Wisconsin basketball senior guard Jason Bohannon assured reporters Monday after practice that while the Duke game Wednesday night will be a great competition, in the end, it is just another game on the schedule.
Yeah, right.
In hosting the Blue Devils as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge — an event the Big Ten conference has lost every year since its inception in 1999 — the Badgers get the chance to score a major nonconference win, along with gaining a little revenge from the last time these two teams met.
Facing off at Cameron Indoor Stadium for the aforementioned challenge in 2007, the Badgers left Duke with an embarrassing 82-58 loss — by far their largest deficit in any defeat that season.
Still, UW head coach Bo Ryan refused to acknowledge how the past could affect his team Wednesday night.
“You know, I really haven’t looked at that one that much because this is a different team,” he said. “We got into a foul trouble. [Duke] shot lights out. … You look at, and you can’t; if you overreact to one game or underplay a game, it’s probably not very good for the overall psyche of your players.”
At the very least, senior point guard Trevon Hughes conceded he was looking forward to the rematch with one of the ACC’s perennial top two teams.
“I was surprised, I didn’t think we would get Duke again, playing them two years ago,” Hughes said. “I’m glad we did — I need to redeem myself. The guys that are here, we lost at their place and we feel like we owe them something.”
Coming in as the No. 6 team in the nation, the Blue Devils have already scored strong wins over Arizona State and, most recently, then-No. 13 Connecticut in the NIT Season Tip-Off last weekend.
Holding opponents to an average of 58.2 points per game, Duke boasts its usual sound defense.
Usually known as an extreme ball pressure team, however, this version of the Blue Devils relies less on quickness and more on length into bothering their opponents for tough shots.
“Well, they do a lot of different,” Ryan said. “They can extend if they want, or they can give a lot of help. So we prepare for everything. We prepare for zone. We’re not going to go into a game not running in our practices, which is all you can do — a little bit of everything.”
Much like the Badgers, the Blue Devils boast a starting five all capable of going off on any given night, and utilize a balanced attack that has four players averaging double digits in points.
A beneficiary of multiple options on the wings and down low, 6-foot-5-inch point guard Jon Scheyer has racked up an impressive 31 assists compared to only three turnovers through six games.
After winning the battle against Maryland’s Greivis Vasquez last Wednesday, Hughes will most likely draw the task of limiting Scheyer’s effectiveness.
“They have a point guard that is really a ‘two’ guard and he can really stroke it,” Hughes said. “Before Connecticut, I don’t believe he had any turnovers (Editor’s note: he had one), so you know he is going to take care of the ball.
“That is tremendous; a shooting guard might win the national point guard of the year.”
Having already beaten one ACC foe in Maryland, and holding on for a classic ugly-but-strong win over Arizona in the Maui Invitational last week, Wisconsin feels the trip to Hawaii helped prepare them for a challenge like Duke in a way no game tape and practice ever could.
Playing three games in three nights, the Badgers were mentally and physically tested to help prepare them for the challenge of a top 10 team.
“We learned a lot as a team,” Bohannon said. “We did a lot of back-cutting, a lot of good things away from the ball. We got the ball in the post and we stuck with our game plan during games. … Oftentimes when we stray from the game plan that is when we lost games, and we didn’t.”
