FARGO, N.D. (AP) – A North Dakota State team consisting mostly of freshmen had plenty of time to revel in its shocking victory over No. 15 Wisconsin – on a 500-mile bus ride home.

“I’ve never experienced that much excitement through eight hours of travel,” Bison freshman Ben Woodside said Sunday, a day after he scored 24 points in a 62-55 victory. “We were all hyped the whole way home. We could not stop smiling.”

The Bison, in the third year of a five-year NCAA reclassification from Division II to Division I, became the first nonconference team to win at Wisconsin’s Kohl Center in 27 games.

The result made grown men cry, including NDSU athletic director Gene Taylor and assistant coach Saul Phillips, who was the Badgers’ director of basketball operations from 2002 to 2004.

“Coach Phillips was bawling like a baby,” said Bison guard Mike Nelson, a former high school Mr. Basketball award winner from Madison, Wis., who was not recruited by the Badgers.

Nelson attended many games at the Kohl Center while growing up, and said he only saw the Badgers lose one game.

“It’s still hard to imagine,” Nelson said Sunday. “I woke up this morning and thought it was a dream.”

Woodside said no player wanted to win more than Nelson.

“He had dreamed of playing there his whole life,” Woodside said. “He told me right after the game he was the happiest man alive right now.”

Woodside, a 5-foot-11 guard, was 11-of-13 from the free throw line. He made 10 straight free throws in the final 6 minutes, while his teammates went 2-of-11 from the line during that span.

Woodside, from Albert Lea, Minn., grew up wanting to play for the University of Minnesota.

“I’m feeling good about where I’m at right now,” he said. “This whole thing with this win is just starting to kick in.”

The players received a welcome reserved for rock stars when they stopped in a Minneapolis restaurant on the way home. The win was announced over the intercom as the Bison players were shown to their tables, much to the delight of Minnesota fans in the building.

“The people in the restaurant were clapping and cheering for us,” Nelson said. “It was amazing. It was the best day of everybody’s life.”

School president Joseph Chapman was among a group of about 50 people to greet the team when it arrived in Fargo close to midnight. He said it was the most important win in the school’s 116-year history.

Chapman said the timing of the victory couldn’t be better, with the school in the middle of a fundraising campaign to support various programs and remodel the basketball arena.

Engineering and architecture are the largest departments at NDSU, a research-oriented university with an enrollment of 12,000. The school’s most accomplished athlete was Phil Hansen, a defensive lineman who played 11 years for the Buffalo Bills.

“Our phones have just been ringing off the hook with calls from alumni, fans and friends,” Chapman said. “And people outside the university want to know where these Bison come from and who they are.”

School officials were criticized when they made the jump to Division I two years ago. The Bison still don’t have a conference and aren’t eligible for the NCAA basketball tournament until 2009. The move caused hard feelings throughout the state, because it broke up a long rivalry with Division II University of North Dakota.

“It was a challenging move and not everyone was on board with it,” Taylor said. “But you look at all the interest throughout the country in this win over Wisconsin. You cannot put a price on that exposure for the athletic program and the university.”

Taylor said the Bison bused to and from Madison primarily so the redshirt players sitting out the season could make the trip. Nine of the active players on the roster are freshmen, six of whom play regularly.

“It gives those redshirt players a chance to enjoy the experience,” Taylor said. “Of course, at the time, we didn’t know it was going to be a win.”

AP-ES-01-22-06 1636EST