Dec. 8, 2010
Recap | Box Score | Photo Gallery 
Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan
On Keaton Nankivil’s performance on the glass tonight:
“Well, the boards and also on the job he did on Anthony Hill and on his help. His shooting, his one sock wasn’t quite as high, he jokes, he was unbalanced when he got dressed, and other than that he had a pretty good night. I think one of Keaton’s socks was a little higher, other than that, he did pretty good, great overall performance.”
On Jon Leuer’s untouchable shots he took tonight:
“Jon did a nice job of not hurrying shots; he used a good dropstep on a couple of those baseline jumpers. He ended up with nine of 15 percentage wise, that’s pretty good. There were a couple that rattled and came out, but any time you get two touches on the rim on a miss, that’s good shooting. Some people when they shoot and they miss, it only touches the rim one time, and then its 10-15 feet away, but anytime you can touch the rim more than once, that’s good shooting. Most of his misses have a chance to go down.”
On how well Nankivil played this game when only receiving seven minutes of playing time last game:
“I tell my players all the time that there is going to be days in life that it might not seem like it’s your day, but the fact that you’re up-right and still going through it, you survive it, you get to the next one, we don’t ever dwell on that. I couldn’t remember that he had a tough game against South Dakota until you just said it, I put that away. We just get ready for them, and put that stuff away and get ready for the next game.”
On the Badgers' defense:
“We had certain things we were trying to do to take away their tendencies, just like they were doing to us. The guys pretty much stuck to the rules that we worked on, we don’t change our rules for every game, but there are things that we do, that sometimes makes our defense look like a zone, by bumping out to the next guy. Other times we will hedge hard on certain areas of the floor, I won’t say anymore because other teams need to study our tapes to see what we are doing, I don’t want to give away too much. But I thought our guys stuck to the rules real well.”
On only allowing Milwaukee to shoot 30 percent tonight:
“It started inside. Anthony Hill’s going to hurt a lot of people and he already has because he’s good in there, he just had a rough night. Hill is going to light some people up, he already had. Ja’Rob McCallum and Tony Meier have some tools there that they are trying to find their identity, just like a lot of us are. The energy on defense was great, they have some guys that can come off some screens pretty hard who are quick with the ball, so I liked the way our guys handled that.”
Senior F Jon Leuer
On the current stretch of in-state games:
“It’s fun for us to see the other in-state teams. It is a big rivalry between us, and I think all of the teams in Wisconsin take pride in these games and there is a little extra incentive. You want to have bragging rights I guess you could say, but at the same time you just have to approach it like every other game, and that is what we are trying to do.”
On Badgers early turnovers and how they cut down on them as the game moved on:
“We want to try to limit those obviously, but we made some mistakes in the first half and there were a lot of travel calls both ways. Obviously the refs were trying to emphasize that and you just kind of have to adjust to that during the game. I think we started to do that as the game progressed, and that was just something we have to do.”
Senior F Keaton Nankivil
On his strong defense against Anthony Hill:
“So much of what Coach (Bo) Ryan stresses in the post is doing your work early, and not letting him catch the ball. He (Anthony Hill) fights hard in the post, and it was hard not to let him catch it, so he definitely did get some catches, but when he did … we saw some stuff on film about how he moved once he got the ball, so I was just trying to hold my ground as much as possible. I think doing the work early with any player -- once you get off to a slower start -- it’s hard to come back from that during a game.”
If a strong night defensively helps his offense:
“For me, and as a team, it’s just such a confidence-builder to know that you’re doing something right on one end, keep the energy up and go do it on the other end. It could also work the other way, but I think for us as such a defensive-minded team, it definitely works that way.”
On how movement helps his offensive game:
“A lot of my offensive game is based on finding what is open when Jon (Leuer) and Jordan (Taylor) attract so much attention. I feel like a lot of my baskets tonight were a couple guards going to double Jon, or they create something and I just try to find an open seam, and I guess that is the movement, from getting where I am not seen to where I can just catch and shoot and make it as easy of a shot as possible for myself.”
On what he enjoyed the most of his, points, rebounds or blocks:
“You don’t really think about it when you play, but I have always loved blocking shots as a player just because it is an energy thing. I don’t know, that has always just been something that’s fun to me."
