GAME NOTES: The fourth-ranked Wisconsin Badgers take aim at their ninth straight win, as they visit one of the two new members of the Big Ten Conference, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Sunday evening.

Save for an 80-70 home loss to Duke in early December, Wisconsin has been perfect this season, the team going 15-1, which includes a 3-0 mark in Big Ten play. The Badgers claimed a 62-55 win over visiting Purdue last Wednesday to improve to 8-1 at home. They are 4-0 in true road games, and 7-0 outside of Madison all told when you factor in their 3-0 mark in neutral-site affairs.

Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan recorded his school-record 159th Big Ten victory in the win over Purdue.

Rutgers has had an up and down season to this point, winning nine of its first 16 games, and only one of three Big Ten bouts. The Scarlet Knights suffered a 65-49 setback at Nebraska on Thursday, that coming five days after they logged their first-ever Big Ten victory at home against Penn State (50-46).

RU's last win over a ranked opponent was a 67-62 verdict over No. 24 Pittsburgh at the RAC on Jan. 5, 2013. The highest ranked team that Rutgers has ever defeated was a 74-64 final versus No. 6 West Virginia at the RAC on Feb. 27, 1982.

Wisconsin has won all three previous meetings with Rutgers, the most recent being a 70-62 decision on the road back on Dec. 4, 2004.

Despite being outshot and outrebounded, Wisconsin still found a way to knock off visiting Purdue earlier in the week. The Badgers got 21 points from Frank Kaminsky, 15 from Josh Gasser and 13 from Traevon Jackson. Sam Dekker tallied just six points, but earned his 1,000th career point in the process. The Badgers missed 11 of their 14 3-point attempts, but used a massive 25-3 edge in points at the foul line to earn the hard-fought victory.

Kaminsky continues to live up his billing as the Big Ten's Preseason Player of the Year, as he averages 16.9 points and 8.2 rebounds per game. Dekker (12.3 ppg, 4.6 rpg) and Nigel Hayes (12.1 ppg, 6.9 rpg) are the other double-digit scorers for the Badgers, who put up 74.2 ppg in hitting 49.2 percent of their field goal attempts, and 74.8 percent of their free throws. Conversely, foes are generating just 54.1 ppg, as UW puts the clamps down on defense in permitting success on only 39.9 percent of the opposition's field goal chances. Wisconsin is tops in the nation in fewest turnovers per game (8.5).

Poor shooting and carelessness with the basketball proved to be Rutgers' undoing in its first Big Ten road clash, as the team knocked down only 34.7 percent of its field goal attempts, which included a mere 2-of-13 effort from 3-point range. The Scarlet Knights converted just 13-of-23 free throws as well, while committing an unsightly 19 turnovers. Bishop Daniels paced RU with a dozen points off the bench, while the only starter to reach double figures was Kadeem Jack with 11. Jack was guilty of five miscues.

Myles Mack and Jack rank one-two on the team's scoring list for the season, but they net only 13.3 and 12.1 ppg, respectively. As a result of the rather anemic attack, the Scarlet Knights are generating just 58.2 ppg, which ranks as the worst figure in the Big Ten, and has the team ranked as one of the worst in the country. Fortunately, Rutgers is giving up only 60.5 ppg, or its record would likely be well below .500, rather than two games over at the moment.

Simply put, RU has little chance of pulling off the upset of a Wisconsin squad that does just about everything right on the basketball court. The Knights will certainly try, but it won't make much of a difference.