The calm before the Badgers storm on State Street Friday night



MADISON (WITI) -- In Madison, the excitement over Saturday night's big Badgers Final Four game is palpable. It is the day UW students have been waiting for all week! Last weekend, they took State Street by storm when the Badgers beat Arizona and advanced to the Final Four. Things were pretty calm on Friday -- but there will be a lot of activity on State Street on Saturday night!

Some of the UW students FOX6 News spoke with on Friday night said they plan to take it easy so they can get up early on Saturday and start celebrating the Badgers!

"It`s been really hard to focus and study on school but we`re almost there now," UW sophomore Peter Roth said.

FOX6 News found students studying hard on Friday, so they can focus all of their energy Saturday on basketball.

"We`ll get all our work done tonight so tomorrow probably get up early, put red on and just start getting ready for the game," UW sophomore Dylan Desrochers said.

Union South is expecting hundreds of students will watch the Wisconsin-Kentucky Final Four game on its big screen.

If Wisconsin wins -- students say they'll be celebrating among thousands.

"Once the game's over,obviously win or lose, I think State Street's gonna be crazy," Desrochers said.

State Street was packed with people last Saturday, as students rushed in from all ends of campus.

"It was incredible. It was probably one of the coolest things I`ve ever been a part of," Roth said.

"Last weekend we saw upwards of 10,000 people rush State Street in pretty much 15 minutes," UW Police Public Information Office Marc Lovicott said.

UW Police are calling last weekend's celebration a success -- with no arrests and only 15 or so citations by Madison police.

Still, both agencies are stepping up their police presence this Saturday -- with a mobile command center, mounted patrols and canine officers.

"We`re not expecting anybody to be disruptive or anything like that. We`re ready in case that happens and we`ve been working with Madison Police all week on that, but we really are hoping and expecting our Badgers fans to be responsible and to be true Badgers," Lovicott said.

Lexie Bindley and Natasha Bateman returned to the scene of the celebration on Friday -- this time, carrying home new Final Four T-shirts.

"You never know when this will happen again," Bindley said.