How Wisconsin can upset No. 1 Arizona

MADISON — In the midst of what has quite possibly been Wisconsin basketball’s toughest stretch in years, the Badgers have excelled. In two daunting tests — No. 3 Marquette and Michigan State on the road, Wisconsin has gone 2-0 and passed with flying colors.

Now, one final marquee matchup awaits in the non-conference slate. The Badgers must travel to Tucson to face No. 1 Arizona for a Saturday afternoon showdown. The Wildcats are daunting, but head coach Greg Gard isn’t too concerned about the number that precedes Arizona, or the number that precedes Wisconsin, for that matter.

“It tells me we’re playing a heck of a good team. I didn’t squawk when we weren’t ranked, I haven’t said one word about us being ranked,” he said. “We know we’re playing a good team, regardless of what the number is.”

Arizona began the season ranked No. 12. After a signature win over then-No. 2 Duke, the Wildcats catapulted into the top five. A loss from the Purdue Boilermakers opened the door for Arizona to claim the top spot in the nation, and it did just that.

The Wildcats are absolutely loaded. They do essentially everything well, and have a stacked roster that can attack you from anywhere and everywhere.

“They’re deep, and they’re big. They bring 7-foot-2 off the bench,” Gard said, referring to the impactful freshman center Motiejus Krivas. “It’s a really good team that has a lot of experience, a lot of firepower, they’ve been really good defensively. They put up a lot of points on teams.”

The firepower Gard referenced has been extremely evident. Arizona has scored 100 points or more three times through seven games, and hasn't scored lower than 73. Five Wildcats average double-digit points. Wisconsin will need to be at its absolute best defensively.

“We’re gonna keep the same concepts with our defensive stuff,” guard AJ Storr said. “Play hard, everybody’s gonna be engaged. Talking, communicating.”

As Storr touched on, defensive fluidity and communication will be key. But that will be a challenge Saturday afternoon in the McKale Center; the Badgers know they’re walking into an especially unforgiving setting.

“It’ll be a terrific environment, extremely hostile, loud,” Gard said.

“I know they got a good school. A lot of people go there, so there’s obviously gonna be a lot of people at the game. We don’t really pay attention to it though,” Storr said with his trademark unflappable countenance.

Still, it’ll be hard to ignore the nearly 15,000 strong Wildcat faithful who will seek to make life miserable for the Badgers. Wisconsin will need to hang around and stay out of holes too deep to climb out of in a tough road environment. Nonetheless, Gard believes the Badgers will be well-represented as well.

“I know we’ve got a lot of fans going,” he said. “The West Coast fanbase too, some of them are snowbirds, some of them are permanently out there that are looking forward to this trip.”

A big part of dealing with the hostile environment for the Badgers will be staying within their game. Arizona has a defensive turnover percentage of 20.8; they take the ball away. If Wisconsin gets rattled, they’ll be playing right into the Wildcats’ hands.

“Just being solid. We don’t have to do too much,” point guard Chucky Hepburn said. “Teams get sped up and fall into Arizona’s trap. If we go in there and just play our basketball, be solid defensively, I think we’ll be okay.”

Another challenge this matchup will pose is the size and physicality of the Wildcats down low. Keshad Johnson and Omar Ballo, Arizona’s starting four and five, respectively, are both having phenomenal seasons. They each average over 12 points-per-game and they clean up the glass with great efficiency. In fact, there’s a case to be made that Arizona is the best rebounding team in the country. Its offensive rebounding percentage of 41.6 ranks in the top five, and it only allows an offensive rebounding percentage of 17.3, according to KenPom. Winning the battle in the paint and particularly on the glass will be huge in determining who prevails.

“They’ve got some big, athletic guys,” forward Tyler Wahl said. “We’ve been doing a pretty good job of bringing that physicality to games, and so it’s gonna have to be another dog fight.”

The Badgers have also been a very good rebounding team. They, too, can clean up the glass on offense while preventing their opponent from doing so. That trend will need to continue in Tucson.

“I feel like our front court’s been doing pretty good,” Wahl continued. “Whether it’s me, Steve, Markus, Gilly, Nolan. I feel like we’ve been doing a pretty good job being physical.”

While Wisconsin’s bigs will have their hands full in the post, the Badgers also need to contain Arizona’s elite guard play. Most notable is North Carolina transfer Caleb Love, whom Wisconsin knows all about.

“We know Caleb Love, because we’ve played against him. Terrific player, was almost in our league,” Gard said, referencing Love’s initial transfer to Michigan.

Put on Arizona’s tape, and Love stands out immediately. The point guard can do it all. He’s a blur on both ends of the court, averaging 13.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.2 steals. He impacts the game on every level for the Wildcats.

Hepburn told reporters his matchup would be against guard Kylan Boswell rather than the opposing point guard Love. He still understands the impact Love has on the game.

“He’s a great guard, he knows how to get downhill, he can really shoot it well,” Hepburn raved.

Limiting Love’s impact will be paramount.

If there’s an advantage Wisconsin has heading into Tucson, it’s that they’re extremely battle-tested. The Badgers have already played four Quad 1 games while Arizona has only played one. This kind of game against a high-profile opponent in a rocking environment will be nothing new.

“Our schedule is loaded this year. So having those tough teams has been really good for us to kind of know where we’re at,” Wahl said. “We’re going into this game with no fear.”

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