Dec. 27, 2009
Recap | Box Score
Head Coach Bo Ryan quotes
On Jon Leuer’s passing: “They were definitely doubling, which we saw on tape that they had done to some other guys. Jon was able to pass out of the post and he found guys. Again, that’s all part of him maturing as a player. When that starts to happen and one part of the game is taken away, then Jon understands that somebody else has to be open. So he found guys and he found them from the post. Then we he had the opportunity to score he took high-percentage shots, on all but two of them. He was six-for-eight.”
On the maturation of Rob Wilson: “Rob knows that when he gets on the court he contributes, just like every other guy that gets on the floor, either as a starter or coming in from the bench. That’s all we ask for. Just the toughness, knowing the type of teams we’re getting into, our bodies are more physical. The Big Ten is still the Big Ten and Rob has to be that type of player, to be more aggressive as a player, whether it’s for five minutes or for 15 minutes or 20. You have to keep getting better and keep your mind open and just keep working. He’s been doing that and he’s showing a couple of things here, especially on the glass he was very aggressive. His shot will go down, he’s been scoring in practice.”
On the change in strength of the team’s guards from last year: “Well, to a certain extent it just goes so far, because the other guys are stronger too. I’m looking at some of the teams in the Big Ten in some games that I’ve looked at already where they maybe played somebody that we played in the non-conference or something live. And the other guards are strong too. So it’s never going to be a whopping difference. But the thing is, you have to make sure you’re not the one going backwards and our guys haven’t gone backwards; they are stronger. How much stronger? I don’t know. They don’t determine a W or an L by who lifts the most.”
On what impact the team’s strong non-conference play will have in the Big Ten: “Well you know what we do, there’s always a record. The record says 10-2. There are things that could’ve gone both ways, for better or for worse. We’re 10-2. Now that’s set aside, now we go play in the Big Ten. Let’s see what we’ve learned. Ohio State’s learned some things too and that’s the team we’re going to play next. It’ll be that way all year obviously.”
UW Player Quotes
Jon Leuer
On his assists: “You know Jordan [Taylor] and J-Bo [Jason Bohannon] and Pop [Trevon Hughes] and Keaton [Nankivil] were just knocking down shots. So any time you find one of those guys open you’ve got to give them the ball because we have some really good shooters on this team that can spread the defense.”
Jason Bohannon
On the team’s 43 rebounds: “We were just getting good position. We were trying to find areas on the floor that the ball was going to go to if there was a missed shot and defensively we were trying to hold the guys on our back. We won the attack the way we were trying to stay between them and the basket. We had some height also, so that helps out quite a bit.”
On the team’s bench scoring: “It’s very important. Any time you have production like that when they come in and get 27 points, it’s very valuable to our team. Sometimes your starting five won’t even get that. It really just depends on how your team is playing and we were very well spread out tonight with our points. Jon did a very good job of finding people like Jordan and Pop, pretty much everyone. Any time we’re knocking down shots like that it’s very helpful.”
On going 5-6 from 3-point range: “It really depends whenever there’s an open shot and how I’m feeling. The shots were right there and felt good. They were in rhythm. I got the pass and could go straight up with it and that helped out a lot. It really just depends on the flow of the game and the rhythm that I have.”
Jordan Taylor
On Coach Ryan keeping the players on a short leash: “A couple of the mistakes we made were pretty bad. He expects better from us and we expect better from ourselves. So it’s no surprise if we’re not getting our job done and somebody else is going to come in and try to do it for us or do what they can to help. I wouldn’t necessarily say short leash, but I just think some of the mistakes were just bad to a point where you had to come out.”
Illinois-Chicago Head Coach Jimmy Collins
Opening Comments: “Well I guess in the famous words of Dennis Green, ‘They are what we thought.’ They’re a good team—there’s no question about it. They’re very polished. You start on one, and then another one strikes fire and then they get something else going. So they’re a very good basketball team. If we’ve learned anything at all, we’ve learned that we need to get a lot, lot better—not just the players we have, but as a staff, we need to get better. We need to get the type of players that will help us in our conference. The Big Ten has always been a very tough conference. I spent a little time in it to know. Wisconsin’s always been a tough place to play and they’ve always had tough players. It’s a very good basketball team that Bo (Ryan) has put together. I appreciate the opportunity to play them.”
On Jon Leuer’s performance: “Leuer’s a special athlete, there’s no question about it. You look at him on film and you know that he’s a guy who is going to make some money playing the game later on. He’s fluid, he’s got a very high release on his jump shot and he’s extremely athletic. We knew that we had to try to stop him, but I think all of those guys are good. Jon in particular is a very special player.”
On their 35 percent shooting percentage: “That’s protocol. That’s the way we shoot. We haven’t been a good shooting team this year. We got shots and we missed several lay-ups. Of course, Wisconsin does play good defense because they play good helping defense. Once you think you’ve got one beat, somebody’s there to pick up the slack. Part of it was them, but we don’t have yet – that’s not to say we can’t get better – but we don’t have the type of athletes and the type of shooters that have the confidence to compete against a team like the Badgers.”
