Warmed by mysterious dark liquids in their Dasani water bottles and motivated by the desire to get their faces on ESPN, or at least ESPNU, hordes of rowdy Marquette students will huddle in the bitter cold, waiting for hours outside the Bradley Center Saturday night.

Pride will swell in their eyes and goose bumps rise on their arms as the hour of the event draws closer.

This scene can only mean one thing: The Professional Bull Riders traveling rodeo has returned to Milwaukee.

Wait. That can't be it.

The rodeo's audience is usually wearing orange camouflage, not gold body paint, and is slightly less intoxicated.

No, it must be the Wisconsin-Marquette rivalry game, the Golden Eagles' only in-state rival (calling Marquette and Wisconsin-Milwaukee rivals is like calling an avalanche and a skier rivals).

In the 113-game series, Wisconsin is the all-time leader with 62 wins. Marquette, however, won last year's game in Madison 81-76, ending the Badgers 28-game home winning streak.

According to rankings, the Badgers and the Golden Eagles seem to be on a level playing field. The Associated Press' poll ranks Marquette at No. 25 and lists Wisconsin as unranked whereas the ESPN/USA Today poll ranks Wisconsin at No. 22 and lists Marquette as unranked.

Both teams are 6-1, but Wisconsin's only loss came from Connecticut (ranked No. 2 in both polls), who is just slightly better than the Dayton Flyers, the team which handed Marquette its only loss.

And by slightly better, I mean astronomically better.

Wisconsin also just pulled away with a close 74-72 win against Virginia Tech in the Big Ten/ACC challenge Monday night. The Golden Eagles have yet to play a game down to the wire, which gives Wisconsin the edge in the experience department.

But it won't be just the fans in the frigid cold that are hungry for a big win.

"We already have a loss, so we feel like it's get back time," senior guard Dominic James said. "We really need this win."

James said he and the other seniors know what's at stake: The team's resume.

Big wins now mean better seeding in the NCAA Tournament come March, and Marquette doesn't exactly have the easiest schedule going into tournament time.

The Golden Eagles' last five games of the regular season are against five of the best teams in the Big East. Too many losses down the stretch with no big non-conference wins could be disastrous for Marquette. As in, NIT disastrous.

But a win on Saturday will mean something more than a positive check mark on a tournament résumé. Something that probably means a little more to the fans, especially the ones who hail from America's Dairyland, than the players: Bragging rights.

A Golden Eagles win heading into Christmas break would mean Marquette students can gloat to all of their high school friends who opted to be Badgers.

And gloat they will, because deep down inside they know Madison is more trendy than Milwaukee (trendy equals more coffee shops per student), has cooler parties and doesn't smell like a wet towel stuffed in a drawer for two months.

But hey, at least Marquette costs three times as much.

Coach Buzz Williams said the key to a victory will be whether Marquette is mentally tough.

"They're not going to beat themselves and they're going to grind out every possession," Williams said. "That's why the value of a possession, no matter who you're playing or what their name says, is monumental. We'll have to be at our absolute best."

Let's hope Marquette's absolute best is different from its performance against Dayton. Let's hope it has yet to be seen.