UW is a basketball school.

It may be for this year only, but, as they do at Kentucky, Duke, North Carolina and other basketball-first schools, UW fans have largely pulled the plug on football and are eagerly anticipating the start of the men's basketball season.

So are the Badgers, though it has nothing to do with football.

"We're just ready for basketball to start," junior guard Jason Bohannon said this week, the first full week of practice for the Badgers. "I don't know about everyone else, but we're ready for it to get going."

Why wouldn't they be?

They've won 30 and 31 games the last two years and last season won the Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles. The comparative lack of success in the NCAA tournament is an underlying issue only the Badgers can make go away, but aside from that, the program put together by coach Bo Ryan is rolling merrily along, methodically retooling every year and generally exceeding expectations.

Ryan admits, however, expectations are growing for a program that has averaged 24.7 wins per year during his seven seasons.

Asked what he has established during his time at UW, Ryan said, "High expectations from outsiders on our players. I don't ever feel it, (but) it's a jungle out there. I don't remind the guys that if they don't (meet expectations), here's what's going to happen. I don't get into that. I just always coach and teach from the standpoint of, here's what we need to do to be successful."

The way Ryan builds his program, even the loss of defensive whiz Michael Flowers and twin towers Brian Butch and Greg Stiemsma shouldn't preclude another run at a 25- to 30-win season in 2008-09.

"Every year we lose somebody and every year we get a chance to see a freshman or an underclassman step into a position and make plays for this team," junior guard Trevon Hughes said. "Last year we had those players and this year we're going to look for those players again."

If Ryan's history is any indication, the players making the greatest jump will be those in their second year in the program. Keaton Nankivil, Jon Leuer and Tim Jarmusz got only sporadic playing time last year but will join four experienced veterans to form the foundation of a team that will be smaller but more athletic than Ryan's recent squads.

Though they know the expectations are growing, the UW players view them more as motivation than anything else.

"The last few years we had some great years and the things we established are great things," senior forward Marcus Landry said. "We're obviously one of the best teams to play here at Wisconsin. We've set some records and things like that, but records are meant to be broken. That's what the guys to come are trying to do and that's what I'm trying to do while I'm still here. I'm trying to be better than we were last year and the years before that."

At a basketball school like UW, don't bet against it.