DENVER — BYU and Wisconsin are set for a second-round matchup in the NCAA Tournament in Denver on Saturday.
The two schools have only met once before, in 2011 at the Chicago Invitational Challenge Championship, when then-No. 11 Wisconsin beat BYU 73-56.
Current BYU graduate assistant Charles Abouo and director of operations Nate Austin were on that 2011 BYU team that played the Badgers.
This year’s Badgers triumphed in their first-round game against Montana on Thursday, winning 85-66. They resemble BYU closely, as they space the floor and score a significant number of points offensively. Wisconsin is led by senior John Tonje, who averages over 19 points per game.
BYU won its first-round matchup 80-71 against VCU, which was the Cougars’ first NCAA tournament win since 2012.
“They're hot right now, all the confidence in the world,” Wisconsin guard John Blackwell said Friday. ”It's our job to shut that off, go out there and give it our all.”
Wisconsin head coach Greg Gard shared his thoughts during the press conference on their matchup with BYU.
“We're going to have to guard them well. They'll hopefully guard us well, or maybe they —hopefully they don't guard us well,” Gard said.
BYU coach Kevin Young also had high praise for Wisconsin and its similar style of play.
“They're a super well-oiled machine offensively. They're a little bit more continuity-based than we are,” Young said. “Just on sheer numbers, they get up a lot of 3s kind of like we do as well. I'd imagine it would be probably a high-scoring game.”
Guard Trey Stewart was asked his thoughts on playing a high-profile team like Wisconsin and the team's reaction to playing big teams.
"I'm definitely grateful that we get to play such high-level programs, but we're not going to put them on a pedestal," Stewart said. "We're going to play them just as another opponent."
Wisconsin enters Saturday having played five games in eight days, including its loss to Michigan in the Big Ten tournament championship. In comparison, BYU has played only three games during that same period.
The Badgers are aware of how difficult it is to play that many games and are focused on recovering for the second round.
“We came from a Big Ten tournament where we played four games in four days,” Wisconsin center Nolan Winter said. “We knew we were going to have to recover no matter where we were going.”
The quick turnaround between the first and second rounds involves scouting the next opponent without time for practice. For Young, this is nothing new since the NBA system operates on quick turnarounds.
“In the NBA, if you're on a good team, you're putting together over a hundred game plans a season,” Young said. “I rely on my experience of just putting game plans together to stop the best players in the world.”
Young said his entire staff also has experience all over the world that benefits all the players.
“I think our guys appreciate our coaching staff’s experience. I think it's allowed us to gain their trust no matter what the game plan is,” he said.
The Cougars and Badgers will face off Saturday at 5:30 MDT on CBS.