Men’s basketball

Teams can learn to win, and they can also learn to lose.

Northwestern (10-12, 1-8 Big Ten) has lost eight straight games and will likely be in for some more trouble Saturday. The Wildcats will be heavy underdogs when they face No. 5 Wisconsin (20-2, 8-1) at the Kohl Center, leaving their hopes of halting the streak at eight unlikely at best.

But that doesn’t mean coach Chris Collins is content with accepting anything less than a victory.

“There has to be a great sense of urgency amongst our group,” Collins said. “I want those guys to not lose confidence, but I want them to hurt real bad about it. I don’t want losing to become the norm and something that’s accepted. And sometimes that’s what happens when you get on a losing streak.”

Last season, NU was embarrassed by the Badgers at Welsh-Ryan Arena, 76-49, in its Big Ten opener.

The beatdown was not quite as bad this year when Wisconsin visited Evanston, but the Cats were still completely overmatched in an 81-58 defeat.

History is on the Cats’ side though, as NU followed up last year’s home faceplant with a shocking 65-56 win in Madison a few weeks later. Kenpom.com gave Wisconsin a 95.3 percent win probability in that matchup.

This time around, the Badgers hold a 97 percent chance of waltzing away with a season sweep of the Cats.

“People know when you play us you’ve got to show up and play us and you’ve got to play well,” Collins said. “We have to turn that into getting over the hump and getting some wins.”

Wisconsin enters Saturday on a five-game winning streak and leads the Big Ten by 1.5 games. The Badgers lead the nation in adjusted offensive efficiency and have five players in the top 70 for offensive rating.

Senior forward Frank Kaminsky leads the way, along with junior forward Sam Dekker and sophomore forward Nigel Hayes.

Collins has used Kaminsky’s progression as an example to his young players of the growth someone can have over a college career.

Kaminsky, an unheralded recruit out of high school, played just 7.7 minutes per game as a freshman, scoring 1.8 points and grabbing 1.4 rebounds per contest. He remained a bench player as a sophomore but then blossomed into a star last season. Now, as a senior, he is averaging 17.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game and is Kenpom.com’s frontrunner for national player of the year.

“I think there’s always been a lot of potential in him,” said senior guard Dave Sobolewski, who was Kaminsky’s teammate at Benet Academy. “But at the same time, I don’t know if anybody projected how good he’d really become. I don’t think even he projected it.”

NU is trying to find success with a young team that has now experienced more losing than winning. Looking at how Wisconsin develops players like Kaminsky, Collins sees a model NU could use to find more victories.

“Unless you are these guys who are just freaks of nature, you have to go through a process at this level and learn how to win and learn what it takes physically and mentally to be successful,” Collins said.

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Twitter: @Jesse_Kramer