Former University of Wisconsin guard Mike Kelley chuckles at the number of people he still hears from, who talk about the "favorable" matchups the Badgers had during their run to the NCAA Final Four in 2000.

"In retrospect, we did," said Kelley, a junior on UW's last Final Four team. "But if we lose to Fresno State in the first round, no one's saying that same thing. Or if we lost to Arizona (in the second round), I don 't think anybody would feel that way."

Just about anybody who has ever tried to fill out a bracket for the men's basketball tournament can tell you it's all about the matchups. But deciphering the potential land mines when the brackets are announced is the hard part.

When ESPN analyst Jay Bilas was asked about the importance of matchups in the tournament, he said, "It's the whole thing. Who can explain why one team wins all their games but against one opponent? Some teams match up well with other teams and some don't. It's based on style of play and it's always been that way."

The Badgers found out Sunday they are seeded third in the Midwest Regional and will open with 14th-seeded Cal State-Fullerton (24-8), which tied for first in the Big West, then won its conference title as the third seed by beating UC Irvine in the title game. The Titans are making their first NCAA appearance in 30 years.

If UW wins that game, it could face sixth-seeded Southern California (21-11) and heralded freshman O.J. Mayo in the second round.

It's dangerous to look much further down the road than that -- remember UW's upset loss as the second seed to seventh-seeded UNLV last year in the second round? -- but second-seeded Georgetown (27-5) could be waiting in the Sweet Sixteen and top-seeded Kansas (31-3) in the Elite Eight.

Kelley, who works as an analyst for ESPN, thinks the Badgers have the makings of a tough out in the tournament, thanks to their consistency and style of play under coach Bo Ryan.

"I've been very impressed with them all year long," Kelley said. "They're a team that tilts the odds in their favor, whenever they step on the court, by doing all the little things that Bo's teams have traditionally done: taking care of the basketball, winning the rebounding battle, winning the foul battle and taking good shots.

"Maybe the biggest thing I'm impressed with is their consistency. They don't seem to ride the highs and lows other teams do. Not just being consistent, but consistently good."

If the Badgers have an Achilles' heel, it was apparently exposed in losses to Purdue (twice), Marquette and Duke. They supposedly have problems with teams that are big and athletic on the perimeter.

"They all have athletic guards and can spread you out a little bit," Bilas said of the three teams to beat UW. "What those teams did to Wisconsin, they did to everybody else, so that's got to be factored in as well."

Kelley hears the same thing about the kinds of teams that might give the Badgers fits. But he also points out, UW beat that kind of a team in Texas, on the road, without point guard Trevon Hughes.

"I think if you're going to beat Wisconsin, you have to be very sound," Kelley said. "You can do that with a bunch of supposedly slow guys, or you can do it with a bunch of really fast guys. You have to play the game at a high level, you have to take care of the basketball.

"If there's anything I'd always say about trying to beat a Bo Ryan team, you can't let them dictate what's going to happen, especially on the offensive end. Bo's teams are too good at what they do. They force you to be better than them defensively and most people just aren't better than them."

The Trojans have big, athletic guards, especially Mayo and Dwight Lewis, who are both 6-foot-5. They also play in the Pacific-10, one of the nation's strongest conferences.

USC must first get past Kansas State and another phenomenal freshman in 6-10 Michael Beasley.

"That will be quite a matchup, two of the guys that have been high profile all year long, Mayo and Beasley," CBS anaylyst Billy Packer said during the selection show. "But they may go to school, the winner of that game, when they play against Wisconsin and Bo Ryan. It will be a game and a style they haven 't seen in a long time."

Some of the TV analysts, including Packer, regard the Midwest as the weakest of the four regionals. None of that matters to the Badgers, who have been hearing all season about the weak Big Ten Conference.

"I feel it's the toughest (regional) for one reason -- and that's because we're in it," UW junior swingman Joe Krabbenhoft. "The top 65 teams in the country are playing and it's going to be a battle every single game for every single team. We're not overlooking anybody, but with Michael Beasley and O.J. Mayo and their teams looming in the second round, obviously it's going to be a lot of fun for us."

Kelley said when the brackets came out last year, he didn't regard UNLV as a poor matchup for the Badgers. The Runnin' Rebels won 74-68 when fifth-year senior Kevin Kruger got hot from 3-point range, scoring 12 of his 16 points in the second half.

That 's the thing about matchups, favorable or otherwise, all it takes is a performance like that to skewer everybody's predictions. Or an injury, like the dislocated right elbow forward Brian Butch suffered late last season, which caused him to miss the postseason.

"Wisconsin was in a position where they lost Butch, they didn't have enough time to figure out how they were going to be good without him and it caught them," Kelley said.

Even if UW runs into a tough matchup in the first two rounds, Kelley is not sure it will matter if the Badgers continue to do the things they have done all season.

"I do think the team is very well-suited to have a deep run in the tournament," Kelley said. "To me, I think teams that do well in the tournament have well-defined roles, have some very good scorers and some very good defenders, very good rebounders.

"It seems to me, there's an advantage to a team that knows who it is and is humble that way. This team has that."