Myron Medcalf, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

NCAA tournament Elite Eight preview: Arizona vs. Wisconsin

LOS ANGELES -- Last summer, Sam Dekker ran into Rondae Hollis-Jefferson at a skills camp that the two NBA prospects had attended.

Months earlier, Dekker’s Wisconsin Badgers had knocked Hollis-Jefferson's Arizona Wildcats out of the NCAA tournament in a 64-63 overtime victory that ended on a controversial offensive foul call against Nick Johnson.

"[Hollis-Jefferson] was like 'Don't talk to me. I don't mess with you,'" Dekker recalled Friday during pregame media availability. "He was obviously joking, but it still stuck with him and he was like, 'We're going to get you next year,' and here we are in the Elite Eight. It's gonna be a good one."

There is no way to escape the most obvious storyline in the final stages of the NCAA tournament. Even Arizona coach Sean Miller called it "a heck of a story" on Friday afternoon when players and coaches discussed the Elite Eight rematch at Staples Center on Saturday.

From the dais on Friday, Arizona's players spoke with the tact of seasoned politicians. They said their next game is about earning a spot in the Final Four, which would be a first for Miller.

"We're just going to treat this game like it's another game," T.J. McConnell said Friday. "We're not going to make it any bigger. But we know what's at stake, and getting to the Final Four is a big thing for us, and getting Coach Miller to a Final Four is also a big thing for us as well."

Yeah. Sure. Just "another game." And college guys only take spring break trips to Cancun for the weather.

It's obvious that there's more here. And as the players and coaches continued to discuss the particulars of Saturday's matchup, some of those suppressed emotions and feelings -- tucked away for a year -- seeped to the surface.

"A block/charge call, I don't know," Miller said about the offensive foul call against Johnson with 3.2 seconds left in last season's Elite Eight. "Is it a block? Is it a charge? I think about that every 10 minutes, 20 minutes. But you can't control that. What you can control, especially now that we're playing again, is to do the best that we can with who we are, and really respect why they're such a great team, and they really are, especially on the offensive end."

It's a sentiment that Dekker understands well. After Wisconsin defeated Arizona in last season's Elite Eight, it lost to Kentucky in the Final Four on Aaron Harrison's late 3-pointer.

"I still think about that Kentucky game once in a while, just how close we were [to] playing for a national championship," Dekker said. "It kind of sticks with you. You kind of have, I don't know, maybe a jealousy. When I watch Kentucky, I'm like, 'Man, why couldn't we have gotten that one?'"

While most of the key players return for both teams, personnel additions and subtractions will make Saturday's matchup different from last season's meeting.

Nick Johnson and Aaron Gordon are gone for Arizona. But Stanley Johnson and Brandon Ashley, who missed last season's matchup, have helped the Wildcats make another run.

Key to the game: Frontcourt matchups will decide this game.

After last year's Elite Eight loss, Miller what-if'd a rematch with a healthy Ashley, who might have helped Arizona stall Frank Kaminsky, who scored 28 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in that game.

Kaminsky was unstoppable in last year's matchup. He finished with a 136.0 offensive rating on kenpom.com after shooting 11-for-20 from the field. Kaminsky's offensive versatility perplexed Arizona. The same concerns exist in the rematch. What will Miller do to limit Kaminsky's effectiveness?

Kaleb Tarczewski wasn't comfortable as Kaminsky roamed the floor last season. Ashley might be the best option, but Miller could also go with the long-armed Hollis-Jefferson. He has the agility, length and athleticism to pressure Kaminsky.

But the Badgers have to answer some questions, too. Johnson is a 6-foot-7, 246-pound tight end on a basketball court. How will Wisconsin defend him? Who guards Hollis-Jefferson? Ashley and Tarczewski? That's a lot of size and athleticism that the Badgers have to handle.

And then there's the foul-trouble quandary. Neither team possesses an abundance of depth inside. With so many talented athletes colliding in the paint, it'll be interesting to see how Saturday's game is officiated. If the crew hands out a bunch of early fouls, Arizona and Wisconsin could both have problems that linger throughout the game. At the same time, neither team's frontcourt can afford to play timidly.

The action in the paint will be the most significant factor in Saturday's game.

Player to watch: Kaminsky. That's simple for all the reasons listed above. He's not the only player the Wildcats must contain, but he'll be the most important player on the court. He was a superstar in last year's matchup against an Arizona team that saw two players drafted by the NBA.

If Kaminsky goes off again, then Arizona will go home again.

The Wildcats have to shadow him. He cuts hard off screens along the baseline and finds those bubbles in the corner. That's when teams get confused, because they switch to stop Kaminsky's open looks but often leave other spots on the floor exposed.

The Wildcats also have to score over him when he's defending. North Carolina did a good job of using its bigs to score in transition and get points in the paint against Kaminsky & Co. Arizona must attack, too.

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