Denver -Egor Demin heard the song from 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 beginner has more immediate plans before making a decision on his future with the program – Wisconsin beat on Saturday.
No. 6 Frö Byu (25-9) will try to reach Sweet 16 in the Eastern Region on Saturday when it faces the third seeded Badgers (27-9) in the second round. Cougars have reached the second weekend only twice over the past 44 years and arrived at Elite eight in 1981 behind star Danny Ainge. Their last trip to Sweet 16, 2011, began in Denver, when Jimmer Fredette led Byu past Gonzaga in the second round.
Byu is more tested than previous teams that went to the NCAA tournament. Cougars competed in the middle of Major conferences until they moved to Big 12, where they played against ranked teams almost every week and ended up in third place with a 14-6 record.
Meeting Wisconsin is not scary.
“One of our biggest things that bowed us when we entered Big 12, they were like:“ How do you think you will do against Kansas? “We went and beat them in their place,” Trey Stewart said. “I am definitely grateful that we get to play such programs at a high level, but we will not put them on a pedestal. We will play them just like another opponent.”
Byu’s stars played big in Thursday’s victory. The leading point Richie Saunders hit her seasonal average with 16 points. Demin, who is second in the team in points, had 15 and Fousseyni Traore had 13 from the bench. Keba Keita had nine returns to help Cougars have an advantage of 40-31 in that department.
It will be tougher to control the boards against a longer badgers team, which has a 7-foot feet in Steven Crowl and 6-foot-11 Nolan Winter.
Crowl and winter create problems for teams in color, and leading goalie John Tonje (19.1 points per match) and John Blackwell (15.6) can score from the outside or on units. And if Wisconsin gets a late lead, it can close teams from the line; It is the first in the country in free throwing of 82.7 percent.
Badgers will try to include Cougar’s 3-point shooting, which is ranked 37th the country with 37.0 percent. They try on average 28.6 a game and make 10.6, which is bound for the 11th country.
If Byu finds rhythm behind the bow, it can be tough on Wisconsin. Badgers allows 32.9 percent from deep and opponents an average of 70.8 points per game.
Wisconsin coach Greg Gard sees similarities to Byu and some big ten teams.
“Illinois a little; Illinois shoots many 3’s,” he said. “I think ByU may even have more shooters than Illinois. There are different properties or pieces as we go throughout our league. The printing and pace they play with is similar to Michigan State.”
-Michael Kelly, Field Level Media
