TUCSON, Ariz—After a day of fun in the sun at the team resort, Wisconsin men's basketball has arrived at the University of Arizona's McKale Center to begin the work of preparing for Thursday's NCAA 1st Round matchup with Atlantic Sun Champion Belmont.
While the Bruins (30-4, 19-1) havent had the toughest of schedules, they are a team accustomed to winning and very much at home in the NCAA Tournament.
With many looking back to their near-upset of No. 2 seed Duke back in 2008, Belmont is the trendy pick to upset the Badgers in the tournament opener.
"I dont know what people say," head coach Bo Ryan said somewhat sarcastically on Wednesday. "I just know how good our opponent is. That's what we can prepare for."
Thursday will be a tempo battle as Belmont relies upon a 12-man rotation to play run-and-gun basketball centered around forcing turnovers and generating easy baskets.
"Controlling tempo is huge in basketball and that's something we are definitely going to try to do," senior forward Jon Leuer said. "Being able to control the pace and the tempo is going to be a crucial point for this game."
The Badgers did get a welcome bit of news Wednesday as sophomore forward Mike Bruesewitz returned to practice and may even be ready to play tomorrow. Considering how bad the knee injury looked when it happened on Friday night, any contribution would be a welcome addition for the Badgers.
After the last two games, both ending in pretty disastrous fashion, the spark Bruesewitz brings might be big in getting UW back on track. Having lost consecutive games for the first time since 2008, the Badgers said they are not planning on making it three in a row.
"Those games are behind us," junior guard Jordan Taylor said. "We're not even thinking about that at this point. Its a new season [and] we're 0-0 as far as we're concerned."
Tip time from sunny Tucson, Ariz. is set for 6:27 p.m. Madison time and can bee seen on truTV.
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