When Bo Ryan's 2003 Wisconsin Badgers shocked Tulsa in the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a late rally from 13 points down, the final play was a thing of offensive beauty. Down two with just 12 seconds left, point guard Devin Harris brought the ball up court, drove into the lane to draw a double-team and then kicked out to sharpshooter Freddie Owens on the left wing. With time running down, Owens calmly drained the game-winning 3-pointer from the corner to advance UW to the Sweet 16.

Ah, memories. If the Badgers were in the same situation today, I have a hunch the play might not work out. Sure, point guard Kammron Taylor could penetrate and draw a crowd, but to whom would he pass the ball on the perimeter? Fellow guard Michael Flowers? He's a defensive specialist. Ray Nixon? Well, he is the team's designated 3-point shooter, but at 36 percent, I'd hardly consider him an assassin. Alando Tucker? He does have a flair for the dramatic, but I wouldn't design a play around his long-distance accuracy.

Frankly, big man Brian Butch would probably be the go-to Badger on the wing. That tells you a lot about Butch's game, and a lot more about UW's.

The Badgers are the gang who can't shoot straight, a fact that has taken the promise of a 4-0 start in the Big Ten and turned it into, among other things, a brutal home loss to North Dakota State, an offensive brownout against Illinois, a loss to last-place Purdue and -- at 5-4 in the conference play prior to Tuesday's game versus Indiana -- a spot on the NCAA bubble.

In fairness to Ryan and the Badgers, that's actually not a bad spot to be in, all things considered. UW lost five seniors to graduation from last year's team, including program stalwarts Mike Wilkinson and Clayton Hanson. Their replacements have been young, injured and ineligible, in no particular order.

They've also been ghastly from the outside. Taylor can heat up from long-range and Tucker racks up points via his funky interior moves, but the rest of the Badgers are surely eligible for benefits in the local stonemason's union. Sure, Butch hits about 48 percent from the floor and 29 percent from 3, which isn't bad. But is he really the guy you want to position on the perimeter to spread defenses? Or how about Nixon? He's hitting 36 percent from outside, but he's also the beneficiary of the most open looks on the team. If he was at 45 percent, Hanson's percentage last year, the Badgers might be 7-2 in the conference.

I'm not trying to pick on Nixon, a senior leader who does what he can. But the simple fact is that the Badgers lack the well-rounded offense that has served them so well since Ryan arrived in Madison. They're eighth in the Big 10 in 3-point shooting (34.5 percent), ninth in overall shooting (43.7 percent) and ninth in free-throw shooting (66.3 percent). Tucker provides a quality inside presence, but he's still undersized and a major liability at the line. In previous years, Tucker had guys like Wilkinson and Andreas Helmigk helping out with rebounding and post work on the inside. But this year, the 6-11 Butch likes to float outside waiting for 15-foot jumpers, and sophomore Jason Chappell has been ineffective since Marcus Landry and Greg Stiemsma were declared ineligible.

What it adds up to is this: if Taylor and Tucker aren't both on, the Badgers are likely to lose. And even if they are both on, the team's soft defense might not get enough stops to translate their offensive contributions into a victory.

What Ryan needs, and doesn't seem to have on his current roster, is a slump-proof outside shooter that can take some of the heat off Taylor and Tucker. Last year, he had the ever-reliable Hanson, who happened to be a great defender in addition to a great shooter. The Badgers also featured Sharif Chambliss at point guard, another solid (though streaky) outside shooter. In 2004, it was Hansen, Harris and Owens. In 2003, it was Owens and Kirk Penney. The 2002 team featured younger versions of them all, save Chambliss.

Next year, redshirt freshman Mickey Perry provides some hope for another offensive outlet. The development of forwards Joe Krabbenhoft and Kevin Gullikson, as well as Landry's return, will also help. Incoming freshman Jason Bohannon, technically a point guard, could inject some more life into the offense, as well.

For now, the Badgers will have to muddle along without a consistent shooter to relieve some of the offensive pressure from the team's two primary scorers. Is that enough to carry the Badgers to another NCAA Tournament bid? Perhaps, but only if a lot more shots start falling soon.