Wisconsin's Dekker peaking at the right time

By: LARRY VAUGHT

INDIANAPOLIS — He was averaging just over 13 points per game before exploding on the national scene with 23 points in a West Region Sweet Sixteen win over North Carolina and then coming back with a career-high 27 points thanks to 5-for-6 shooting from 3-point range in a win over Arizona.

Now 6-9 Sam Dekker and Wisconsin get another shot at No. 1 Kentucky in the Final Four Saturday night in Indianapolis.

“We're not going to get too hyped up. It's just another game, it's just in a bigger gym,” said Dekker earlier this week. “Once you get on the court it's the same basketball. We just gotta do our thing. We have prepared so much for this, starting in June, we knew what we wanted to do, we put in the work and now it shouldn't be anything different.

“We don't have to change anything, we just got to be ourselves. If we changed how we act on and off the floor it's not going to help anything so we got to be ourselves, go out there, play our game, focus up and be ready to go.”

Dekker has averaged 21.8 points per game in NCAA play and is shooting 60.4 percent from the field, including 48.1 percent (13 of 27) from 3-point range.

That could lead to 7-foot Willie Cauley-Stein of UK using his athleticism on the perimter to guard Dekker rather than All-American center Frank Kaminsky.

“I think with the guys that we have, we're going to do a lot of switching anyway,” Cauley-Stein, the SEC defensive player of the year, said here Thursday. “Not one person is going to be on that set player during the whole game. Everybody in practice has been guarding guards and bigs. We're just kind of ready for everything.”

Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan said nothing dramatically changed in Dekker’s game last week other than he made shots.

“The basket is looking big to him, he felt confident, and, he was feeling it,” Ryan said.

Ryan said he doesn’t have to get on Dekker, who has 79 career double-figure scoring games, about “not blocking out, not rotating defensively, not running the floor in transition” like he did last season.

“He blocks out better, he runs the floor better defensively, he rotates better. His shots around the rim, he finished on more of those this year,” Ryan said. “Plus he's handling it better.”

Dekker is not worried about being overwhelmed at the Final Four by players with more accolades on their resumes.

“There is going to be talent on every team, everybody we play throughout the year has guys that were good in high school, if you're not good at high school you don't play at this level. That shouldn't matter. It's about what you do on the court now,” Dekker said. “We know Kentucky has a lot of guys that will be first‑rounders (in the NBA draft) and good players at the next level, but I think we have guys that are going to be good, too. I don't think it matters.

“You have good teams, good players, and we're here in the Final Four for a reason. You don't get here without talent and it's going to be fun to play against those guys.”

Dekker was slowed by an ankle injury during the season and had to learn to let it heal properly.

“Everyone has had injuries, everyone has hurt an ankle or something, it just takes a little longer for some people, some people recover quick. I could have recovered better if I didn't want to push it and be on the court with the guys, but that's in the past, I learned from it,” he said. “It definitely helped me in terms of mental toughness.

“But that's in the past. I'm playing good basketball now, that's all that matters, and, like I said, I learned from that, and hopefully I don't have another thing like that, but if it happens, I will know how to treat it better.”