Jan. 15, 2012
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Wisconsin vs. Nebraska
Jan. 15, 2012
Kohl Center - Madison, Wis.
Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan
On what it means to get a win when Jordan Taylor has no assists:
“Well, it just means there might have been some looks that we had where the ball might not have gone down, but he’s going to make that next pass or he’s going to try to get to the line or he’s going to try to create a situation for somebody else. But remember, sometimes when you drive and you hit somebody with a pass and they shot fake and put it on the floor, that’s not an assist. So I think that happened a couple times. But it isn’t because he wasn’t trying to distribute—he was drawing a lot of attention, I know that. So that’s okay. To get this kind of a good thing for us as far as on the left hand side, playing the way we did on the offensive end, this is a pretty good statement for our players. Defensively, they get what, 15 points from their bench that they did have before when Talley and Diaz didn’t play. So I thought defensively we did a great job, taking away stuff they were trying to do and then trying to handle Diaz and Talley. But those two make them better, that’s why they’ve been playing so much better lately.”
On the game boiling down to the last couple of minutes on hustle plays:
“Well you have to say when you’re in a tight game like that, a couple possessions, one possession, all those things matter. And we got our fair share of them. Matter of fact, I think we got pretty much all of them. And maybe that’s as a result of the percentages—there weren’t a whole lot of those opportunities before and sometimes they can come in bunches and I thought Jordan [Taylor’s] rebound of the miss and Jared [Berggren’s] and Mike [Bruesewitz] keeping the ball alive—all those things help, those are all things that you try to make happen and then when they do happen, it’s a tribute to the hustle and the effort of your players.”
On the team moving the ball and if they were a bit stagnant today:
“In the first half. And then in the second, then we got it going a little bit better. I think what happened was we got discouraged on some of our bumps, on some of our cuts on the bumps and we’re trying to fight through them. It’s so hard in a game, you just have to judge what they’re going to call and what they’re not going to call. So it isn’t anything, it’s not any criticism of how a game is officiated at all—it’s how much movement and how many hands and how much players are allowed to play the game the way we try to practice the game. So either you’re going to call the hands or not—and then they called the hands in the second half it seemed because we were making better cuts. It wasn’t because the game changed. The game changed because we made it change.”
On why the team cleaned up turnovers late in the game:
“You know, everyone’s trying to make the great play. I’ve always coached the players to make good plays. They’re trying to make great plays—you don’t have to make great plays to be a decent basketball team, be a good basketball team. Good plays make for good teams. So once we settled and moved the ball and used our ball fakes and countered and did the things that we normally do, it was a lot better.”
On the team’s solid free throw shooting down the stretch in the last two games:
“They went in. Guys did a nice job of getting there first and then you gotta stare them down. And then when we did miss, we actually happened to get another opportunity. So it’s positions that you put yourself in as a team, as players, and then when you get the opportunity to close it out, you shut the door.”
Wisconsin Players
Senior G Jordan Taylor
On if the game boiled down to Wisconsin’s hustle plays at the end:
“Yea, there were hustle plays. That’s something [Mike Bruesewitz] has been doing for three years now and it’s something he’s great at. There have been some balls that we haven’t been getting at times this year, so it’s encouraging to win the game off that.”
On why the team seems to be shooting well away from home, but not so well at home:
“If I had the answer then it wouldn’t be a problem. We’re just not knocking down shots [at the Kohl Center]. But, you know, we’ll take it. We found a way to win, which is what’s important in the Big Ten. Now we just have to try to worry about Northwestern and keep trying to improve and it’s another chance to improve on knocking down shots, Wednesday here at home.”
Sophomore G Josh Gasser
On how he would describe the way Wisconsin took care of the ball in the first half:
“Pretty much exactly how we don’t want it to go … I think we got better though. In the second half we had one turnover and that definitely contributed to the outcome.”
Junior F/C Jared Berggren
On if a game like today against Nebraska makes them realize how tough the Big Ten is:
“Nothing’s given in this league. Every team is going to put up a fight. Every game is a battle. You can’t take anything for granted and you can’t look past anyone. You’ve got to bring it every night, which is why it makes the Big Ten such a good league.”
