Feb. 25, 2014
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Postgame Quotes
Wisconsin vs. Indiana
Feb. 25, 2014
Kohl Center – Madison, Wis.
Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan
On what the message was at halftime to spark the offense in the second half:
“Yeah, I mentioned that if we made some good shots, good things will happen. But there were a couple things defensively that we knew we could do better. It was just a reminder that when the shots aren’t going in, the thing was I thought they still paid attention, they didn’t get down and they didn’t haywire. They (Indiana) hit some tough shots to get to 29 (points) in the first half, I thought. And then they got a bunch of points with about four minutes to go when we extended the lead. Fortunately we traded the free throws, got to the line, hit them. But the halftime talk had nothing to do with threats, violence, none of that. We know what we can do, we just have to do it.”
On if making shots is contagious:
“I don’t know. You can describe it in a lot of different ways. That’s what people do, they talk about it. When you are on the team though, you have to do it. So they found a way, they got some good looks, much better looks in the second half. Good ball movement, good ball and body movement. I thought we made (good) decisions. I mean one turnover in that whole second half? They were pressuring once we took the lead, so I thought we did a great job."
Indiana Head Coach Tom Crean
On what changed defensively for IU in the second half:
“We over-helped. But we didn’t nearly guard the dribble as well as we did in the first half. They were 1-of-10 from 3 in the first half, 6-of-10 in the second half. We had our plan of what we wanted to do on isolations and we didn’t get into it a couple times quick enough. Not only can all their starters shoot the ball, but they can pass the ball. A lot of times you’re getting ready for one or two guys to be very good passers. Their whole team is. And the bottom line is, they got some good looks because we were in rotation a little bit. They got hot. The basket started looking pretty big for them. We got looks, we didn’t get as many second shots. We got some offensive boards, but we didn’t get the putbacks that we need. And because we weren’t getting the stops, our break wasn’t as effective in the second half because we were going against the set defense more, which they’re very good. And we missed some shots. I think we’ll look at the film and see that we missed some shots that we were making. They got some looks and they made them. In the first half they weren’t getting as many of those looks because we were doing a much better job of guarding the dribble.”
On anything Wisconsin changed to get into the lane:
“No, just isolations. We were ready for those and we just didn’t guard the dribble as well. We got overpowered a couple of times. They spread it out. That’s one of the reasons they’ve been playing so well. It wasn’t really anything we hadn’t seen. We don’t have the greatest of on-ball defenders yet. We’ve got some younger guys. That’s not their strength yet. We need to do a better job there, but at the same time, in this league, you can’t be caught on an over-help with the way people shoot the ball. Once we start getting beat off the dribble, when natural defensive rules come in, we’re rotating to help and then they hurt that. I really don’t know if they were doing anything different other than driving from the wings and corners. And in the first half they were trying to drive more off of the top.”
On when Ben Brust started hitting 3s:
“He’d been in a struggle, but no one guarded him that way. He’s averaging six more points per game at home than he is on the road. He’s a senior that’s made big shots his entire career here. Outstanding shooter when he gets his feet set. And we allowed him to get his feet set. He got a couple of those and he got hot.”
Senior Ben Brust
On how the team went from shooting 25.9% in the first half to 61.9% in the second half:
“Just having confidence in each other and going in the locker room and letting each other know that we’re doing all the right things, and they’re going to go down. We all have confidence in each other. It’s a tight group, and we did it.
On what he was thinking at halftime:
“I knew it was only a matter of time. I knew it was going to start, so I was like, ‘Can it just start now?” Looking at 3-for-10, I know I can do better than that. It’s definitely good to get a couple to go down, and I think it kind of ignited this team. It just kind of trickled down to everyone else. Sam (Dekker) hit a couple and then Josh (Gasser) hit one on the wing. Then Trae (Jackson) hit one. Frank (Kaminsky) was doing good things inside, so it just kind of got us going, opened things up. But I think getting stops on the other end opened some things up too.
“Also having teammates that come up to you all the time telling you ‘Just keep taking them. We trust you.’ Just gives you confidence. No matter what’s happening, you keep going based off having your teammates’ confidence in you.”
Sophomore Sam Dekker
On what the team did differently on offense in the second half:
“Shots went in. When the ball goes through the hoop, it makes a lot of things easier. People think it’s some crazy magic that happened, but no. We just made shots, we made some plays and didn’t really change anything system-wise. We just ran our plays, and it worked.”
On what Coach Ryan said at halftime:
“I don’t know, he just said relax, we’ll figure this out. It’s 40 minutes of basketball, not 20, so our best 20 minutes is ahead of us. It’s our turn to do it. And we were able to calm down and go out there and do it.”
Junior Frank Kaminsky
On if this is a different team when all starters score in double-figures:
“I wouldn’t say it’s a different team. Obviously some games people are going to score more than others, but I don’t think that really matters as long as we’re playing together and getting things done defensively as a team. It doesn’t matter who is scoring. It just matters if we’re getting stops and doing everything right.”
On being more aggressive and productive in the second half:
“I think in the first half I was trying to go like 100 miles-per-hour, made some bad decisions. Halftime I kind of settled myself down and let it come to me a little bit. Take it a little bit slower, tried to make some plays happen and luckily, there were some opportunities.”
