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GAME NOTES: One of five teams playing above .500 against the rest of the Big Ten Conference, the 14th-ranked Wisconsin Badgers take their act on the road tonight as they settle in against the Minnesota Golden Gophers at Williams Arena in Minneapolis.

The Badgers are currently 9-4 versus the rest of the league, which leaves Michigan State, Ohio State and Purdue, all nationally-ranked programs, still ahead of them in the conference standings. Last Saturday afternoon, Wisconsin bounced back from a loss against Illinois four days earlier with an 83-55 rout of Indiana at home. The victory was the third in the last four outings for the Badgers and their 14th in 15 tries at home in 2009-10.

As for the Golden Gophers, who are 5-7 in league action thus far, they are trying to avoid their second three-game slide in the last five weeks. On Valentine's Day, they paid a visit to Northwestern and were turned away in a 77-74 overtime final, the squad's third loss in the last four outings.

With respect to the all-time series between these two schools on the hardwood, Minnesota leads by a count of 93-84 entering tonight's contest. The most recent meeting came last season here in Williams Arena, with the Gophers picking up a 51-46 triumph.

Jason Bohannon surged far beyond his previous career high of 20 points as he dropped a game-high 30 in the crushing win over Indiana the last time out. The 28-point margin of victory was the second-largest ever for the Badgers in their series against the Hoosiers, trailing only a 79-45 win in January of 2004. Bohannon sank 11-of-16 shots from the floor, including 7-of-11 behind the three-point line, while Trevon Hughes and Jordan Taylor accounted for 16 and 11 points, respectively. With Jon Leuer (15.4 ppg) still working his way back from injury, Hughes (15.4 ppg) and Bohannon (12.0 ppg) stand as the top active scorers for Wisconsin after 25 games. Between the pair they have converted 109 three-point baskets, easily the lion's share of the unit's 188 triples in 2009-10. But more important than the Wisconsin offense is a defensive stance that has limited opponents to a meager 56.4 ppg so far this season, one of the best efforts in all of college basketball.

Minnesota led by as many as 13 points with eight minutes remaining in the second half against the Wildcats, but Northwestern came alive at the right time, forced overtime and then captured the three-point home win against the Golden Gophers. Lawrence Westbrook converted half of his eight three-pointers to come away with 22 points, followed by Devoe Joseph and Paul Carter who chipped in 16 and 13 points, respectively. Joseph also delivered seven assists and six rebounds before fouling out. Averaging just under 26 minutes per game this season, Westbrook is still the top scorer for Minnesota with his 13.4 ppg, having converted 41.6 percent of his three-point tries. Hoffarber (11.6 ppg) has been even more accurate beyond the arc for the Gophers at 49.3 percent and has combined with Westbrook to account for 106 of the unit's 172 three-point conversions this season. Most importantly, the team as a whole is shooting close to 40 percent on the perimeter, compared to only 34.7 percent for the opposition.

Unless the Golden Gophers can locate some untapped offensive resources, they are bound to have trouble scoring against Wisconsin just like most foes of the Badgers this season.