DENVER — Egor Demin heard the chant from the BYU fans minutes after the Cougars beat VCU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday.
“One more year! One more year!”
Demin smiled at the crowd, but the freshman has more immediate plans before making a decision on his future with the program — beating Wisconsin on Saturday.
No. 6 seed BYU (25-9) will try to reach the Sweet 16 in the East Region on Saturday when it faces the third-seeded Badgers (27-9) in the second round. The Cougars have reached the second weekend just twice in the last 44 years, advancing as far as the Elite Eight in 1981 behind star Danny Ainge. Their last trip to the Sweet 16, in 2011, started in Denver, when Jimmer Fredette led BYU past Gonzaga in the second round.
BYU is more tested than previous teams that made it to the NCAA Tournament. The Cougars competed in mid-major conferences until their move to the Big 12, where they played against ranked teams nearly every week and finished third with a 14-6 record.
Facing Wisconsin is not intimidating.
“One of our biggest things that bugged us when we were going into the Big 12, they were like, ‘How do you think you’ll do against Kansas?’ We went and smacked them at their place,” Trey Stewart said. “I’m definitely grateful that we get to play such high-level programs, but we’re not going to put them on a pedestal. We’re going to play them just as another opponent.”
BYU’s stars played big in Thursday’s win. Leading scorer Richie Saunders hit his season average with 16 points. Demin, who is second on the team in scoring, had 15 and Fousseyni Traore had 13 off the bench. Keba Keita had nine rebounds to help the Cougars hold a 40-31 advantage in that department.
It will be tougher to control the boards against a longer Badgers team, who boast a 7-footer in Steven Crowl as well as 6-footer-11 Nolan Winter.
Crowl and Winter create problems for teams in the paint, and leading scorers John Tonje (19.1 points per game) and John Blackwell (15.6) can score from the outside or on drives. And if Wisconsin gets a late lead, it can close out teams from the line; it is first in the nation in free-throw shooting at 82.7 percent.
The Badgers will try to contain the Cougars’ 3-point shooting, which ranks 37th in the country at 37.0 percent. They attempt an average of 28.6 a game and make 10.6, which is tied for 11th in the nation.
If BYU finds rhythm behind the arc it could get tough on Wisconsin. The Badgers allow 32.9 percent from deep and opponents average 70.8 points a game.
Wisconsin coach Greg Gard sees similarities with BYU and some Big Ten teams.
“Illinois a little bit; Illinois shoots a lot of 3s,” he said. “I think BYU may even have more shooters than Illinois. There’s different traits or pieces as we go throughout our league. The thrust and pace they play with is similar to Michigan State.”
