Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan
On the team’s defense and whether it was just a matter of Duke hitting tough shots:
“Well you have to agree, we have all of their shots charted, and I would say they hit some tough shots, but they have good enough players that can do that at times. To have as many do it on the same night, that’s just not fair. I don’t care what anybody says, they were lights out. They were shooting well. Offensively we were trying to find ourselves, it was a little bit different defensive team than what came in here five years ago with what they can do with their athletic wings and quickness and size up front. We finally started to get some things going through penetration and finding open people, but it was a struggle. And they are better than us right now, there’s no question. We’ve got to shore some things up, but it is a great game to have clips of things that we need to work on.”
On what to take away from this game going forward in the season:
“Well that’s what I mean, there are some things that show weaknesses, some things that we maybe did well. The weaknesses outweigh the positives, but you take a look at teaching clips, put it on their iPads, we show them some things, and if you are a smart player, and we have a lot of them, you are able to figure out some ways. Maybe you’re not the quickest, maybe you’re not the tallest, maybe you don’t have the longest arms, maybe you just don’t have this or don’t have that, but how can you be a good player or a better player if you are not as athletic as somebody else. Again, it goes back to, don’t get beat by the things that don’t take any talent: block out, ball fake, make good passes, handle the ball. I saw a couple of Globetrotter routines out there, but the problem is that we weren’t playing the Generals.”
On whether the offensive struggles can be attributed to shots not falling or Duke’s defense:
“It’s a combination, because they play good defense. The switching part we understood because we’ve worked against that and do some of it ourselves. But when you are at home, you have to take advantage of that, the familiarity of your baskets and everything else, and I just thought we had a couple of chances to take a little bigger lead or not let them get away. If you are us and you’re playing from behind against Duke, that’s pretty difficult. If you extend your defense you are opening up some driving lanes that are a lot bigger than what we can cover.”
On whether Duke was doing some special defensively against Sam Dekker:
“No, he didn’t practice much this week. He was limited on his reps, he just wasn’t moving his feet very well, so some other guys that did practice this week and practiced hard and long got a chance to play in front of him. When he’s ready, then he can get more minutes.”
On the ability of Traevon Jackson to hit some big shots during the stretch in the second half:
“Well there was that stretch, but there were some other parts where Trae needed to be better, where he needed to get some things done and take care of the ball. But he wasn’t the only one. And yeah, he had a great stretch in the second half there, but we just let the spread get away. You can’t be down nine against a team like that with a short clock.”
On the youth of Duke and whether he thought Wisconsin’s experience could ever overwhelm them:
“That’s so overrated now a days, these guys play 9,000 games coming into college, and they are high school games, AAU tournaments and everything else on a big stage. College isn’t what it was to freshmen and young players 20 years ago, so no. They had guys who physically do not look like freshmen. You think (Jahlil) Okafor looks like a freshman? Oh my goodness. And Tyus (Jones) with his quickness, he doesn’t need to look any bigger or stronger; he just needs to be just the way he is because he can make things happen with the ball. You always have to be conscious of him getting a driving line. It’s hard to stay in front of him. So I’m sure our guys weren’t going ‘Oh good, we’ve gone up by a couple, we’ve got them now’. If anybody was thinking that, they learned a lesson.”
Senior F Frank Kaminsky
On what the team can take from the loss: “It’s early in the season and we have a lot to work on. We’ll be able to watch some film tomorrow and see what we did wrong. We’ll take that into practice on Thursday to build on it into upcoming games.”
On facing Duke’s defense: “I was able to get some things early, but that closed off pretty quickly and they were able to do some other things. Trae (Jackson) did a great job doing of playing off ball screens and he was able to knock down some good shots and make some big plays. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t enough.”
Senior G Traevon Jackson
On what the team can take from the loss:
“(It was a) Great test and a really good Duke team. We’ll learn from it and the biggest thing is just to make sure it doesn’t happen again for our upcoming games.”
On facing Duke’s offense:
“As a team, it’s more about we can only control what we can control. Some shots that they got, they were just too comfortable, and we have to do a better job of making adjustments on the fly. Credit to them. They hit some really tough shots, but like I said we got to do a better job with adjustments.”
On leading the team:
“Our team struggled a little bit in terms of hitting some shots. As leaders of the team and (as a) point guard, you’ve got to be able to step up and notice that sometimes. I was just doing my part, it wasn’t anything special. Just praising and praying all the time, (but) like Frank said we came up a little short. If we had probably one more guy really hit a couple more shots then I think it would have been a closer game. It was close, but we never made them nervous at all and they were always at a comfortable six-point lead.”
Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski
Opening statement:
“It’s an incredible honor for us to play against Bo’s team at this great university. I’ve always admired Wisconsin even when I was a kid growing up in Chicago. I was recruited by Wisconsin. I have always had a real deep feeling for the state and the school. Obviously, I admire what Bo (Ryan) has done. We beat a really good basketball team today. We were very good. They were good. (Traevon) Jackson was amazing. Our guys just showed a lot of grit. Our defense was good and our offensive efficiency was incredible tonight. I’m really proud of my team because I think we beat one of the two or three best teams in the country tonight.”
On Tyus Jones playing better being close to home (Apple Valley, Minn.):
“I think Tyus has played really well for us in the first seven games. He had a double-double in our last game and Army played us really tough. I will say this, having Quinn (Cook) out there always helps. But he (Jones) played a great game. No question about it. The crowd was great. It was such an incredible environment. What a great night for college basketball. You might say, ‘Well, you won.’ But I think I would say that even if we lost.”
On defensive play tonight, especially against Sam Dekker and Frank Kaminsky:
“We did a lot of switching. We initially were going to double (team) the post and we did and then they got 3s off of it, so we junked that after a few minutes. We just said battle in the post, and our kids battled. I thought our guys did a really neat job of doing the game plan with the switching. (Frank) Kaminsky is a great player. He and Jahlil (Okafor) kind of nullify each other because there’s so much attention for both of them. I can’t say enough about (Traevon) Jackson, though. I thought our switching and the intensity with which we played defense was the major factor in us winning.”
On preparing young guys for an environment they have not seen before:
“The upperclassmen see it every game. For the last 25 years, when we’re on the road there’s usually a party – and we’re the ones they’re trying to beat. Our upperclassmen are aware of it. The three freshmen who have played. They’ve played in at least two competitions for our country overseas. They’re a little bit more mature. They want to be in this environment. It is honor to play here tonight. That’s why those kids want to play at Duke. They want to be in these environments. They’re n
