Nov. 16, 2014 Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Wisconsin vs. Chattanooga Nov. 16, 2014 Kohl Center – Madison, Wis. Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan On if he was happy with the way his players stayed composed throughout the game: “Yeah, without a doubt, because they can create some chaos, and that’s what they advertise. I thought our guys stayed really solid. We had three turnovers there in the last couple minutes which we shouldn’t have had, but other than that, for about 36, 37 minutes, I thought we did a real good job of getting looks that we wants.”
On if he likes the way his team is adjusting to their roles as players: “Well, it’s the first two games, so they pick each other up – some energy coming in from off the bench. Now Duje (Dukan) comes back, so that gives us another person with some experience. Because you know, we’re going to need to be deeper, of all the things that go on within the course of the year, with nicks and flues, and things like that. So, [Duje will] be a welcomed addition back, along with what the other guys have been doing. (It’s) very early, teams that are replacing some players from last year more so than us, so that probably hurt Chattanooga a little bit. But, I think if you watch this team during the year, I think you’ll see a pretty good team – Chattanooga.”
On today’s 3-point shooting performance: “Well, what happened was what I said would probably happen. Then you get a game where you make like eight of them on 17 shots. So what were we? Oh, I missed by one. Eight-for-18. So that’s 24 points on 18 shots. That’s what you want. The key was, guys, they do a great job of forcing in the turnovers that they score off of. I think if you look at points off of turnovers and second-chance points and fast-break points, I don’t think anybody will do that to Chattanooga this year. They rely on that with their offense. Those three categories right there, they usually do pretty well. Is anybody here from Chattanooga? With their media or anything? Because you would have the stats. What, did they all leave?”
On what Vitto Brown can contribute as the season goes on: “Well, it’s really simple in the way we play. Play defense and rebound, and take your scoring opportunities when they come. He’s done that in these first two games, but we’ll play against bigger teams where some of our bigs will be challenged inside. But he’s brought great energy off the bench.”
UW Player Quotes
Sophomore F Vitto Brown
On embracing his role so far this season:
“I just want to come in and make a positive impact on the game. I think getting offensive rebounds and defensive rebounds allows our team to have more opportunities to score.”
On how much more comfortable he is this year compared to last:
“I expect to go in (this season)—last year I wasn’t sure when I was getting in that game. Knowing that I have a role on the team, getting rebounds, doing the dirty work — I’m more confident this year.”
Junior F Sam Dekker
On embracing the type of game that was played today:
“Northern Kentucky really tried to slow us down and limit possessions, hence the score. But Chattanooga plays a completely different style of basketball. I think we usually do a pretty good job against teams that like to speed us up, because with our movement and unselfishness we can extend them and get easy opportunities for our big guys inside. When you have four other guys on the court that are just as unselfish as you are it makes it a lot more fun and much more balanced and hard to stop. When we’re sharing the ball like we were tonight I think we can do some pretty good things.”
On every player being comfortable switching on defense:
“I think that we’re pretty comfortable with our size matchups with Nigel (Hayes), myself and Vitto (Brown), Duje (Dukan), even Frank (Kaminsky) — we’re all kind of similar size, but we’re pretty athletic guys, too. I think we can switch onto guys, handle them for a little bit, coral them and try to cause some havoc. With staying solid on defense, coach (
Bo Ryan) always preaches, ‘Don’t give them any easy bucket. Don’t give them an easy look.’ They got a few in the lane, but I thought we did a pretty good job of limiting their chances in the paint and the score showed that.”
On what Duje Dukan will provide for the team when he returns next game:
“I just see it as another weapon. Duje can hoop, so we’re really excited to get him back. He causes a lot of problems for a lot of people and we’re ready for a big year for him. We’re excited and he’s very excited. He’s itching to get out there. We can’t wait to have him back.”
Sophomore F Nigel Hayes
On every player being comfortable switching on defense:
“We do feel comfortable. The first two teams we’ve played they like to run a lot of weave handoffs and it would cause us more problems if we tried to do what we normally do which is a flytrap. By all of us having great feet and being able to guard the one through five — Vitto (Brown), Frank (Kaminsky), I, Sam (Dekker), Duje (Dukan) — we can all switch onto a point guard at any point. We’re not saying we’re going to press them full-court and guard them for 25 seconds out of the possession, but if there is a switch I think we can guard them for five to 10 seconds. That’s very beneficial for us to be able to do that.”
On topping Melvin Gordon’s performance yesterday:
“For us to top 400 yards someone would’ve had to score 60 (points) today. Great performance. We tip our hat off to him. Heisman.”
Chattanooga Head Coach Will Wade
Opening Statement:
“Well, Wisconsin is a great team, I really like their team. They did a phenomenal job. We are a team that relies a lot on offensive rebounding, and obviously you don’t get a lot of those when you play Wisconsin. We only got one shot every time down the court, and we weren’t very efficient with those shots. So I give them a ton of credit, they are a phenomenal team; they’ve got a great system, great players. I was really impressed with
Nigel Hayes. Watching a lot of film on him, you can tell he’s slimmed down and lost a lot of weight, he’s toned his body up. He’s a phenomenal player. I love him. Blue collar, tough kid. I know (Sam) Dekker and (Frank) Kaminsky get a lot of the press, but Hayes man, that’s a ball player. I like him, and that kid (Traevon) Jackson is really good. He’s a really unselfish kid. It’s tough because they have a great system and great point guard who sprays it out and doesn’t necessarily want to score every time. But I’m really proud of our guys and I thought we competed. Our guys were taking charges at the end. Our guys were competing, we were just outmanned a little bit in a couple of spots. We didn’t shoot the ball well enough, which a lot of teams don’t do well against them. Tough night, but we’ll pack up the bus and head to Butler and try again Tuesday.”
On his system of chaos how difficult it is to implement against a team like Wisconsin:
“Well you can’t run it against Wisconsin. They would have scored 120 points against us if we had run it against them. So we had to back off on it. When you become a head coach you kind of teach what you know. I worked in a system at VCU that was like that. We called it havoc there, and I’m not very smart, so I thought since we’re at Chattanooga I better come up with something that starts with a “C”. So, chaos. You teach what you know, that’s what we do. We’ve got good athletes for our league, and for where we are we have very good athletes. We play extremely fast usually. I was hoping they’d settle into more of a half court game with us, but our guys are a pressure-oriented team. That hurt us more today in the half court than it did in the full court. We were up there pressuring, and they are good athletes so they just drove right around us. Our kid (Justin) Tuoyo does a good job blocking shots in the back, he got three or four blocks today. So he allows us to get up there and pressure, but there’s a lot that he usually gets to that he could not get to today. They’re just good players, longer, athletic, those sorts of things.”
On whether the lack of a full court press was a struggle today:
“Yeah, you have to make shots in order to press. Our game plan was that we weren’t going to spring a bunch of traps on them. They handle the ball too well, and we certainly didn’t want to get into a free throw shooting competition with them. They still shot 23. But you open yourself to that sort of thing when you press. We have to make shots in order to get in it, but we were not necessarily going to be springing traps all over the court today, even if we would have shot the ball better.”
