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That much will be acutely apparent Friday in Madison, Wisconsin.

When the Badgers host the Wildcats at the Kohl Center, they’ll be trotting out former coach Bo Ryan to honor his induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame. A banner will be unfurled with his name.

Also, many of the players Ryan coached to the 2014 and 2015 Final Fours, the same guys who stomped over the Wildcats’ hearts in Elite Eight games to get there, will be on hand.

You might say the timing of hosting ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ for such an event is perfect for the Badgers. Or that they just decided, a decade later, to twist the knife a little bit.

Whatever the case, UA coach Tommy Lloyd is willing to play along.

“I wasn’t aware of it until you told me, but that’s awesome,â€� Lloyd said. “The guy should be honored. He did an incredible job there and obviously ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ and Wisconsin have crossed paths before.

“What it means to the current game, probably nothing. But what’s cool is it does mean something to the fan bases. It does mean something to the media. When you have two history-rich programs, I think it’s cool when they have shared experiences. Fans have memories of these experiences — they gave them good feelings or they gave them bad feelings.�

For UA fans, it would appear, mostly bad feelings.

For them, it might not be so easy to forget the controversial offensive foul UA’s Nick Johnson picked up in the final seconds of the Badgers’ one-point overtime victory over the top-seeded Wildcats in the 2014 Elite Eight. The 12-for-18 shooting that Wisconsin’s Sam Dekker put up a year later. Or Frank Kaminsky’s inside-outside dominance both times.

“I know the back-to-back Elite Eights, where we lost in 2014 and 2015,� UA guard KJ Lewis said this week. “I’m pretty sure everybody who really loves U of A basketball knows.�

Then an assistant coach on Ryan’s staff, Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said the 2013-14 Badgers mostly just “got hot during the tournament,� gaining confidence from a second-round win over Oregon at Milwaukee.

Gard said the Badgers’ win in 2014-15 was more expected, with the Badgers returning a veteran team that earned a No. 1 seed and beat the second-seeded Wildcats 85-78.

“The team and the confidence, we had all those guys back and that (Final Four) was their intent,� Gard said. “We didn’t talk about it as a staff much but that was the goal. When you have a player-led team like that with so many seniors and so many good players, they kind of drove the ship themselves.�

That win put the Badgers in their second straight and fourth overall Final Four, the same number of Final Fours as ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ has reached. Perhaps not surprisingly, the core of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s last Final Four team (2001) was booted from the NCAA Tournament second round a year earlier by Wisconsin when the top-seeded Wildcats failed to score 60 points for the first time all season.

Also not surprising: That the eighth-seeded Badgers went on to reach that season’s Final Four. In all, that’s four Wisconsin Final Fours, three of which were reached through ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥.

While both Wisconsin coach Greg Gard and Lloyd have downplayed the effect of all that history on the games, Lloyd did appear to use it to his advantage last season. He frequently discussed UA basketball history and culture before and during last season, diving deep into the chapter about Badger heartbreak just before UA hosted Wisconsin last Dec. 9 at McKale Center.

Then, after drubbing the 23rd-ranked Badgers 98-73 win that day, Wildcat veterans Pelle Larsson and Oumar Ballo both noted that the history motivated them.

“The Wisconsin game was bigger than us,� Ballo said afterward. “You need to think about the past, present and future, especially playing against Wisconsin and knowing that story. We had to come out and do it for the city and ourselves.�

But somewhat like Lloyd is now, Gard shrugged off the effect of history on the floor at McKale that day.

“Our guys were like 9 years old when that was going on,� Gard said then. “They were still taking recess and milk breaks. (The games in) ’14 and ’15 had nothing to do with this game. They were better than us today.�

So maybe there’s an effect, maybe not. But if there are no ghosts present for Friday’s game, there at least will be some living bodies from that ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥-Wisconsin past.

That’s what Gard expressed excitement about during his press conference Wednesday, when asked why the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ game was being held earlier in the season than the game at McKale was last season.

“That’s kind of how it fit,� Gard said. “We also wanted to honor these two teams at some point, and obviously, the earlier we could have it the better, just because … some of them are already playing overseas, and then to do it before Coach Ryan goes south for the winter.

“There were many, many reasons behind it.�

Including, undoubtedly, the Badgers’ opponent.