Marcus Landry and the other three seniors on the Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball team know all about the Paradise Jam.

Landry, forwards Joe Krabbenhoft and Kevin Gullikson and guard Morris Cain were freshmen when the Badgers won the tournament in the U.S. Virgin Islands in November 2005.

But when UW opens play Friday on the island of St. Thomas, the Badgers will likely run up against stiffer competition than they did three years ago.

UW takes on Iona in a first-round game Friday (7:30 p.m. Madison time), with San Diego — a team that returns everyone after advancing to the second round of last year's NCAA tournament — or Valparaiso awaiting the Badgers in the next round.

And should it win its first two games, UW could run into Connecticut — ranked second in the Associated Press Top 25 and considered a serious national title contender — or Miami (Fla.) — ranked 17th behind star senior guard Jack McClinton — in the tournament final.

For the sake of comparison, in 2005 the Badgers beat Norfolk State, Eastern Kentucky and Old Dominion to claim the Paradise title.

"Nothing's going to come easy," said Landry, who averaged 13.0 points in the three wins in 2005. "It's obviously a great place to be, in the Virgin Islands during this time, being cold here. ... But for the most part, it's a business trip, and we've got to go down there and take care of business and have fun. (There are) some great teams down there, so we've got to be ready."

First things first, though.

UW's opener against Iona will be its third game in six days, with a long day of travel in between. And to get to that possible matchup with Connecticut, the Badgers must first take care of business against the Gaels.

"We always deal in the moment," UW coach Bo Ryan said. "So we know what's coming down the road if you want to sit on a Sunday afternoon and open up the schedule and look at the teams that we play. But you, you can have the luxury of doing that.

"What we do is we just deal in the moment and now we're going down to a tournament where there's just a lot of good teams, period. There'll be size, there'll be quickness, there'll be strength. The caliber of teams in this thing, this might be the toughest one that they've had."

It should also be the toughest test to date for the Badgers, who are 2-0 after home wins against Long Beach State and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.

"Hopefully guys are confident and feeling good about themselves and we can go in there and we can make a statement," said Landry, who leads UW in scoring at 19.0 points per game. "Winning is always a positive, so I think it will most definitely help us going into this tournament."

And playing in the tournament should help the Badgers down the road. It will simulate a postseason schedule for a UW team that uses three sophomores and two freshmen in its rotation.

"There'll obviously be weaknesses that will be shown with all the teams down there," Ryan said, "and that's why people get into these types of tournaments, so that you can get better."