MILWAUKEE - Location, location, location.

The 10th-ranked Wisconsin Badgers are far from disappointed about their No. 6 seed in the East Rutherford Regional, despite being 24-6 and the Big Ten tournament champs.

After all, they got to practice on their home court in Madison Thursday, then took a leisurely 75-mile bus trip to Milwaukee, where the Badgers will face 11th-seeded Richmond (20-12) in the NCAA tournament tonight.

"It should be a comfortable feeling coming in knowing it's pretty much a home game," said senior guard Freddie Owens, one of three Badgers starters who grew up in Milwaukee.

In other games at the Bradley Center, third-seeded Pittsburgh plays No. 14 seed Central Florida, sixth-seeded Boston College faces No. 11 seed Utah, and No. 3 seed Georgia Tech faces No. 14 seed Northern Iowa.

Wisconsin fans are sure to make the Bradley Center look, sound and feel just like the Kohl Center, where the Badgers are coming off their first perfect home campaign in 74 seasons and have won 28 straight games.

They haven't had an NCAA tournament game in front of so many red-clad fans since March 22, 1941, when they beat Pittsburgh at the UW Field House in Madison a week before winning their only national title.

In the last three seasons, they've had to fly 1,342 miles to Boise, Idaho; 707 miles to Washington, D.C.; and 1,388 miles to Spokane, Wash., to play in the opening round.

"It's nice to stay in your time zone," center Mike Wilkinson said. "And we don't have to adjust to the climate."

Point guard Devin Harris, the first Badger to win Big Ten player of the year honors in more than a half-century, and Boo Wade are the other Wisconsin starters from Milwaukee.

Starters Wilkinson and Dave Mader and four reserves grew up elsewhere in Wisconsin.

"Some of our players are mentioning they have relatives they didn't know they had," Badgers coach Bo Ryan said. "I said, 'Well, you can get some names and addresses for the next family reunion, just tell them you don't have any tickets for them.'"

The Spiders are accustomed to quieting hostile crowds, however. They won at Xavier and also at Kansas in January when the Jayhawks were in the Top 10.

"We've played well on the road all year long, so we don't see why this situation should be any different," said Spiders senior guard Tony Dobbins, the two-time Atlantic 10 defensive player of the year.

Richmond coach Jerry Wainwright provided the Spiders with their motto when he said: "I don't think we came here as tourists."

Fans in Milwaukee are already looking to Sunday's possible matchup against Pittsburgh, a school whose fans felt slighted by both the Panthers' seeding and their destination.

But Richmond has pulled off two of the greatest upsets in NCAA tournament history. The Spiders dispatched defending national champion Indiana as a 13th seed in 1988, and became the first No. 15 seed to win when they upset second-seeded Syracuse three years later.

Despite the temptations of hanging out too long with hometown friends, the Badgers didn't have a curfew once they got to Brew Town.

Instead, Ryan relied on injured guard Alando Tucker, who's out for the season with a knee injury, to set up his chair in the hotel hallway and serve as self-appointed bed-checker as he did at the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis.

If the Badgers can win two games in Milwaukee, then the stresses and strains of playing close to home will lighten up - or will they?

"Now I'm getting pressure from my family back in Philly: We gotta make it to East Rutherford," said Ryan, who was born and raised in the Philadelphia area not too far from the Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey. "I can't catch a break."

AP-ES-03-19-04 0408EST