ST. LOUIS - Newsflash: Chris Mack dislikes the mispronounciation of "Xavier".

"It's like 'xylophone'".

No matter how you pronounce it - Xavier, Eggsavier, Javier - the Musketeers demand respect. A win over Wisconsin on Sunday, and a second consecutive trip to the Sweet Sixteen, will no doubt earn them such respect.

"From this point on, it's very business-like," said Trevon Bluiett. You lose and you go home. We take every game seriously."

Sure every NCAA Tournament game should be treated as if it's the biggest game of your life - it's a win-or-go home scenario. But with the Badgers - last year's national runner-up and one of the hottest teams in college basketball since head coach Greg Gard took over in December for the retiring Bo Ryan - looming, Xavier can't afford to rest on its laurels.

"They do a great job of controlling the pace," Bluiett said. "It's going to be tough for us. We're a team that likes to get out to a fast pace. It could be a problem for us. They're a lot like Creighton."

Wisconsin is one of the slowest teams in the country in terms of pace of play. They average 65.9 possessions per game, ranking them 342 out of 351 teams in Division I basketball. Xavier falls in the top 60 in that category, averaging just over 74 possessions a game.

"We try not to pay attention to offense or the pace," said Myles Davis. "It's all about getting stops regardless if we're scoring ten points or 50."

While these teams look much different with the naked eye, coach Greg Gard believes they're more alike than you may think.

"We like to get the ball up and down too. If teams allow us to run, we'll do that as well. In our league, teams transition very well defensively and you really have to orchestrate what you do offensively in the half court. I think (the Big Ten) prepares you for that."

"On average we do play kind of slow," said Wisconsin freshman Ethan Happ, who scored a game-high 15 points in Friday's victory over Pitt. "But it's not like we're trying to walk the ball up the court.  If we have something available in transition, we're definitely going to take that."

Chris Mack hopes the pace of tomorrow's game plays into the hands of their bigs.

"You try to speed teams up. Wisconsin isn't as slow as one may think. They're going to be opportunistic in transition. But it's a basketball game. Whether there's 30 possessions or 70 possessions, we have to put the ball in the basket more than they do.

NOTES

Xavier

• Edmond Sumner is playing in his first NCAA Tournament, and he's leaning on the advice of his teammates to make the most of this experience. "Most of the older guys just paved the way for me, just letting me know to keep doing what I'm doing throughout the whole season and not to change anything."
• Myles Davis probably doesn't think peeing your pants is cool, but he does get a kick out of the constant Billy Madison references. "I feel like everyone says that nowadays. It's kind of funny now, but I like the more creative ones that people come up with."
• Xavier has some success over Wisconsin in the NCAA Tournament. X was a 4-seed in 2009 when it defeated the Badgers 60-49 in the second round. That was Chris Mack's final win as an assistant under Sean Miller before taking over as head coach the following month.

Wisconsin

• Ethan Happ redshirted last year's dream run to the National Championship game. That experience a year ago only fuels his drive to succeed in this year's tournament. "How much fun it was being with this group of guys last year and seeing how much success we had, and then you take that times two if you're actually playing and contributing to it...seeing what the guys did last year, we really wanted to try and emulate that this year.