Racially obsessed USA Today on Friday wrote this headline: “Wisconsin doesn't hide from 'white guys' reputation.”

Josh Peter assembled current and former Badger players, former assistant coaches, and “authorities on the African-American experience” to answer: “Why is the Badgers' roster predominantly white?”

When the Final Four is played Saturday in Indianapolis, all five starters for Kentucky, Duke and Michigan State will be African American. Wisconsin's starting lineup, by contrast, includes one African American, forward Nigel Hayes. The average Division I men's basketball team this season includes nine African-American players and four white players, according to data provided by the NCAA. At Wisconsin, the roster includes five African Americans, 10 whites and one Native American. This year's starting lineup is no aberration. When Wisconsin played Kentucky in the Final Four last year, it had one African American in the starting lineup. When the Badgers reached the Final Four under previous coach Dick Bennett in 2000 — in the school's only other appearance since 1941 — it had one African-American starter.

Former Badgers point guard Jordan Taylor told of being was needled by a teammate about Wisconsin's chances against undefeated Kentucky.

"He was just saying we've got too many white guys," Taylor says with a chuckle. "I still get kind of poked at, teased about it, because it always seems like there are about four white guys and a black point guard all the time (in Wisconsin's starting lineup)."

“Too many white guys?” Is that funny? It’s proof that you can’t be racist for joking that whites are inferior at basketball.

Peter eventually, near the very end, relayed the obvious: coach Bo Ryan recruits heavily inside the state, and “African Americans represent 6.5% of Wisconsin's population, about half the national percentage.” Add to that Ryan’s low-scoring, slow-tempo style arouses complaints from basketball stars who want to score a lot and audition for the NBA.