Nebraska Head Coach Doc Sadler
Opening Statement:
"I thought both teams played really hard. For us to even have a chance with their free throw advantage which was 24 attempts to two, and then their offensive rebounding was 17 to our nine. For us to even have a chance says a lot. I thought our team played hard, and we put ourselves in position to have a chance there late. Give Wisconsin credit: they're the ones that made the plays. But you're not going to win very many games on the road with a free throw discrepancy of 22. We just have to do much better than that."
On the lack of free throw attempts for his team:
"It wasn't our lack of being aggressive. Obviously they're just an unbelievable defensive team to not foul. We just have to be tougher with the ball. We went at them off the dribble, with the pass inside. Both teams shot the same amount of 3-pointers. I thought our team was very aggressive, just as Wisconsin was. We're just not as aggressive as we need to be to get a foul. We have to do a better job in that."
On the loose balls that Nebraska was not able to come up with at the end:
"We have to be tougher. We have to make those plays. It doesn't matter if it was over the back. I didn't say it was over the back though, I just said we needed to be tougher."
On what led to the free throw discrepancy:
"We were just fouling a lot more than they were. Both teams were driving the ball. One team shot 18, and one team shot 19 3-pointers. Everything else was driving and attacking, going to the low post. They did it and we did it. We just weren't tough enough to get the fouls."
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On what it means to get a win when Jordan Taylor has no assists:
“Well, it just means there might have been some looks that we had where the ball might not have gone down, but he’s going to make that next pass or he’s going to try to get to the line or he’s going to try to create a situation for somebody else. But remember, sometimes when you drive and you hit somebody with a pass and they shot fake and put it on the floor, that’s not an assist. So I think that happened a couple times. But it isn’t because he wasn’t trying to distribute—he was drawing a lot of attention, I know that. So that’s okay. To get this kind of a good thing for us as far as on the left hand side, playing the way we did on the offensive end, this is a pretty good statement for our players. Defensively, they get what, 15 points from their bench that they did have before when Talley and Diaz didn’t play. So I thought defensively we did a great job, taking away stuff they were trying to do and then trying to handle Diaz and Talley. But those two make them better, that’s why they’ve been playing so much better lately.”
On the game boiling down to the last couple of minutes on hustle plays:
“Well you have to say when you’re in a tight game like that, a couple possessions, one possession, all those things matter. And we got our fair share of them. Matter of fact, I think we got pretty much all of them. And maybe that’s as a result of the percentages—there weren’t a whole lot of those opportunities before and sometimes they can come in bunches and I thought Jordan [Taylor’s] rebound of the miss and Jared [Berggren’s] and Mike [Bruesewitz] keeping the ball alive—all those things help, those are all things that you try to make happen and then when they do happen, it’s a tribute to the hustle and the effort of your players.”
On the team moving the ball and if they were a bit stagnant today:
“In the first half. And then in the second, then we got it going a little bit better. I think what happened was we got discouraged on some of our bumps, on some of our cuts on the bumps and we’re trying to fight through them. It’s so hard in a game, you just have to judge what they’re going to call and what they’re not going to call. So it isn’t anything, it’s not any criticism of how a game is officiated at all—it’s how much movement and how many hands and how much players are allowed to play the game the way we try to practice the game. So either you’re going to call the hands or not—and then they called the hands in the second half it seemed because we were making better cuts. It wasn’t because the game changed. The game changed because we made it change.”
On why the team cleaned up turnovers late in the game:
“You know, everyone’s trying to make the great play. I’ve always coached the players to make good plays. They’re trying to make great plays—you don’t have to make great plays to be a decent basketball team, be a good basketball team. Good plays make for good teams. So once we settled and moved the ball and used our ball fakes and countered and did the things that we normally do, it was a lot better.”
On the team’s solid free throw shooting down the stretch in the last two games:
“They went in. Guys did a nice job of getting there first and then you gotta stare them down. And then when we did miss, we actually happened to get another opportunity. So it’s positions that you put yourself in as a team, as players, and then when you get the opportunity to close it out, you shut the door.”