Junior G Jordan Taylor
On comparing his free-throw percentage (4-for-4) to Leuer’s (1-for-3) and Chancellor Martin:
“I didn’t see that (Chancellor Martin won the free-throw challenge against Milwaukee’s chancellor), but I heard she was knocking them down. His (Jon Leuer’s) mom will give him some tips, too. Jon’s mom is actually a free-throw extraordinaire.”
On how offensive contributions by players like Keaton Nankivil and Josh Gasser will help:
“Yeah definitely I think so. Even when they are not scoring though, Keaton (Nankivil), Josh (Gasser), and all those guys, Tim (Jarmusz), are always contributing something, Mike (Brusewitz) as well, but they know they can score. Especially Keaton, you can’t leave them alone, he will knock the shot, so even if he is not scoring he is still adding so much to us offensively just because you can’t leave him alone, so it takes another big out on the wing if he is stretching out the defense. But when he is scoring, obviously, you are going to notice it, but either way he adds so much and so does Josh even when he is not knocking down shots. It is just the threat of him being there that adds a lot when they play well like they did tonight.”
On how the pace of play will factor into game against Marquette and their fast pace:
“I wouldn’t necessarily say that. We just like to get good shots, even if it is early in the shot clock, if the shot’s there we’ll take it. I mean obviously they have a history for getting up-and-down, and they are running and dunking, we might not be doing that. We are just going to do what we are good at doing, which is getting good shots, making reads on the offensive end and making the other team make decisions defensively. That’s going to be big, that’s going to be the key to winning the game, not necessarily whether we are running up-and-down shooting two seconds into the shot clock or whatever.”.
Milwaukee Head Coach Rob Jeter
Opening Statement
“Well coming into tonight, playing a team like the Badgers, what we were trying to do is we were trying to get back on track shooting the basketball, and that’s the wrong team to play to do that against. They did a nice job defensively, it is what they do to all the teams that come in here, especially in this place. Their length and their discipline defensively really makes it difficult for teams and it made it difficult for us tonight. We never really got a chance to get our inside game going at all, it was null and void, and we just couldn’t get anything going down there and that was the key.”
On what the Badgers did to neutralize Anthony Hill:
“Well he got touches. Until I get a chance to go back and watch some of those early shots, I think some of their earlier post touches were some of the ones that were our best opportunities to maybe get to the free throw line. Then as we got into the middle part of the game, I think he (Anthony Hill) got a little discouraged, started taking some shots that weren’t as strong. But I thought some of those early touches were the ones where we had the best opportunities and when those don’t happen, he just got a little discouraged and then we had to get a little more perimeter oriented. Keaton Nankivil just did a nice job of staying between him and the basket and you are going to have to have to make a decision, is it a good play or is it a foul. They didn’t call fouls, so I have to assume that it was good defensive play.”
On how they struggled with assist-to-turnover ratio:
“Of course, when you can’t throw it into the post and get a post feed and a score, you are not going to get an assist. And when you are playing defense on the perimeter and they really jump out and they make you take an extra dribble, that’s going to take some of the assists away. 15 turnovers, and they had 13, of course that is a couple too many, that’s five too many in my opinion, I would like to be right around that 10 mark, but they were over the mark too. This is a team that I think is averaging around eight turnovers a game, and they had 13. I thought on both sides of the basketball, it was kind of two teams just trying to make someone have to do something off the dribble. So many times in their possession it was Jordan Taylor going off the dribble. But yeah, way too many for us and we have to correct that.”
On differences between this Badger defense and those of the past:
“They are a little longer, they are a little louder as a group, and then when they do bring in #2 off of the bench, (Wquinton) Smith, I have seen him on tape, he can really just get into guys and create charges, so they really make it difficult. I think with (Jon) Leuer being as long as he is, you are really not sure if he is a three or a four sometimes, and when they switch his length is tough. And on the other hand, when you are talking Leuer, he just makes shots that really aren’t defendable for us. He catches it in the post and just turns and shoots over the top. I mean other than not allowing him to catch the ball, I am not sure what else we can do, maybe tickle him or something when he catches it, I don’t know. But yeah, their defense is good because they keep you in front with their length, they make you have to make some of those shots. We got our fair share of short jump shots, but it was off of a dribble or two which is going to eliminate the assists.”
