Nov. 28, 2010
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Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan
On Wisconsin’s run in the second half:
“They were doing the same things, we had gotten them out of the zone by hitting shots. In the first half we had those same looks, different results. In the second half we had the same looks, better results. Then they went man and scored off the man too, but it wasn’t a result of that.”
On Notre Dame’s play:
“They were aggressive on the attack, you take a look at a lot of their baskets were scored without an assist. They have a lot of seniors with a lot of experience and moxy, and with the ball they did a good job of attacking and making their own plays pretty much. I thought we did a great job of distributing the ball with 14 assists on our 20 baskets.”
On crucial mistakes down the stretch:
“If you foul a 3-point shooter, you give up a basket on a missed free throw, all those kind of things, those are big swings. Plus they’re momentum builders for the other team. I mean, I can remember us beating Michigan State after being down 10 with about 2 1/2 or 3 minutes to go and it was all on things where you go, ‘How the heck could that many things happen in that short of a period of time with guys that are pretty intelligent players,’ but they’re young men trying to do their best, that just didn’t happen.”
On Notre Dame’s ability to get to the free-throw line:
“In that zone, they were making sure we weren’t getting anything going to the rim and that’s usually when you get fouled, in the end we gave them maybe 6-8 free throws because we were playing from behind. We’ve had that differential though in our favor, and I know coaches get asked ‘What’d you think,’ well, we weren’t in a position to get to the free throw line that often and they were, they were very aggressive with the ball. We needed to do a better job of stopping the ball, and I thought we were playing like anything else, ‘Were you in position, were you not in position, two guys battling for rebounding position, two guys hit the floor, they get the free throws, how did this happen?’ And I’m sure it was the right call, I’m just saying, how can that many things happen sequentially? But I’ve been on the other side too.”
On what the Badgers must work on:
“We need some experience at guard, on the perimeter, not just guards. Physically, we’re not there. I thought we did a great job on (Tyrone) Nash. We went over things to limit his effectiveness knowing he’d be aggressive, but it was their other players that stepped up. It’s not like they shot lights-out, but they had some guys that made timely baskets and timely free throws, and that’s how you win those kind of grinders. Both our teams will be in more of them before the seasons out.
On playing conservatively because of fouls:
“(Our players) know they have teammates who will pick them up, we still do things we work on, we don’t say ‘Oh you can’t do this, you can’t do that because you have three fouls, four fouls,’ no we don’t do that. We’ve got a bench.”
On the team’s ability to limit turnovers:
“That’s seven turnovers against two teams that are very physical and experienced. Boston College had four starters back, Notre Dame had five of their regulars from before, and I thought we did a great job of taking care if the ball. But, you know, the strip at the end gets magnified because we’re still right there if we score and it’s a possession game … and the other team made the play.”
Senior F Jon Leuer
On the team’s play down the stretch:
“We just made too many mistakes down the stretch, (Notre Dame) made a lot of hustle plays, a lot of great plays. Sometimes you’ve got to give the other team credit, but we always look to ourselves and see what we can do better and, obviously, we feel we have a lot to prove and certain areas, little things, we could have done differently. The hustle plays on the other end, we’ve got to make sure those are ours, and that’s what propelled their run.”
On what the team needs to work on:
“We’ve got to be a more complete team and put 40 minutes together. Obviously we showed signs that we’re clicking, things can go really well, we just had a few dry spells in there where we made some mistakes, missed some shots and made some turnovers and, until we get a full 40 minutes together, we’re not going to reach our full potential.
“We had a stretch there where we got hot, but toward the end we missed some of the same looks, and that’s just something we’re going to have to improve on. It doesn’t just come down to making shots, the hustle plays were big for us, and that’s an area we usually take pride in and we’re usually the ones that get those.”
