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Postgame Quotes 
No. 4 Wisconsin vs. Purdue 
Jan. 7, 2015
Kohl Center- Madison, Wis.

Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan

On if he thought the game was as physical as expected: 
"Yeah, I think everybody on both sides - coaches, players, officials - are going to sleep well tonight. There was a lot of energy out there on the court. This would have been one to be a fan, to see two teams going at each other like that. Who said basketball had to be pretty? Nobody. It was a grind, and I think there's going to be more of those in the league this year too and it's not like it's the first."

On the matchup between Purdue's two 7-footers (AJ Hammons and Isaac Haas) and Frank Kaminsky:
"People would always ask me about the matchup on Wednesday. I never say it's this guy against this guy. Frank did his job. Nigel (Hayes) really helped in the second half to put some side and front pressure on them. They got a couple lobs over the head, but for the most part we made them work hard, too. They were making us work hard to get a shot and trying to reciprocate, but Frank held his own. Vitto struggled a little bit, but for the most part, Nigel and Frank did a good job." 

On Traevon Jackson and Josh Gasser's performances tonight: 
"They helped themselves from the line. For the most part, they took care of the ball. They're just tough seniors. They've seen a lot through the years, and I think that helped us tonight to be able to put this one away. It's kind of nice to have two senior guards out there." 

On what it felt like to pass Walter Meanwell's number of wins in the Big Ten: 
"I wish I would've been around when he was a coach. The Cooper family, who are decedents, have told me a lot of things and given me things to read that Doc Meanwell wrote. He's an interesting guy. He could've done a lot more than coaching. I'm not called "Doc." He's called "Doc" for a reason. He won a lot of games. When I got here in the 70s, there were still people around that knew him, and I did hear some stories about him - they were all positive. He must've been a heck of a guy. To be mentioned - as I've said 100 times - in that same sentence is exciting. I want to thank all of my assistants and players and everyone who's been a part of this because everyone has had a hand in it. It's a nice number. I'd like it to keep going for our guys, but I'm very humbled to be mentioned with Doc Meanwell and I know he did a lot for the game. He did an awful lot."


Wisconsin Players

Senior G Josh Gasser
On if there are going to be more games this season where it's a close, tough game, even though they are the league favorite:
"Definitely. Every team is good. Even though a lot of teams are a little younger or not necessarily ranked as high as they usually are, they're still tough. Purdue is physical (and) they play hard. Coach (Ryan) had a great game plan for them and that's what it is going to be. They're going to give us their best shot every game and it was good to grind out a win like this. (It was) low scoring, we had to fight adversity and stay mentally tough. That's what we needed."

On Frank Kaminsky's performance guarding Purdue's seven-foot players:
"He had a tough task guarding those guys. They really try to touch the post the full 35 second shot clock. Those guys are 300 pounds and they're battling to get position every single position. So we were able to get Nigel (Hayes) on them a little bit in the second half to give Frank a little break and Nigel did a really good job. People need to look at what Nigel did tonight. That was a big reason why we came out with a win. Nigel was completely overmatched, size-wise, physically, but he was able to do a really good job that second half. You saw Frank was able to do a little more offensively that second half when he didn't have to balance those guys for so long."

Senior G Traevon Jackson
On what the key was making plays down the stretch to get a late lead:
"That just comes from being aggressive. In those types of games, we can kind of be passive and those we don't usually do too well. So usually if we're aggressive on our cuts and attacking, I think a perfect example was when Josh (Gasser) took the ball and did an up-and-under. He ended up missing it, but that's actually a good shot to keep us going. Teams are going to grind it out against us. So being aggressive was the key."

Junior F Sam Dekkar
On passing the 1,000-point career mark:
"It's pretty cool. I thank my teammates for getting me the ball. I've had a great opportunity here to play basketball at a great institution like this. I can't take it for granted. I've had some good success with a lot of good guys. I've made a lot of good friends. I'm really grateful to be in this position. One thousand points is a cool goal, but individual goals don't come without team success. I think we've done a good job of that, working together, and we have a lot more goals to achieve this year."

Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter

On Purdue's defense against Frank Kaminsky:
"The game was won and lost at the free throw line. We had to be able to get to the free throw line and we didn't, and they were able to get there. Frank's a great player, he's worked really hard. He can hurt you in so many ways. It's easy to say how to stop him, but it's really hard to do. Keep him in front of you, take him out of rhythm, (and) don't let him get to the sweet spot. But he's kind of a big guard. He can dribble, and he's not just a one-way driver. He can play in the mid-post, low-post, he can play on the perimeter. That gives us some difficulties. We put our four on him and tried to knock him out of the post the best we could. We put our five on Nigel Hayes and really tried to give him help when he had the ball. But, it's a tough matchup. It's a tough matchup for everybody though."

On whether Purdue had success combatting Wisconsin's control of the tempo:
"Well, you can't control how someone calls the game. When you guys talk about life on the road, that's one of the variables. I don't think we did a very good job adjusting to how things were called. Things were called touch on the perimeter and there was a blood bath inside, and those weren't called. We didn't do a good job of playing through that on the perimeter. We had to do a better job of moving our feet, and we didn't. We had to do a better job of just staying positive when we didn't get some calls. But that's part of it. That's life on the road. Hopefully we can learn from it, and then next time it happens we can make the adjustments."