EAST LANSING -- An interim coach anointed midseason, fighting to replace legend Bo Ryan full-time. A .500 record and in the middle of a three-game skid, coming off a loss at Northwestern.
This wasn’t the same Wisconsin that, just nine months earlier, came a half-dozen points away from a national title.
Yet when Michigan State entered the Kohl Center on Jan. 17 and walked out with a stunning-at-the-time one-point loss, no team in the Big Ten – and maybe the country – has been as hot as the Badgers.
New coach Greg Gard has orchestrated seven straight wins as Wisconsin makes a return visit Thursday night to Breslin Center to face the ninth-ranked Spartans (9 p.