What BYU coach Kevin Young said about facing Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament

Denver • Wisconsin’s 7-foot forward Nolan Winter was at his locker in deep thought. The question on his mind centered on whether BYU reminded him of anyone he’d seen in the Big Ten.

Unable to find an answer, he turned to his teammate for help.

“Who’s a high-powered offense in the Big Ten?” he asked freshman guard Jack Robinson.

“Wisconsin,” Robinson quipped.

Winter laughed, but there’s truth in the sentiment. Both Wisconsin and BYU are strikingly similar.

Both teams like to push the tempo and hit threes. The Badgers are top 30 in made threes per game and shoot over 45% from the field. BYU, by contrast, is 11th in made threes.

And both desperately want to advance to the Sweet 16.

“You know what, they do remind me a little bit of us,” Winter concluded.

So it will be on Saturday night in Denver. BYU, with a chance to go back to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since Jimmer, will have to face a version of itself.

“Just on sheer numbers, they get up a lot of threes, kind of like we do,” Cougar head coach Kevin Young said. “I’d imagine it will probably be a high-scoring game. Obviously we don’t want it to be. We’re locked in defensively on how we want to guard these guys. But they’re impressive offensively. We’ve had some nights where we’ve been able to score as well. Probably that’s where it’s headed.”

But one key difference is Wisconsin’s length in the front court. BYU has long guards, like 6-foot-9 Egor Demin. But inside, it is undersized.

Fouss Traore is 6-foot-6. Keba Keita is 6-foot-9. Mihailo Boskovic is 6-foot-10.

The Badgers have two seven-footers in Winter and Steven Crowl. Winter knows Wisconsin has to punish the Cougars inside.

“We are going to have to use it,” he said. “Having two 7-footers, we are going to need to exploit it more and more as March goes on. And BYU has some tough 6-8 bigs going against us. So we know it won’t be easy and they are going to dig in there. But we are going to have to try to look for that [advantage] at least with me and Steven.”

Boskovic thinks that matchup bodes well for him. His length on defense and ability to pop out on offense against bigger defenders have been his strengths.

“I would think so,” he said of whether he matches up well. “I mean, we kind of saw this through this year. There were all kinds of different teams. Ones that play small ball, ones that play three bigs. We’ve seen it all. So I think we have what it takes to match up [with Wisconsin].”

Wisconsin coach Greg Guard sees BYU’s similarity to Illinois. Demin has some characteristics of the Illini’s 6-6 point guard.

“Illinois shoots a lot of threes. [Kasparas] Jakucionis, their point guard, is very similar to Demin. Big, really good in the ball screens. I think BYU may even have more shooters than Illinois,” Gard said.

Another one of his players, Riccardo Greppi, is familiar with Demin. Greppi participated in the U18 European Champions when he played for the Italian club Verona.

He was one class older than Demin, in the class of 2005, but was still aware of the skilled point guard.

“He’s 6-9, he’s a complete player,” Greppi. “I think he will take over in the next few years.”

Young is relying on his NBA experience and NBA staff to put together a game plan on short notice. BYU might have one of the largest analyst crews working on scouting.

“It’s helped with these one-day turnarounds,” guard Trevin Knell said. “I think most of the staff has already watched over half of Wisconsin’s whole season. It helps us.”

Young feels right at home with the short turnaround. It feels like old times.

“I mean, in the NBA, if you’re on a good team, you’re putting together over 100 game plans a season. Seven straight years we made it to the Playoffs, most of those were at least second round or past,” he said.

“I rely on my experience of just putting game plans together to stop the best players in the world,” he finished. “There’s tons of reference points. I always think, ‘We tried this against Jayson Tatum, we tried this against Luka, whatever the case may be.’ I draw on that quite a bit actually.”

How to watch

When: Friday, March 22

Time: 5:45 p.m. MT

TV: CBS