, winning at least 30 games in back-to-back seasons and the 4th time in program history (all 4 since 2007). Kansas (6) and Duke (5) are the only school in the nation with more 30-win seasons since 2007.
- At 36-4, UW is just the 3rd Big Ten team to win at least 35 games in a season and the first since Ohio State (35-3) in 2006-07. The B1G record is 37 wins by Illinois in 2004-05.
- After winning 3 games in 3 days in Chicago, the Badgers added 2015 Big Ten Tournament Champions to a resume that already included the outright 2015 regular-season championship. With a mark of 16-2, UW matched its best-ever 18-game conference record and claimed the 18th regular season championship in school history and the 4th title under Bo Ryan (also in 2002, 2003 and 2008).
- Senior Frank Kaminsky put together the greatest season in Wisconsin history, becoming the first Badger player to earn consensus National Player of the Year honors. The 21st consensus All-American in school history, Kaminsky swept the national awards winning the Wooden, the Naismith, the Robertson and the AP Player of the Year. Kaminsky averaged 18.8 points, 8.2 rebounds while shooting 54.7% overall and 41.6% from 3-point range.
- The 2015 Big Ten Coach of the Year and 1 of 4 finalists for the Naismith National Coach of the Year, Bo Ryan was named one of 12 finalists for the Naismith Hall of Fame Class of 2015.
- Kaminsky and junior Sam Dekker became the first Badgers duo to be drafted in the first round of the NBA Draft. Selected 9th overall by Charlotte, Kaminsky is the 2nd-highest drafted UW player in the last 60 years. Dekker was picked 9 spots later by the Houston Rockets. Senior Duje Dukan also signed a rookie contract with the Sacramento Kings.
- Bronson Koenig took over the starting point guard job in early January and started the final 24 games of the season. As a starter, Koenig averaged 11.5 ppg, shooting 50-for-113 (.442) on 3FGs. Overall on the season, Koenig's 3.0 A/TO ratio was the top mark in the Big Ten (min. 90 assists).
- According to Ken Pomeroy's rankings, UW boasted the No. 1 offense in the nation, averaging 127.9 points per 100 possessions. During conference play, UW ranked 2nd in the Big Ten in scoring (70.3 ppg) and tops in shooting (47.7%).
- The 2014 Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year, Nigel Hayes earned third-team All-Big Ten last season after averaging 12.4 ppg and 6.2 rpg while starting all 40 games. He shot 49.7% on the season, including 39.6% (40-101) from 3-point range, just one year after not attempting a single trey in 2013-14.
- UW led the nation in fewest fouls (12.5 avg.), fewest turnovers (7.4 TOs avg.) and fewest opposing FTAs per game (11.7). The Badgers also ranked 12th in the NCAA in scoring D (58.2 ppg). On the year, the Badgers MADE 584 free throws while their opponents ATTEMPTED 469 free throws. UW's +115 differential was the highest in the nation.
- Wisconsin improved to 37-8 (.822) away from home over the last two seasons (21-3 in 2014-15), owning the most road/neutral wins and the 2nd-best win percentage away from home among major conference teams. ? The Badgers sold out all 16 home games in 2014-15, averaging a Big Ten-best 17,279 per game. That figure also ranked 5th in the nation, trailing only Syracuse, Kentucky, Louisville and North Carolina. UW has led the Big Ten in attendance in 10 of the last 13 seasons and has finished among the nation's top 7 in each of the last 15 years.