Wisconsin vs. Northern Kentucky
Nov. 14, 2014
Kohl Center - Madison, Wis.

Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan

On Nigel Hayes’ work on the glass and Vitto Brown’s comfort on the court:
“Nigel was active. I thought defensively he did some good things. He maybe let the big fella catch the ball a couple times in the post. He could’ve maybe worked the guy a little harder. The strength that they brought in here with their quickness off the dribble-drives and throwbacks and things like that—they’re pretty effective with that. Defensively, Vitto and Nigel and the other guys did a great job of moving their feet and shutting off the driving lanes.”

On Wisconsin’s defensive play:
“Each team presents their strengths as we try to present ours. It’s very difficult to have film to look at (early in the season). Each game that we play, we get more footage. Each time we can see the opposition, the more footage we get on them. For the first time out playing a regulation game, it was pretty much what you expect—similar to a lot of other first games we’ve had. (There were) some good spots, (and) some rough spots.”

On Final Four banner being raised and pre-game ceremony:
“For the players, they were pretty excited. They felt the warmth from the fans. It was nice that the fans came early and were ready to honor those guys. The fact that we had the chance to have a couple of the other guys come back (Evan Anderson and Zach Bohannon)—of course Ben (Brust) couldn’t be here, but he did a nice little video—it was neat. It’s what people do. For our school to do it, it’s a tribute. As soon as we went back to that locker room it was, ‘Let’s get ready, let’s match up, let’s stick to the scouting report and let’s do our thing.’ But it was neat, especially for the players and fans.”

On how a two-guard starting lineup changes the team offensively:
“We take what the defense gives. The size of the players doesn’t mean you can’t go inside. We had all kinds of combinations out there. I don’t get hung up on the combinations because I figure with all the reps we have in practice, most players know two positions — some players know three positions — so it’s not any big deal over the course of the game.”

On feeling better about the defense compared to last season:
“If we stick to our rules and stay disciplined and keep working, I always feel any team you coach can get better. So, we’ll see how it plays out. I don’t expect from year-to-year anything different (whether it’s) from 2003 to 2004, or 2014 to 2015. When I’m doing the drills and showing them clips and trying to teach, you could mix them all together and they’d all be the same to me.”

On 3-point shooting tonight:
“4-for-17 is not what you want to shoot. That’s 12 points on 17 shots. We needed to make two more of those 3’s to be OK because then that’s 18 points on 17 shots. If you’re getting more points than the number of shots you take from 3 then it’s OK. But, obviously we didn’t do that. If we’re getting those same 17 looks, there are games where we can hit seven or eight of those.”

UW Player Quotes

Junior F Sam Dekker

On finally getting to play basketball after all the preseason hype:
“Well, after that first video (and) that little tribute, which was cool, I said to Josh, ‘You know, thank goodness we got this preseason stuff out of the way.’ Hype is good, it’s a good time and it’s cool and fun, but at some point you got to change the page from last year. I think after that everyone came back to earth. It was good to get back on the court against a different opponent in a game that matters now, standings wise. Yeah, it’s good to get out there again. It makes you excited. I think we were a little bit rusty at first, but I think we broke through it and played pretty good basketball tonight.”

Senior F Frank Kaminsky

On feeling better about the team defensively:
“It’s hard to compare. I think we did really well defensively tonight. Holding an opponent to 31 points is pretty good. We had a little slip up at the end, (and) we wanted to hold it under 30, but you know it’s a good start and hopefully we can build on it.”

On the assist total and playing team basketball to create offense:
“I think it has a little bit to do with the length in preseason (and) just getting to understand each other. But, we’re returning so many people from last year’s team, we understand how to play with each other already and you know we’re building on last year. Everyone knows each other’s strengths and we just try to play to that.”

Sophomore F Nigel Hayes

On improving rebound and having an effective time doing so tonight:
“Our assistant coach, Coach (Gary) Close, always gave me a hard time about it last year, telling me I was a ‘terrible rebounder’ and ‘the worst rebounder in the country,’ etc. So this year going around I wanted to make improvements and rebounding was one of those. I felt like I got off to a good start. I still missed a couple out there, (and) he told me, but I would say it’s a pretty good start for the first game.”

On the confidence shown by teammate Vitto Brown:
“He looked a lot better. We still joked about him missing his free throws, but I think it was just him getting settled down. He shot – maybe you could count on one hand last year – and today he shot that same amount and went one for something. He let us know. I think once he gets some more playing time in the next couple of days, probably within 10 games in, he’ll probably be confident and just play normal.”

On making his first-career start:
“Last year I said it was good that I got to watch Sam and Frank and them run around and look good. I got to learn what to do and what I could get away with as far as what the other team was doing. Starting, I was just being prepared with coach and the scouting report. I knew what I was doing. It’s my second go-around with college basketball, so I was just more comfortable out there.”

Northern Kentucky Head Coach Dave Bezold

Opening statement: 

“I want to congratulate Wisconsin on that Final Four banner— what an incredible run— and then thank Coach Ryan for letting us play. What a special opportunity for our kids to play in this environment. It’s our third year in Division I so we’re in transition and whenever we get into a place that has a history in basketball and tradition like this, we’re going to go and play there so we’re very, very thankful for those guys to let us come and play. 

On if Wisconsin looked like the No. 3 team in the country: 

“Oh, absolutely. The hardest thing for us is to simulate anything they have and you saw us, we’re pretty tiny. I mean, we’re small. So in practice, it’s pretty difficult to simulate their size and strength. Last year we opened up at Purdue and 48 hours later, Kentucky and absolutely they’re a tremendous team.”

On the team’s defensive plan: 

“We had to decide what we were going to take away, what we were going to give them. We decided there was no way we were going to stop them on the inside. They could throw it all day long in there if we didn’t commit everybody down. That’s what we were trying to do— commit everybody down, we don’t want to have layups, don’t foul them, take away drives and layups and if they make three’s, we’re going to have to live with it.”

On what happened during the long stretch of them not scoring: 

“It was a combination of both (what Wisconsin was doing and the Northern Kentucky not being able to keep control). We had the pace we needed to play at but then there were some substitutions. We didn’t have anything fall tonight. Last year we played Purdue and we were up four with 15 seconds left but we hit 13 three’s. Tonight we hit maybe one. If we scored like we usually do and hit six or seven, it would be a different ball game. Wisconsin is different than Purdue and it’s very hard to play against tremendous size and really good defense. That’s what scared me about this team, is that I’ve watched every one of their games from last year over the last week and you think you’re right there with them in the first half and all the sudden you look up and they’re up by 30 on you. And you’re like, ‘how did that happen?’ They just methodically take you apart. You’ve got to counter by making plays and we were just unable to do that.”

On the game plan with the size difference on the two teams: 

“It’s difficult, like I said, in practice we can’t simulate that. Kentucky I thought was the biggest team I’ve ever seen last year and they walked out on the floor— tremendous size. In these kind of games what you have to figure out is where we may be a mismatch offensively because that’s the hardest thing, trying to figure out how to score on them. With that size are we quicker? What spot are we quicker? What can we do? And tonight we just couldn’t generate any consistency with anything so the size, it’s very difficult.”