If you've heard Bo Ryan say it once, you've heard him say it a million times.

The 60-year-old Wisconsin coach doesn't like to compare or contrast players, teams, coaches, bratwurst or pretty much anything that the sporting public loves to compare.

Ryan mentioned his aversion again Saturday afternoon after his 10th-ranked Badgers knocked off Northwestern 69-52 to claim the outright Big Ten title with a 16-2 record.

But immediately after stating he'll never compare his teams, he did provide this telling nugget about this year's model: "This group has come as far as any team I've ever had."

That says volumes about these Badgers, who were given virtually zero shot in the preseason to capture the school's first Big Ten title since 2003.

After losing conference player of the year Alando Tucker, standout guard Kammron Taylor and steady post defender Jason Chappell from last year's 30-win crew, Wisconsin wasn't ranked among the top three teams in the Big Ten media's preseason poll. The Badgers also didn't receive enough votes from the media or the coaches to appear among the Top 35 teams in the national preseason polls.

So what is Wisconsin doing among the nation's top 10 going into the postseason? The secret, Ryan says, is defensive desire. The Badgers lead the nation in scoring defense at 53.4 points per game.

"On the defensive end, they were willing to make that commitment to cover, help, pinch, sink -- all the terms that we use defensively," Ryan said in the Daily Herald. "Some teams, you can work with them, show them, but they don't just quite catch on to the point where it's good enough to maybe cut a net down. But this group, defensively, gave themselves a chance to be champions in the Big Ten. That's the first hurdle."

Next up? The Big Ten tournament, where the top-seeded Badgers have reached the title game three of the last four years.

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