INDIANAPOLIS — With just more than 6 minutes left in its Big Ten Conference tournament semifinal against Michigan State on Saturday at Conseco Fieldhouse, the University of Wisconsin men's basketball team was down 10 and on its last legs.

Indeed, the eighth-ranked Badgers exhibited all the symptoms of a tired team.

They were missing free throws, leaving their shots short, getting whistled for not-quite-there blocking fouls and generally falling short of the Spartans on the energy meter. With guard Trevon Hughes out after turning an ankle, there wasn't much help from the bench, either.

Right about that time, you couldn't help but wonder if UW, the Big Ten regular-season champion, needed an extra day of rest before the NCAA tournament more than it needed a trophy from a spirit-challenged tournament that is little more than cash cow for the conference.

That's when UW, true to the tough-minded character it has displayed since that improbable victory at Texas in December, shot down any notion that a loss and an early trip home would be beneficial to its NCAA chances.

Sorry, but giving up isn't in this UW team's makeup, and keeping that never-say-die attitude alive — indeed, enhancing it — with a come-from-behind 65-63 victory over 19th-ranked Michigan State will be more important to the Badgers in the coming weeks than spending another night in their own beds.

"There's only upside," forward Joe Krabbenhoft said. "We only get more game experience to improve, learn what we can do to get better. We're playing for a championship, it can't get much better than that. I feel like there's no downside to playing. Yeah, our legs are tired right now and they'll be tired tomorrow, but we're going to be ready to go."

A more pertinent question is whether the Badgers' legs will be tired when they open NCAA tournament play Thursday or Friday. After today's Big Ten final against an Illinois team that will be playing its fourth game in four days, UW will have a shorter turnaround than most teams in the Big Dance.

Coach Bo Ryan said Friday he didn't mind playing three straight days and ending on Sunday if the NCAA selection committee gave UW a Friday start. But Ryan, no fan of conference tournaments, didn't exactly give a ringing endorsement to this weekend's proceedings when asked if playing Sunday would be a burden to his team as it prepares for the NCAA tournament.

"If I say it is and if we talk about it and we become (moaning)-type people and throw pity parties, then it probably would happen that we look tired," he said. "We can't let that happen. They certainly didn't play that way the last 6 minutes."

No, the Badgers didn't. That goes back to the win over then-No. 9 Texas, when UW chased the Longhorns throughout the second half and finally passed them on Michael Flowers' shot at the buzzer. UW's rally against a foul-plagued Michigan State team only reinforced the lesson that if the Badgers just keeping doing what they do, they are a hard team to shake. Or beat.

"The locker room was very, very happy," center Brian Butch said. "We've had a lot of guys go through a lot of things and keep on fighting and keep on finding ways to win."

Based on the booing as the referees left the floor, some thought UW needed help to find a way to win. Four of Michigan State's five big men fouled out, leaving an obviously ticked-off coach Tom Izzo to finish the game with little-used reserves Tom Herzog and Isaiah Dahlman on the floor.

But Izzo's anger was misdirected. It looked like the referees showed up with a mandate from the conference, which was to call the game closely and eliminate rough play after the Big Ten was panned nationally for its lack of offense in its four games Friday. The crew had a consistently quick whistle for all 40 minutes, calling 49 fouls — 30 on Michigan State.

Izzo, whose record against Ryan fell to 3-11, was so despondent afterward he flatly rejected any suggestion that his team might benefit by going home and resting up before the NCAA tournament.

"The only silver lining is I had some guys that left it all on the floor," Izzo said. "There's no silver lining. There'll never be a silver lining in losing and, the way that game went, there'll never, ever be a silver lining."

Maybe not for Michigan State. But there will be for UW.