There are fond memories, sure. This was the building, after all, where Kevin Young watched his former Phoenix Suns close out a sweep of the Nuggets on the Suns’ dream run to the NBA Finals in 2020-21, the first year of a tenure in the desert that molded him.

But really, this return to Ball Arena brought “nightmares,” as Young put it Wednesday, of trying to scheme a Jamal Murray-Nikola Jokic pick-and-roll that proved near-impossible, the attack that broke then-associate head coach Young and the Suns in a subsequent playoff series in 2022-23.

“I stand by — one of the hardest teams to guard in all of basketball,” Young recalled Wednesday, of the Nuggets. “So I’m glad we’re not having to deal with that.”

A few years later, a splashy move to the college ranks to captain rising power BYU brought Young back to Ball Arena on Thursday for a new challenge: hungry, scrappy, No. 11 VCU, searching for an upset of Young’s run-and-gun Cougars. This was a different game. There was no threat of a 6-foot-11 Joker twirling to spray passes on a wide-open NBA floor. Nor was this a seven-game playoff series with a chance to lose and re-scout. This was Madness, where a lax effort against a plucky underdog meant the death of a season.

No matter. Young and No. 6 BYU put the Field of 68 on notice in a convincing 80-71 win over VCU.

No. 3 Wisconsin 85,

No. 14 Montana 66

After getting upset in the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament by James Madison, Wisconsin ensured there would be no such bracket-busting this time.

In Denver’s 2025 March Madness opener, No. 3 Wisconsin controlled the tempo the whole way against No. 14 Montana. The Badgers used their significant size advantage and superior shooting to pull away in the second half.

The performance all but erased the disappointment of last year, when the then-No. 5 Badgers fell to No. 12 James Madison.