Dec. 31, 2009
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan Quotes
On Wisconsin’s defensive approach to let Ohio State drive and prevent the 3-pointer: “If you can do that, that’s a pretty good deal because they can shoot the three. Certain guys you play a certain way. Some you chase more than others; some you go under. Anytime a guy like [Jon] Diebler, who, in a state as populated as Ohio, to be the leading scorer in high school, the guy can shoot it. We tried to keep some heat on him and not let him get comfortable, but then you have [David] Lighty playing this year who didn’t play last year who has been attacking pretty well. You give him some space, he’s pretty good out in space, getting angles on guys. I thought the best job we did defensively, [Dallas] Lauderdale has been doing some things for them around the basket. I thought our guys did a real good job on him; not letting him get started. I think all around, if we can take good looks from three away, if we can force a three that’s one thing, but if we can force looks away and take driving lines away from putting it on the floor, that’s the way I’ve been trying to teach defense since ’71.”
On Wisconsin’s help defense: “Points per possession were .78, but [Ohio State] is still a team that’s in transition. When you have a player as good as Evan Turner and the things he can, I still say that they’re transitioning. Evan was real positive about getting back on the court. I had a chance to talk with him a little bit. We’ll take this and do some things defensively and say ‘atta boys’ as the saying goes, but there are still some things that we have to get better at. Our positioning was pretty good today.”
On Wisconsin’s 21-5 run to start the second half: “It’s a combination of things. We had our normal rotations going. [Jon] Leuer‘s back on the court. Jon has improved as a defensive player; try shooting over him or through him sometime. His presence is very welcomed. You can’t play defense when you’re sitting next to Coach [Greg] Gard. It’s hard to do. I was a little unsettled about the ways he picked up the two fouls which we have to work on; one leaving his feet and the second reaching in after the guy already had the rebound. You’d like to have them back, but his teammates picked him up.”
On Trevon Hughes’ assertiveness: “He took advantage of his opportunities, that’s for sure. You have to be ready for that. Opportunistic still describes the way we try to play. The fact that he doesn’t have to do something to make our possessions go, that doesn’t hurt. The fact that he’s getting help at the guard position and help from bigs in completing plays and being on the receiving end. If I’m a big and I got stronger in the offseason, I have a better chance of catching the ball in the post. Some of those passes become turnovers if the bigs aren’t strong to the ball. He’s done some good things on dribble drives. We got bogged down a little bit offensively and he drives the lane and pitches to [Jason Bohannon] for the three. He drove through the help and kicked to the open man and we knocked the three down. Plus I think the fans were looking for something to yell about before midnight tonight.”
Wisconsin Player Quotes
Trevon Hughes
On the team’s play with Jon Leuer on the bench: “We play as a team, and we know that Jon is one of our big guys in the post, but we have other guys that can fill his shoes. That’s we did; we did it as a committee and everybody that came in knew it was going to be a battle out there with [Dallas] Lauderdale. They came in and did what they had to do to pick up Jon’s slack.”
On Wisconsin’s defense: “[There were] no easy drives to the basket. We had guys helping out and that was something we were working on all week in practice. We knew that [David] Lighty liked to penetrate and kick it to open shooters, but we tried our best to keep him out of the lane.”
Jon Leuer
On the team’s play while he sat out with two early fouls: “That was fun watching those guys go out there and compete and execute like they did. I was really enjoying my time on the bench. I felt like a fan cheering them on because, obviously with two fouls, I couldn’t be in there helping out. In the second half I just tried to be aggressive. I knew I had fresh legs and maybe their guys were still a little tired. They play a lot of minutes and they have a short rotation so we were looking to take advantage of that. I had some opportunities and made some plays in the second half. Overall, it was just a good team win.”
On opening the Big Ten season with a win: “We know what the Big Ten has in store for us. It’s a long, grueling league season, but it’s always nice to win the first one and get off to a good start. We have to put that behind us and look to the next one, and that’s what we’re going to do. We’ll get right back at it tomorrow and focus on Penn State.”
Jordan Taylor
On the team’s reaction to Leuer sitting out: “I think we had our foot on people’s throats and didn’t let up. In the past we’ve had teams like Duke and Marquette down but let them back in the game and Jon was on the floor then. It was nice to see us keep the pedal to the metal and put a team away.”
Ohio State Head Coach Thad Matta Quotes
Opening comment: "I thought that Wisconsin played exceptionally well. Looking at them coming into the game, they are playing some great basketball right now. We could never get into the flow of what we were trying to do offensively. [Wisconsin's] ability to keep its composure as the shot clock was winding down; they made some huge shots on us. We were never able to recover to the level we needed to and that was huge for them."
On Ohio State's offense: "For us, [the penetration], we lost it a couple of times with contact on the drive early. We had talked about that; you have to play through that. We didn't deliver the ball where we needed to. We missed guys. The guys we had talking about being open, they were open. We just didn't make the right reads a lot of times."
On Wisconsin's players stepping up this year: "Every year they have somebody that raises, and Hughes has shown throughout his career here that he's had moments of greatness. [Jon] Leuer, watching him in the films from last year, you could see he's a pretty good player. He hit some difficult shots against us in the game last year. He's got such great support around him. When you're bringing [Jordan] Taylor off the bench, he's a heck of a guard. I think Hughes is as good as any I've seen in the Big Ten at the point guard position."
On Ohio State's defense in the first half: "At the beginning and at the end of the half, we had some urgency about us, but in between, we were a second late. We were reacting to everything they were doing. I felt like [Wisconsin] had their way with us."
On Wisconsin's defense: "It's position-oriented. It's extremely physical. The size inside, they really have an understanding of where they're helping from. The size with the pressure on the perimeter, it doesn't appear like there's pressure, but they do a good job of using their size."
On Evan Turner's loss impacting the team: "I've tried to stop thinking about it. With Evan, it's a little bit like losing Dave [Lighty] last year, except more from the offensive side of things. Evan was probably playing as well as any player in college basketball at the time that he went down. It's hard from the standpoint of when you lose a player and it's indefinite when he's coming back. I've always said that you take October, November and December to get your team ready for conference play, and unfortunately with our team the last couple of years, we've had to go in makeshift. This was a game to me that was very similar to our game against West Virginia last year at just about the same time. We have to keep hammering home and keep our fingers crossed that we can get him back. Evan is a great player and he does so much with the basketball and without it. He can get you rebounds. The biggest thing we miss is a 6'7 guy out there with a long wingspan."
