Badgers practice, host media availability Monday in Madison

MADISON (WITI) -- The Wisconsin Badgers are in the Final Four! The Badgers practiced and had a media availability on Monday, March 31st -- as they prepare for Texas.

Bo Ryan and his Badgers are two games away from winning their first national championship in 73 years!

Wisconsin plays Kentucky in the second game of the Final Four on Saturday, April 5th in Arlington, Texas. Tipoff is set for 7:49 p.m.

The Kentucky Wildcats beat Michigan 75-72 on Sunday when Aaron Harrison sank an NBA-range three-pointer.

Kentucky Coach John Calipari starts five freshman who were high school All-Americans. There are six on the roster.

In fact, the Wildcats are the first team since the Wolverines in 1992 to reach the Final Four with an all-freshman starting lineup.

Coach Bo Ryan has his scout team working overtime in an attempt to simulate the extraordinary length of this Saturday night's foe in Texas.

"It's hard to simulate that -- but our scout team tries to, you know, we just ask them to be like go-go gadget -- our scout players. You know, if your arms go this far, then get them to go this far. Or get them to go this far. And so, that's how we ask them to play. We do what we do. We had the other team simulate their cuts, their reads, their tendencies. But we can't simulate Kentucky," Ryan said.

Ryan and Calipari have over 1,200 wins combined between the two of them. The two actually spoke on the phone this week.

So what do two really talented coaches have to talk about?

"I used to tell him a lot of jokes like at Final Fours and stuff like that -- but in the last 10 years or so, you don't really tell jokes anymore because of the climate -- so he wanted me to give him a couple one-liners and jokes and I said 'I don't have any! I just don't use them anymore.' We just talk like: 'Hey, Cal congrats.' 'Hey, Bo congrats.' 'See you down there. Let's have some fun with it,'" Ryan said.

Badgers players say you have to be a "great" coach to make it this far!

Badgers players say they're on a mission.

"We had expectations from the beginning of the season -- back in the summer time. It's still not done yet. We're excited we made the Final Four. We're excited. We're going to go down there and have opportunity, but to complete the assignment -- that's still the goal," Badgers guard Traevon Jackson said.

"This is a place where we wanted to get, but we didn't want it to stop there. We didn't want to get there and let it come short," Badgers forward Sam Dekker said.

The Badgers made it to the Final Four with a 64-63 win over Arizona in Anaheim on Saturday.

FOX6's Tom Pipines is headed to Texas! Watch for his reports on FOX6 News starting Thursday!