Madison Reporter

Riding high on a win streak, Wisconsin's men's basketball team is surpassing expectations and playing hard as they win close games in the Big Ten. 

The Badgers notched a significant win over the Iowa Hawkeyes in the first week of January, winning the game by a score of 87-78.

"I'll take it, one of the best weeks of Badger basketball in my lifetime," Matt Graff said in a post to his Twitter account on Jan. 9. 

Several days after the Iowa win, the Badgers had a tough win over Maryland, pulling out a narrow victory by a score of 70-69. These wins marked five wins in a row for Wisconsin basketball. Thus far in the season they are out performing pre-season expectations for the team. 

Thanks to their success, Wisconsin has climbed to a ranking of No. 23 nationally. They have done this while having a very inexperienced front court, although there are signs of them improving in that regard, such as the 15 offensive rebounds and 18 second chance points the team achieved in the game against Iowa. They also showed toughness by out rebounding Iowa 43-26 on the game. 

Wisconsin's young team remains inconsistent. In the Maryland game they once had a 21-point lead before hanging on for the one-point win, according to a report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.