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Ryan won’t treat Duke differently

MADISON — Don’t tell University of Wisconsin men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan that he should be treating Wednesday’s game against No. 6 Duke any differently. And definitely don’t remind him what happened the last time the two teams met.

In that game two years ago, Duke made 11 of 24 three-pointers on their home court to crush Wisconsin, 82-58.

“I really haven’t looked at that one that much because this is a different team,” Ryan said Monday. “We got in some foul trouble, they shot lights out. ... They hit shots that were, whoa. If you overreact to one game, or underplay a game, that’s probably not very good for the overall psyche of your players.”

Wisconsin knows a little bit about hot shooting. The Badgers are coming off an upset of then-No. 21 Maryland at the Maui Invitational last week in which they shot 45.5 percent from behind the three-point line.

So far this season, Duke is hitting nearly 41 percent of its three-pointers compared with just 29 percent for Wisconsin.

Defending Duke is about more than just stopping three-point shots, Ryan said.

“We faced a lot of teams with great three-point shooters,”

he said. “You can’t make up a

also can attack. They find people. They’re basketball players. We have a lot more to deal with than just Duke’s three-point shooting, believe me.”

Despite the national exposure of playing in an annual Big Ten/ACC Challenge game, Ryan said he isn’t approaching it any differently.

“I’m not saying I’ve seen everything but the guys that have played for me will tell you that no matter who we’re playing, it’s ‘Let’s get to work, let’s prepare and let’s get going,’ ” he said. “There aren’t any changes for this.”

Even though Duke (6-0) comes to Madison with a Top 10 ranking, and just a couple years removed from its 2007 thrashing of Wisconsin, Ryan said he believes the unranked Badgers (4-1) deserve respect as well.

“There are teams that have earned the right to be a powerhouse, and Duke has earned that right on the court with what they’ve done,” Ryan said. “I think our players have earned the right to have some things said about them, too, and the teams here, especially since going to the NCAA tournament in 1994, Wisconsin’s been a player nationally.”

Since Ryan took over as head coach in the 2001 season, Wisconsin has made it to the NCAA tournament eight years in a row and advanced to the Sweet 16 three times. Over that period, Duke has been in the Final Four once and advanced to the Sweet 16 five other times.