The Wisconsin Badgers are an NCAA Division I college basketball team competing in the Big Ten Conference.

The Badgers' home games are played at the Kohl Center, located on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus in Madison, Wisconsin.

Wisconsin has 1,705 wins through the end of the 2023–24 season which is top 50 all-time among Division I college basketball programs.

Wisconsin Badger basketball began in December, 1898 with the formation of its first team coached by Dr. James C. Elsom.

In the 1906–07 season, Wisconsin won its first share of the Big Ten Championship, under the coaching of Emmett Angell.

Between the 1917–18 and 1919–20 seasons, Guy Lowman coached the Badgers, leading them to a 1918 Big Ten Conference Championship before Meanwell returned in 1920.

Meanwell would also coach two All-Americans during his Wisconsin career, George Levis in 1916 and Harold "Bud" Foster in 1930.

Starting with the 1934–35 season, former UW basketball player Bud Foster began coaching the Wisconsin Badgers.

In his first season as head coach, he led the Badgers to their 12th Big Ten Conference Championship in 28 years.

Foster coached three All-Americans during his tenure – Gene Englund in 1941, John Kotz in 1942 and Don Rehfeldt in 1950.

They also notched only two winning records in Big Ten play and finished as high as fourth only four times.

Among the few bright spots during this time were the 1962 win over number one ranked Ohio State and stars Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek, NIT appearances under Steve Yoder in 1989 and 1991, and another in 1992 under Stu Jackson.

The revival of Wisconsin basketball began in the early 1990s, when Yoder and Jackson recruited and developed Michael Finley, Tracy Webster, Rashard Griffith and other talented players.

Beyond most expectations, they defeated #9 Fresno St, #1 Arizona, #4 LSU, and #6 Purdue in order to advance to the Final Four.

Soderberg led Wisconsin to a 16–10 record (18–11 overall), but was upset in the first round of the NCAA tournament by Georgia State.

Since the late 1990s Wisconsin has turned into a basketball powerhouse making regular trips to the NCAA Tournament.

The Badgers defeated St. John's 90–80 in Ryan's first NCAA tournament game before falling to eventual national champion Maryland.

However, because the game was played too late to be taken under consideration by the NCAA tournament selection committee, the Badgers received a #6 seed.

In the Big Ten tournament semifinal against Iowa, Alando Tucker made a long shot at the buzzer to give UW a 3-point win, but the Badgers lost to #1 ranked Illinois in the championship.

On February 19, 2007, the Badgers earned their first #1 ranking in school history[2] with a 26–2 record, but the next day, were defeated by the unranked Michigan State Spartans 64–55 at the Breslin Center.

The Badgers defeated the Fighting Illini in the semi-finals, 53–41, to advance to the finals against Ohio State, where they were beaten 66–49.

They followed that up with a win in the second round over Michael Beasley and the Kansas State Wildcats, due in part to 25 points from sophomore Trevon Hughes.

The 2012–13 Badgers lost junior starting point guard Josh Gasser, who tore his ACL in October.

Wisconsin defeated Michigan and Indiana in the Big Ten tournament before losing to Ohio State in the championship.

Greg Gard, who had been on Ryan's staff since his days at UW-Platteville, was named interim head coach in December 2015.

[5] Earlier, Wisconsin had dropped the interim tag from Gard's title and named him head coach.

They defeated Villanova 65–62 to advance to the Sweet Sixteen for the fourth straight year, only to lose 84–83 to 4 seed Florida on a last-second buzzer beater in overtime by Chris Chiozza.

They defeated Maryland in the second round of the Big Ten tournament,[6] followed by a loss to Michigan State in the quarterfinals.

[8] Wisconsin entered the Big Ten tournament as the 4 seed, after they earned a double bye, and beat Nebraska before they were defeated by Michigan State in the semifinals.

When Wisconsin retires jerseys the numbers stay in circulation, but a banner hangs in the rafters of the Kohl Center.