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Wofford-Wisconsin Preview

Mar 18, 2010 - 9:53 PM By MARK LONG AP Sports Writer

Wofford (26-8) at Wisconsin (23-8), 2:50 p.m. EDT

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Don't expect little ol' Wofford to be overwhelmed.

Sure, the Terriers have the smallest enrollment of any team in the NCAA tournament (1,450 students), have no starters taller than 6-6 and are making their debut on college basketball's biggest stage. But the Southern Conference champions have as much confidence and swagger as any of the big boys.

And when the No. 13 seed Terriers (26-8) take the court against fourth-seeded Wisconsin (23-8) on Friday, they don't anticipate looking like 10-point underdogs just happy to be in the field.

"This team is not going to blink," coach Mike Young said. "We may not win, but I'm telling you, they're going to play. They're going to play really hard. ... I just know it. This environment and all that, not going to phase them. They're goofy like that."

They're good, too.

The Terriers have won 13 in a row and 19 of their last 20. They beat Georgia and South Carolina early in the season, played Illinois tough and took then-No. 9 Michigan State to the wire.

"I hope that our team can impress folks," Young said. "We're thrilled to be here, needless to say, but beyond that, we've got a darned good basketball team. They've been consistent for quite some time in a great league. We'll do everything we can to give ourselves a chance to win."

It starts with containing the Badgers in the post. Wisconsin has a considerable size advantage down low, with 6-foot-10 forward Jon Leuer and 6-8 forward Keaton Nankivil, and is consistently one of the best rebounding teams in the country.

Coach Bo Ryan's team is 18-1 this season when winning the battle on the boards.

"Any time we play, we want to dominate the paint and make our presence felt," said Leuer, who has shown steady improvement since returning from a broken wrist. "That's not going to change. We're going to try to obviously score in the post when we get it or make a play. They have guys that play a lot bigger than what their size might indicate."

Leuer was talking specifically about Noah Dahlman, the SoCon Player of the Year who is averaging 16.8 points and 6.3 rebounds.

Leuer and Dahlman, two of five players on the rosters from Minnesota, played against each other several times growing up.

"He's definitely one of those guys that plays bigger," Leuer said. "He's a tough matchup. He can do a lot of different things. We're just going to have to prepare for him as best we can and hopefully try to limit what he can do."

Dahlman was the center of attention Thursday, with talk ranging from growing up in the tiny town of Braham, Minn., without a TV set or an Internet connection, to having a brother playing in the tournament (Michigan State), and his summer job that includes mowing the lawn and cleaning up at the Carolina Panthers' training camp facility in Spartanburg, S.C.

"It's pretty similar to my work on the court - nothing pretty; get it done," Dahlman said.

The Badgers are taking the same approach to Friday's game at Jacksonville Memorial Arena, especially after getting knocked out of the last three tournaments earlier than they wanted. As a No. 2 seed in 2007, they lost to UNLV in the second round. They advanced to the round of 16 the following year as a No. 3 seed, but got sent home by 10th-seeded Davidson.

They upset fifth-seeded Florida State in overtime to kick off last year's tournament, then fell two days later to Xavier.

"We definitely don't want to go home early," guard Trevon Hughes said. "It's a goal. We all want to make it to the Final Four. We all dream about making it to the Final Four. I've been here before. I've been to the first round, second round, Sweet 16. I want to go deeper than that. I want to go deeper than the Elite Eight."

Hughes and fellow guard Jason Bohannon have played in all seven of Wisconsin's NCAA tournament games the last three seasons. When they've struggled, so has Wisconsin. They shot a combined 5-of-28 from the field in last year's loss to Xavier.

"This is it for us," Hughes said. "We're going to have to come out and play with chips on our shoulders and hopefully our teammates feed off of us and we can make a good run, a deep run in this tournament."