Marquette a three seed, Wisconsin a four in the NCAA tournament

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Marquette and Wisconsin will play at about the same time on Thursday afternoon in the second-round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

The Badgers were given the fourth seed in the East Regional last night, and will play Montana at 1:10 on Thursday in Albuquerque New Mexico. Marquette got the Number-Three seed in the West Regional. They’ll play either BYU or Iona, which will square off tomorrow night in one of four first-round contests in the Field-of-68.

The Marquette game will start around 1:35 on Thursday afternoon in Louisville. CBS will televise that game, while TNT will carry the Badgers.

Marquette coach Buzz Williams says the Golden Eagles will prepare for two teams, and key in on their eventual opponent late Tuesday night. BYU is 25-8 after playing its first season in the West Coast Conference. Iona is 25-7. They won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season title, before losing to Fairfield in the semifinals of their conference tourney. Marquette is 25-7 after losing its only game in last week’s Big East Tournament to Louisville. Williams expect his team to bounce back – just like it did nine days ago when it beat Georgetown after falling to Cincinnati. Forward Jae Crowder says the key is to play great defense, stay within their offense, and be more disciplined than they were against Louisville last week when they committed two dozen turnovers.

Badgers’ coach Bo Ryan will see a familiar face on the opposing bench Thursday. Montana assistant coach Freddie Owens played at the UW for four years, and he helped Ryan’s Badgers win the Big Ten tournament title in 2004. Montana has a 14-game winning streak after winning the Big Sky regular season and tournament crowns. Will Cherry leads the Grizzlies with 16 points a game for a Montana team that’s 25-6. Wisconsin comes in at 24-9 after losing by 13 to Michigan State in the Big Ten semifinals on Saturday.

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