Williams notes Badgers playing faster

It's widely believed the Badgers play slow under Bo Ryan, deliberately running their swing offense. And that's been true for many years, but as Marquette prepares to face the Badgers on Saturday at the BMO Harris Bradley Center, Williams is preparing for a different type of Ryan-led team. "Who do you think plays faster, us or them?" Williams asked. If many in the state were polled, Marquette would be the reply by many. "They do," Williams said. Averaging more possessions, points and leading in other categories that help dictate pace, Wisconsin is actually the "faster" team early on this season. In fact, Williams sees Ryan running significantly less of the swing offense than ever before. "They are not exclusively running the swing," Williams said. "They are different than at any point since I've been here. That's not to say that Coach Ryan hasn't done this in the past, but they are running a lot of the Princeton offense." Burned by the three-pointer against Florida, Marquette now has to prepare for one of the few teams that average more shots from beyond the arc than the Gators do. Florida takes 21 three-pointers per game, while Wisconsin shoots 24. So why is Wisconsin getting away from its bread-and-butter? "I think they've adapted their style of play, obviously I've never seen them practice," Williams said. "I don't know if that was (Ryan's) plan or when (point guard Josh) Gasser got hurt, if that maybe accelerated his plan. "They still run the swing, they were almost exclusive swing during my tenure here, but I would say maybe 20 percent of their possessions thus far have been the swing." Rivalry games naturally bring added emotion. Wisconsin and Marquette have played plenty that certainly could have been qualified as important non-conference battles. Despite neither team being ranked, Saturday might be even more important than in years past. With Marquette already with two non-conference losses and Wisconsin with three, both sides can ill afford to enter conference play with another loss. Though neither team has a real bad loss, neither has big win. One thing that both schools have in common is getting blown out at Florida. Williams called the Gators the best team he's ever coached against, but won't use that as an excuse for the way his team played. "We need to be better obviously than we were last Thursday," Williams said. "I did not see last Thursday coming. We had a really good shootaround, our guys were excited how we played is not good enough, regardless of opponent or locale." The rivalry game will bring a great environment and a loud crowd, just like every year. This time around, however, Marquette has a little something extra to play for. This will be the first time the Golden Eagles take the floor since the passing of former coach Rick Majerus, and the university will honor him prior to the game. Because Majerus' funeral will be held just hours before the game, many will be making their way from the funeral to the game. And while the players haven't had any kind of relationship with Majerus, they know how important he is to the Marquette community, some of which are traveling from across the country for the funeral. "I think that is going to give us some extra juice as well," Marquette guard Vander Blue said. "Even though it's not stamped, this game is pretty much going to be for him because this is the first game that we can play after his passing. We all want to make sure we fight a little bit harder because we know he is going to be watching down. One thing we can give him back is a win." Better prepared with age: Blue has heard it all when it comes to playing the Wisconsin Badgers. The Madison, Wis., native always thought he was going to be staying at home to play his college basketball, even committing to Bo Ryan. It's well known in this rivalry that Blue decommitted and eventually wound up on the other side, playing for Marquette. Early on in his career, that was weighing on his mind a bit. "It was more of a shocker that I was actually playing against the Badgers because I was used to going there and watching them," Blue said. "I figured I was going to be playing with the Badgers at a point, but to be actually playing against them and seeing Coach Ryan on the sideline actually coaching against me, that's probably the one thing that really hit me through all this." Now in his junior season, Blue doesn't see it as a big deal anymore, but understands that fans are always going to try and build it up to more than it is. "I feel like every year when I play Madison, it really isn't that big of a game," Blue said. "This game I prepare for like every other game. I don't want to get over excited; I don't want to overlook anybody, just trying to do my same preparation, my same thing that I do every single week that we prepare for every other team." Preparation this time around includes continued rehab on his banged up knee. Injured late in Marquette's Maui Invitational finale against USC, Blue missed the UMBC game before returning to score a game-high 20 points against Florida. "I wouldn't say I'm quite 100 (percent), pretty close though," Blue said. "It feels pretty good once I get warmed up and going, but I wouldn't say I'm quite 100 (percent)." Marquette will go eight days between the Florida loss and the Wisconsin game Saturday, not only allowing for more practice time, but time for Blue's knee to recover. "It helped me a lot," Blue said. "I got some good rehab, I'm just trying to strengthen it and get it better than it was when I actually got hurt." Follow Andrew Gruman on Twitter.