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Wisconsin vs. Iowa
Dec. 31, 2011
Kohl Center - Madison, Wis.
Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan
On the team's inability to stop Iowa during the last few minutes of the game:
“The ball went in. It's not something you want to have happen, but you’ve also got to be the person who can make those shots.”
On whether the team was getting good looks despite the low shooting percentage:
“Iowa played hard, we played hard, both teams are going at it on each possession. I've never overanalyzed a game, and this one won't be the first. You've got to hit some of the shots, it takes away the effectiveness of the transition. If you hit shots, it's amazing how much better your defense looks. It's never changed, ever since it started in 1891. You hit some shots and see what happens.”
On if he saw Iowa's deeper bench being an issue in the game:
“No. With all those timeouts we used at the end, it's very similar to what we do in practice.”
On the team's ability to battle during the game:
“Our guys made a comeback that probably should have never happened by all percentages. But the percentages don't always go that way. So for us to make the comeback the way we did and put us in position, you've got to take that and say 'well, there's a start.' The Big Ten's going to be like this the whole year. I just think there are so many teams that are equal. If you have a cold night, you're not going to walk away (with the win). Defensively, we had some breakdowns but I think a lot of that was caused by what we weren't able to do on the offense.”
On the second-half comeback and how Iowa was able to answer:
“They made the shots. Is every team you play going to be able to do that? No. Are we able to do that at times? No. Sometimes you do though. But that wasn't the case here. But I loved the way our guys scrambled and tried to make some things happen. When you're playing from behind, those kind of things tend to occur.”
On late game execution when trailing:
“It depends on time. Every possession is 15 seconds. We pressured them a lot, then when it got across half-court, that gave us 17 or 18 seconds on the shot clock. You're not going to foul there because if you get the stop, you get it down and that's why I saved the last timeout. We score, we get a timeout. But they scored. The key defensively is you've got to get a stop. We did put some points up there down the stretch. How many games do we lose over one point per possession. Because of the way our guys battled possessively, we didn't have a lot of turnovers. We corrected some of that. The guys at least stuck their noses in there and made it interesting. I like the fact that we broke the defense down to get a couple of good looks.”
UW Players
Senior G Jordan Taylor
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On whether the missed shots were more disappointing, or the lack of key defensive stops:
“Probably both. Not shooting the ball well, that’s going to happen. But, not being able to get stops, especially down the stretch. They got a big back-door lay up, that was probably a big one and that one was kind of a back breaker.”
On if the key shots from Iowa late in the game had them thinking it just was not their day:
“I think they did a good job of exploiting places where we broke down, so hats off to them. They came in here and they were ready to play. I don’t think that you ever just give in like that. You just keep battling, and we did, but they just made more plays and that’s what it came down to.”
Junior C Jared Berggren:
On any explanation for the poor shooting:
“Just one of those days. You can’t really explain it, I guess. Sometimes that’s just the way the ball is going to bounce. We have to do a better job of getting the ball inside and not settling for jumpers as much and doing a better job on defense.”
Sophomore G Josh Gasser
On his six-point swing down the stretch:
“I hit some free throws, then someone found me in the corner and I got to the hoop and got a bucket. It seemed to give us some momentum and the crowd got into it a little bit. It gave us a real good chance to come back and get the win, but there were a lot of other plays in the game that went the other way. We just needed to make more plays.”
Iowa Head Coach Fran McCaffery:
On Bryce Cartwright:
"I think he’s feeling better. I think even though the other night, in a loss, he was better. You could see that he was making strides. The Brown game he played well, so there’s been bits and pieces of it, but it hasn’t been what we thought it could be on a nightly basis. Tonight, we encouraged him to push the basketball and create some tempo and essentially control the game."
On Iowa’s ability to hit clutch shots late:
"We had our best offensive team on the floor—that helps. We had five scorers out there, all of whom can make a basket, but I think the thing that made it most impressive was that we were also making plays. It wasn’t just one guy going off the dribble. Now, Bryce [Cartwright] did once and [Roy Devyn] Marble did once, but Marble also made a great bounce pass on a back cut by Bryce and we got the ball to [Melsahn] Basabe who got fouled. We hit Aaron White in transition by pushing the basketball. So we put our best offensive guys on the floor and we pushed it, spread it and shooting the ball."
On what the win means for the Hawkeyes, especially after a tough loss three nights ago:
"I felt like the other night, we sort of played well enough to win. You look at it and say, we’re right there. But you give up 18 layups, can you really expect to win? Defensively, we were not where we needed to be in that game. So what did we do? We learned from it and we focused. I mean, the film session was not a pleasant one. There’s two ways to approach that—you can point fingers at your teammates and your coaches or you can look in the mirror and effect change. The focus and concentration in practice that they had prior to this game was fabulous, and I felt like they bought in totally and completely to the game plan and then carried it out. You can’t come in here [to the Kohl Center] and lose the battle on the glass and expect to win. We out-rebounded them and we chased them off the three—we contested the three and then we executed the offense by pushing the ball."
On whether today’s victory is his most exciting while with Iowa:
"Probably. I think anytime you win on the road in this league, there’s a celebration—there’s an incredible sense of accomplishment. Last year we had one at Indiana, and of course it came down to the last shot, so that was exciting. Our first one, we beat Michigan State at home by 22, which I don’t think anybody expected, so that was. But this is the 11th ranked team in the country on the road with a fabulous winning percentage here. So I think our players understood what they had to overcome to make this happen. From that standpoint, I’m certainly proud of my team. They’re proud of each other."
On out-scoring the Badgers off the bench:
"I don’t necessarily look at that in terms of our bench versus their bench. A lot of times [Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan] only plays six. We play a lot of players, and there’s nights when Aaron White’s been our leading scorer—well, he was today. So that’s going to happen. [Josh] Oglesby is going to have some big nights. So I just sort of expect that my team is going to respond off the bench. They know that I’m going to play ten."
