Jan. 20, 2010
Box Score
Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan
On Rob Wilson’s performance:
“Whatever he can give us is great to have. The teammates are always appreciative of everybody’s efforts. Rob did a great job for us. With us, we never say it has to come from this guy or that guy. We’ll take it from anybody. But Rob did a great job of recognizing what he could contribute to the team. Offensively he was solid, getting the loose balls, being active, taking shots. That’s really what we needed. We need somebody to take shots.”
On defending DeShawn Sims:
“We were trying to take certain things away from him, but he was tough. He’s a tough match-up because he’s not that tall, but he’s long and strong."
Was there discouragement or a sense of resiliency on the bench?
“Nervous. Who’s nervous? Did I look nervous? You know you just can’t. Defensively you just have to keep going toe to toe and give yourself a chance. Just hang in there. That’s all we kept talking about. Offensively, we gave Keaton [Nankivil] his chances, and he’s going to bury somebody sometime if they keep that five-man back there in the paint. We got the ball into the post several times tonight that ended up in penetration, and those ended up creating opportunities for us.”
On Tim Jarmusz making Manny Harris work hard:
“He does that. He understands what it takes to be successful defensively. Angles, he does a great job of that, and did a great job of that tonight. We all know how good Manny is and what he can do with the ball. Not just taking it to the rim, he’s a great three-point shooter, he’s a great pull-up guy. Then he hit the floater.”
On the importance of making free throws:
“When you’re shooting a poor percentage [on field goals] you need to make your free throws. And you need to not turn the ball over. That’s the only way you have a chance. And those two things happened.”
UW Postgame Player Quotes
Senior Trevon Hughes
On what Hughes said to the Big Ten Network about Rob Wilson after the game: “I was just saying that we see glimpses of him in practice. We know he’s a great player and sometimes when he comes over to the main squad he doesn’t bring it. It was about time for him to come out and play with us today. We needed it and he brought it out.”
On what made the difference in the game: “The effort and energy we got off the bench in the second half. We started the game off flat. Actually we got some open looks, but we just weren’t knocking them down. Our confidence level rises when we get the open looks. They were antagonizing in the paint and they kept Jordan (Taylor) and I out of it. It was hard to drive even though we wanted to shoot the open shots. At half time Coach (Ryan) got into us and told us to stay up and that the open shots might be there. Stay confident and get the open looks. We got a lot of production off the bench.”
On what helps the team come back after missing shots: “I have to get a spark and get something going and that’s what it was. I have to stay aggressive and I know my teammates feed off of that. I’m not much of a vocal leader, but I do show my aggression out on the court. I believe my teammates fed off of it. And like you said, Rob (Wilson) coming off the bench and having 13 points for us.”
Sophomore Rob Wilson
On what Hughes said about Wilson’s game to the Big Ten Network: “He said it all. I just hadn’t been bringing it like I know I should have. Today was the day I broke out of my shell.”
On what contributed to Wilson’s career-high game: "It just happened that all of the open shots just came from my teammates penetrating and finding me, but the main thing I was focusing on was playing defense."
Senior Keaton Nankivil
On coming back after being behind most of the game: “I think that it shows a lot about our team. We can have a setback and be down, but we’re not the kind of team to make excuses and there’s people like Rob who step up and Pop (Hughes) had a huge game. You can’t always shoot well. We still do a lot of stuff well that puts us in position to win and that’s the way Coach (Ryan) coaches us.”
On whether or not Wisconsin would have won had they been on the road: “I don’t really know the answer to that, but we are going to go and make improvements for when we do have to play on the road. I guess only time will tell on that one.”
Michigan Head Coach John Beilein
Opening Comment: “It probably isn’t a typical Wisconsin win because we had the lead the whole way and they were at home. We played hard for so long but we couldn’t get some shots to drop, and they hit some really timely, tough shots down the stretch and got to the foul line on us. Those were the keys. The two one-and-ones they ended up hitting got them back close, and we just had a couple of guys have a tough day shooting. And that’s because of Wisconsin’s defense as well.”
On Michigan’s strategy down the stretch: “It’s no secret that late in the game we were trying to go with Manny [Harris] or DeShawn [Sims] as we could. We were trying to go to DeShawn because he was having such a great day. He made a three, so we elected to go with him if he got a wide open one. We tried to get it inside. We tried to get it inside as much as we could. [Wisconsin] gaps off you pretty well and makes it difficult, but when we did, it was good. We felt we got some good shots at times, they just didn’t go, particularly for Manny.”
On Tim Jarmusz’s defense on Manny Harris: “[Wisconsin] always has a guy that can do that. I do think there were several times where Manny got really looks, but Tim is a good defender. He did a good job on him. I know Manny would love to have some of those shots back.”
On Michigan’s scouting report of Rob Wilson: “He didn’t play a lot last year. We were going to play him straight up. We knew he could shoot. He’s made four threes, I think he was four-for-eight going into the game, so he’s a 50 percent shooter, but that’s one every four games. We were playing him straight up. We knew we had to get to him if he was open, but he found one on his own one time. In typical Wisconsin fashion, they got some shot clock shots that were incredible scores. They missed a ton of shots in the first half and had one offensive rebound. Coach [Bo Ryan] had them all going to the back board in the second half and that was a big difference in the game—the second chances that they had.”
On why Wisconsin is tough to beat at the Kohl Center: “I think they win at home because they’re a good team. It was a great crowd. They have great coach, they have a great team and they have a system where they don’t beat themselves and that is why they win whether they’re at home or away. They don’t beat themselves and they didn’t beat themselves today. We didn’t even get into the one-and-one until I think until maybe the last… I don’t even know if we got into the one-and-one. They got us into the one-and-one. They got offensive rebounds. They just do the right things.”
