Rivalries 101: No. 23 Wisconsin holds nausea-inducing place in No. 1 Arizona basketball lore

In his ongoing efforts to teach current players about Arizona Wildcats history and culture, lecturer Tommy Lloyd is circling back this weekend toward a particularly passionate topic.

You could call it Rivalries 101. It’s about how Arizona fans, based on past behavior, might break down three of the Wildcats’ top modern-day rivals roughly as follows:

UCLA is the most anticipated. Duke is the most hated. And Wisconsin is the most nausea-inducing.

After all, what Arizona fan of at least a decade doesn’t remember Nick Johnson’s controversial offensive foul in the final seconds of UA’s overtime loss to Wisconsin in the 2014 NCAA Elite Eight? The way Sam Dekker led Wisconsin’s 12-for-18 shooting spree from 3-point range in the 2015 Elite Eight?

Or the way center Frank “The Tank” Kaminsky shot over and around the Wildcats in both games, taking down the two best Arizona teams of the Sean Miller era en route to a somewhat ironic pro stop up the road with the Suns?

Longtime UA fans felt the Badger blues well before those years, too.

In the 2000 NCAA Tournament, Arizona picked up the West’s No. 1 seed but didn’t get out of the first weekend. In the second round against the eighth-seeded Badgers, UA failed to score 60 points for the first time all season, mired in a game of Bennett Ball, the methodical grind that led the Badgers to an unexpected Final Four that season under then-coach Dick Bennett.

It’s an intense, compressed history. Arizona and Wisconsin have only played seven times before, but those three games made for some of the toughest moments in Arizona history — and some of the best moments in Wisconsin history.

The Wildcats are attempting to address each of these historical issues this season. Lloyd took them to Duke on Nov. 10, and the Wildcats upset the Blue Devils 78-73. Later this season, Arizona will get at least two more cracks at UCLA during its final run through the Pac-12, too.

Then there’s Wisconsin. Lloyd says the Badgers’ appearance is a result of the two programs both searching for a two-year, on-campus series when they found their schedules meshed (Arizona will return the game in Madison next season).

“They had reached out to us and we needed a home-and-home (that would) start at home this year … so it just kind of worked out,” Lloyd said. “We want to play great programs. Wisconsin has all the makings of a team that can play deep into the NCAA Tournament.”

Yes, deep into the NCAA Tournament. Again. Even though he was a Gonzaga assistant coach at the time, Lloyd has heard plenty about how the Badgers went deep at UA’s expense in the past.

“I know there’s a significance that …. a lot of Arizona fans feel passionate about and I’m sure a lot of Wisconsin fans are passionate about,” Lloyd said. “I think that’s great.”

But not surprisingly as a coach who routinely downplays the big picture in order to foster a day-to-day focus, Lloyd said the history would have no impact on Saturday’s game, that it’s mostly just something to that’s “fun for the fans to reminisce a little bit and kind of get their juices flowing.”

But the Wildcats know the context. They know what Wisconsin means.

If they didn’t pick that up well enough from all the program history they’re studying, they heard it this week from former players who chimed in over the past week. That wasn’t a surprise to assistant coach Riccardo Fois, a former Suns director of player development who says he’s seen NBA players (such as Kaminsky) routinely enjoy bantering about their college successes.

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“It’s pretty cool to have guys in the NBA or their next jobs care enough to connect with our guys about a game that happened 10 years ago, when (UA guard) Kylan Boswell was eight years old,” Fois said.

They were all scattered, a decade or more younger, when the UA-Wisconsin history all played out.

The players were in elementary or middle school. Lloyd (Gonzaga) and assistant Steve Robinson (North Carolina) were coaching elsewhere in the 2014 and 2015 NCAA Tournaments, while associate head coach Jack Murphy was leading NAU to the CollegeInsider.com Tournament championship game in 2015.

Fois was a graduate assistant at Pepperdine in 2013-14, scooting down to Barney’s Beanery on Santa Monica’s 3rd Street Promenade to catch the 2014 Elite Eight game being played in Anaheim.

“I truly enjoyed it,” Fois said. “I remember the crowd was unbelievable. Everybody was yelling and screaming. I probably had a bracket out but, knowing myself, I probably already had both teams out in the bracket because I only put upsets in there.”

Wisconsin was the No. 2 seed beating No. 1 seed Arizona in 2014. In 2015, it was No. 1 Wisconsin beating the second-seeded Wildcats.

Both times, heartbreak for Arizona. Jubilation for Wisconsin.

It’s a history that today’s Badgers are aware of, too. Even as 13-year-old in Minnesota during the 2014 NCAA Tournament, Wisconsin forward Tyler Wahl said he remembers watching both the 2014 and 2015 games.

“They were close, weren’t they?” Wahl said.

Badgers point guard Chucky Hepburn’s memories of the games are even foggier, but he’s recreated the moments via video.

“I was still in the middle school at the time, so I was still learning a lot about the game,” Hepburn said. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve definitely gone back and watched the games, just learning how Wisconsin got to the Final Four. Watching those games means a lot, seeing that Wisconsin could play with anybody in the country. That’s what our expectations are.”

That’s what Arizona’s expectations are, too, of course.

That’s why even if the players and coaches on both sides weren’t a part of the 2000, 2014 or 2015 games, the games are still part of them.

“C’mon, we live here. Everybody knows it,” Fois said when asked if he knew of the UA-Wisconsin history. “We are Arizona now. We are part of the past. Obviously, we didn’t play them but we all watched those games back in the days and we know the heartbreak it was. That’s why the respect level for Wisconsin is there from our players. They understand it.

“And at the same time, we’re on a journey this year with this team. We want to do something that is very special.”