Few people outside of Madison gave this year's version of Wisconsin's men's basketball team a fighting chance of finishing among the top three in the Big Ten.

That made the celebration sweeter when the Badgers went 16-2 and won the league title outright.

"I'm just so happy for these guys,'' Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said after his remarkable Badgers won their second outright title in the past six years and third Big Ten title overall seven years.

"The thrill is pretty good. It's a great feeling. You could tell by how our guys reacted that this is pretty exciting.''

The players were equally excited after winning the conference title for the first time since 2003.

"We did an excellent job of closing it out," senior Brian Butch said. "We knew what we had to do, we got it done. It's a great feeling to be able to close it out like that and have the Big Ten championship outright. It speaks volumes to this team and what we really want to do and how far we want to go.''

But the fact that the team has surprised most observers by winning the regular season conference title doesn't mean it's going to rest on its laurels. There are bigger prizes to be had for this team - the first being this weekend's Big Ten Conference Tournament in Indianapolis. After that it's on to the NCAA Tournament starting next week.

"We realize we have another game ahead of us," said Butch. "We can go as far as we want to go. It's up to us. That's the mentality we have in that locker room."

That mentality really shows up on the defensive end of the court, which is where the Badgers excelled this season. The team held its opponents to a conference best 54.3 points per game and led the conference in scoring margin at a whopping plus-13.9 points. Throw in the fact that Wisconsin held its opponents to a dismal 38.3 percent shooting from the floor -- also a conference best -- and its clear to see how the Badgers won the conference and have the No. 1 seed heading into the Big 10 Tournament.

"Some teams, you can work with them and show them but they don't quite catch on to the point where it's good enough to cut a net down," Ryan said.

"But this group, defensively, gave themselves a chance to be champions in the Big Ten. From the defensive end, that's where I thought we had a chance.''