INDIANAPOLIS — Somewhere between the two-month Big Ten Conference grind and the survive-and-advance march through the NCAA men's basketball tournament rests the conference tournament.

In the Big Ten, as in many conferences, it rests uneasily.

The 18-game regular season widely is regarded as a more effective way to determine who's No. 1 and the upcoming NCAA tournament is what everyone ultimately will by judged by.

The conference tournament?

"It's kind of a roll-of-the-dice weekend," University of Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said.

For UW's Big Ten regular-season champions, the stakes won't be extremely high when they open conference tournament play with a quarterfinal game against Michigan on Friday at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Barring an upset Friday, the Badgers appear to be locked into a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament.

Indeed, their most important goal this weekend will be to avoid stubbing their toe in their opener and giving the anti-Big Ten faction more ammunition in the NCAA seeding process.

Since UW has little else to gain or lose, anything beyond that will be a bonus this weekend.

"I'd rather have my guys playing," Ryan said. "I'd like to see our guys play three games, because every game they play, I think they have a chance to learn something. So I don't think we can lose anything. We won't lose our self-respect, our dignity, our belief that we can still play."

At 26-4 and playing its best basketball of the season, UW isn't likely to enter the NCAA tournament on anything but a roll.

Some teams start wearing down in March, but these Badgers appear to be enjoying the ride more than most. They are picking up steam.

"It's just another chance to get better as a team, get a couple wins, get a ring and a trophy to represent this school," junior Joe Krabbenhoft said. "The games are nationally televised and (it's a chance) to let people know around the country that we're the No. 1 seed in the tournament for a reason, that we can win it, that we are the best team in the league. We have a lot of things to prove. People want to talk about some teams maybe fighting for their NCAA tournament berth, but we're fighting for a Big Ten tournament championship just as much."

Of course, UW has an NCAA berth locked up.

The only question is where it will be seeded.

A number of upsets around the country have improved UW's seeding possibilities in the tournament over the last two weeks, though things could change again as conference tournaments play out this weekend.

As it stands now, North Carolina, UCLA, Kansas, Tennessee, Memphis and Duke probably have locked up the four No. 1 seeds and two No. 2s. Texas, with victories over three of those six schools, also should be a No. 2. That leaves one No. 2 seed open.

No matter what UW does, however, it will be hard-pressed to wrestle that away from the Big East tournament champion, especially if Georgetown wins the title Saturday.

If UW reaches Sunday's final, a No. 3 NCAA seed should be a lock. Even if the Badgers lose in Saturday's semifinals, their season-long body of work should keep them as a No. 3.

That effectively doubles the stakes for Friday's game.