OMAHA, Neb. — If Marcus Landry needed a pick-me-up after drawing the short straw and having to guard Kansas State superstar Michael Beasley all day, he got it when he looked across the University of Wisconsin locker room at senior center Greg Stiemsma.

"I'm so proud of Greg, the way he played," Landry said. "Obviously, the way he played, he was telling us he doesn't want to go home yet."

Obviously, the way the rest of the Badgers played Saturday at the Qwest Center, they were telling us they don't want to go home yet, either.

Putting together the kind of complete game that has eluded it for much of this increasingly remarkable season, UW's 72-55 victory over Kansas State in the NCAA men's basketball tournament advanced it to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2005 and sent strong a message to the typically disbelieving college basketball world.

That message?

If the Badgers continue to play the way they played against the Wildcats, they're going to be very hard to beat.

"We're definitely real tough to beat," Stiemsma said. "We feel like we're one of the top programs in the nation, we've just been trying to play like it lately. ... We're just going to play our style of ball. Not everybody is a big fan of watching it. It doesn't matter to us, as long as we keep winning. It works for us."

The Badgers hope it continues to work in the Midwest Regional in Detroit, where the stakes and the competition will rise simultaneously.

After Saturday, though, there is little question that UW has what it takes to compete against anyone. Kansas State is by no means a great team.

The third-place finisher in the Big 12 Conference is too young for that. But in Beasley and Bill Walker, the Wildcats have two freshmen who will play in the NBA, perhaps as early as next season.

Still, when UW turned Kansas State into a frustrated, distracted group by early in the second half, it showed that it is putting it all together at exactly the right time.

UW's frontline of Landry, Joe Krabbenhoft and Brian Butch, all consistent point producers lately, totaled only 13 against Kansas State.

That might be a problem for some teams, but not UW.

It still won its school-record 31st game of the season going away.

That's because the other Badgers showed they're ready to fill in the blanks, to provide whatever is needed to produce a complete team effort.

With UW's big men expending so much energy defending Beasley, guards Trevon Hughes and Michael Flowers outscored Kansas State's starting backcourt 40-4.

The Wildcats packed the lane on defense, so UW sank nine 3-point shots, going 7-for-15 in the first half.

The Badgers defense, faced with one of its toughest challenges of the year, limited Beasley to six second-half points and held the high-scoring Wildcats to a season low in points.

And Stiemsma, who sometimes doesn't play much against short, quick teams such as Kansas State, provided a huge boost with 14 points and seven rebounds in 14 incredibly productive minutes.

"Kansas State is a very good team," UW coach Bo Ryan said. "They posed a lot of problems and fortunately our players found some solutions."

Indeed, UW had an answer for everything Kansas State did. In the process, it looked like a team without a weakness.

"When everything is clicking and you're countering everything your opponent is throwing at you and you're staying within the system and you see Trevon scoring from the outside and getting all the people in position and you see Greg playing unbelievable basketball, it was just an exciting game," Flowers said. "(It was) a game I probably won't ever forget against a good team."

Whether it was shooting, defending or handling the ball against pressure, the Badgers found someone to get the job done.

They weren't perfect Saturday — the allowed too many offensive rebounds — but they have, at last, become a complete team, a team with no overt weakness, a team that can compete with anyone when it shows up in Detroit for the regional semifinal Friday.

"I'd like to think we'd be pretty tough (to beat)," Krabbenhoft said. "That's to be determined. We'll see on, what Sunday? No, I mean Friday. ... (But) we're playing Sunday, too."

If the Badgers play like they did against Kansas State, that's a distinct possibility.

Contact Tom Oates at toates@madison.com or 608-252-6172.