Cougars, Badgers keep NCAA 2nd round mood light with recovery, family — and hot tubs?

DENVER — After surviving and advancing through the first round of the NCAA men's basketball tournament, both BYU and Wisconsin had similar routines: hydrate, recover and "chill out the rest of the day," said Badgers guard John Blackwell.

In the Cougars' case, that may have involved a hot tub.

Sixth-seeded BYU (25-9) will face third-seeded Wisconsin (27-9) in primetime of Saturday's second round at Ball Arena (5:45 p.m. MDT, CBS), and the two teams went through a closed practice at the home of the NBA's Nuggets and NHL's Avalanche before speaking with the media in attendance in the Mile High City.

A win for BYU would send the Cougars to their first Sweet 16 since Jimmer Fredette led one of the best runs in program history to similar heights in 2011, one of just two regional semifinals since the tournament expanded to 32 teams in 1975.

Before all that, though, BYU spent some time recovering in the hotel pool, hosted a team dinner, and let some of the guys spend time with family and friends that made the trip to Denver.

Then it was on to Wisconsin, point guard Dallin Hall said.

"Coach is awesome that way," he said. "He appreciates family and the importance of that. But then we all just told each other, like, this is great. But we have more work here to do. So we quickly flipped the page, and we understood there's more for us to do in the tournament.

"Everyone has been pretty focused on Wisconsin since that night."

Focused on the Badgers, who advance to the Big Ten title game Sunday evening — and Dawson Baker's experience with the school's pep band in the hotel hot tub.

"I spent some of the night in the Jacuzzi with some of the band," he said with a laugh. "Kind of interesting."

"Fun," teammate Trey Stewart added.

"Conversation was great," Baker added. "They were going to go to the zoo today."

Again, Stewart interjected: "There's a zoo?"

"There's a zoo somewhere," Baker quipped. "Talked about the zoo, our first time being here, advancing, how long it's been; kind of enjoyed the moment together in the hot tub. It was great."

The Cougars won their first NCAA Tournament game since 2012, and advanced to the Round of 32 for the first time since Jimmer Fredette led a Sweet 16 run a year prior. But the moment wasn't getting to the group as they went through practice, spoke with the media, and made plenty of jokes with each other underneath the arena in Denver.

That's not a bad thing for first-year head coach Kevin Young, either.

"I think our group does a good job of just balancing, being serious-minded but not to the point where they get too tight," he said. "I think it speaks to their experience. A lot of these guys have been here before. It is a balancing act, for sure. I think it's important to not take things too serious."

That is, except for the play. Young called his first NCAA Tournament experience "like a Game 7" in the NBA playoffs during his exit interview with TNT — and with another Game 7 two days later in the same city.

He has plenty of experience in those, too, during his time with the Phoenix Suns and Philadelphia 76ers for the last decade before arriving at BYU last April.

"Seven straight years we made it to the playoffs, most of those were at least second round or past," Young said. "I rely on my experience of just putting game plans together to stop the best players in the world. 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."

On paper, the Cougars and Badgers are similar teams. BYU ranks 23rd in KenPom and 25th in the NET, while Wisconsin — the No. 13 team nationally in the most recent AP poll — rates 13th in KenPom and 15th in the NET.

The Badgers are one of a handful of teams ranked in the top-25 by KenPom in both adjusted offensive efficiency and adjusted defense.

Both teams average close to 80 points per game, allow 70 and shoot a shade over 45% from the field, with 3-point shooting in the 35% range.

Pair the two together, and what do you get?

"Probably be 50 to 48, one of those," Wisconsin coach Greg Gard deadpanned with a smile. "Basketball, the game, it's not overcomplicated. Let's not overcomplicate the game. It's still about trying to get high-quality shots. If you can get the good ones early, great. If not, they do a good job of spreading the floor, running a lot of middle ball screens ... We're going to have to guard them well. They'll hopefully guard us well, or maybe they — hopefully they don't guard us well.

"They change some defenses a little bit, do a little three-quarter court pressure. But it's still, at the end of the day, not overcomplicating the game. I think the game is at times over-coached and under-taught. For us it's always about keeping it simple, being fundamentally sound on both ends."

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