Postgame Quotes
Wisconsin vs. Purdue
February 15, 2018
Kohl Center  |  Madison, Wis.
 
Wisconsin Head Coach Greg Gard
Opening Statement
"Obviously extremely happy for our guys. The persistence and perseverance to stick through it and stay with the plan. Somebody wrote on the board after the game "Trust the Process" as they've heard me say a million times and stay with it. We've had a lot of learning experiences but the only way you learn from adversity and learn how to handle it is to go through it, that's how you force growth and I think this group obviously tonight defensively we saw a lot of really good defensive efforts this probably ranks right up there. In terms of the job they did, they were engaged for the most part, right spot, right time. They've grown, they've proved. You have to get the experience in order to figure out what works and what doesn't work and obviously we saw a lot of what doesn't work in West Lafayette both from a defensive standpoint and how you need to take care of the ball and what that leads to. So I thought those two areas, which have always been staples here. It's good to see those couple of things."
 
"I think the biggest thing was when you have that type of emotional event, that only lasts for about two minutes and then you've got to play. The biggest thing is we needed to play better, we needed to be better defensively, we needed to take care of the ball, we need to play better in longer stretches. We've done it well in short spurts but we haven't done it well enough and part of that inconsistency comes when you have new faces on the block. Tonight, we were as consistent defensively as we've been maybe all year. I think we did just enough offensively to be able to get the victory."
 
On Frank being in attendance
"I know it means a lot to our players to have Frank, and not only Frank but everybody else who is here. It's good to have all of those guys back and to be able to play like this in front of them sends a good message and it's what my message was to the team. If you want to say thanks to Frank and you want to say thanks to all the alumni, the best way to show respect and give your thanks and your salute is to go out and play really well. I think they really honed in and were engaged and connected beforehand."


Junior Forward Ethan Happ
 
On having his former teammates as part of this win:
"It was very special to have Frank (Kaminsky) and Sam (Dekker) back, who I played with for a year, and to have Nigel (Hayes) and Bronson (Koenig) back who shed blood and tears with me for two years on the court. It was surreal to have those guys here for this. And as far as Frank is concerned, he took me under his wing that first year, and it means a lot to get this done for him and those guys."
 
On the commotion after the game:
"Personally, it was nuts. I was sweating from the game, and once I was surrounded by the fans I started to overheat a little bit. Zak Showalter jumped into my arms, which I wasn't expecting, but it was just like old times, I guess."
 
 
Sophomore Guard Brevin Pritzl
 
On the key to his successful game:
"Defense. Being engaged on defense allows me to be engaged on the other end of the floor, and to be more in the flow. It's about finding the open spaces and executing off of that."
 
 
Freshman Guard Brad Davison
 
On what a win like this can do for the team:
"This gives us confidence. This team has a lot of potential this year, and we've just been coming up a little short. Especially in a game like that, against a team like that, on our home court. A lot of people have given up on us, but we haven't given up against ourselves."
 

Purdue Coach Matt Painter
"We were at Indiana when they had a thing for (Victor) Oladipo, as long as Oladipo and (Frank) Kaminsky don't play. That's all I was concerned about. I give them credit, I think the Wisconsin fans are great. They are very supportive and obviously they're having a down year this year but Greg has been in two Sweet 16s in his first two years and he's doing a great job here and he's been very very successful. Frank's a great story just because a lot of times in recruiting it's the guys that get all the attention when they're 17 and 18 and that's just the way it's going to be, you can keep improving when you're 19, 20, 21, 22 years old and he's a classic example – kind of an example for their program. So it's great to see them honor him."