Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Feb. 15, 2015
Postgame Quotes
Wisconsin vs. Illinois
Feb. 15, 2015
Kohl Center - Madison, Wis.
Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan
On Kaminsky's offensive boost:
"It's a team. If Frank can bring people out with him and clear lane space, then other guys can make back cuts or get in position to score, so it's okay with us. We don't go out there and say, 'Alright, let's make sure that Frank goes out there and gets X number of points and then we'll go get ours.' We took what they gave us, and that's all we ever do."
On Koenig's performance:
"I'm just glad he's here. He had no turnovers, that's pretty good for anyone and he's pretty confident out there. His teammates are showing him that and giving him support, and he's making his teammates look good which makes the game fun. I am surprised Bronson is hitting the 3s the way that he is hitting them. His teammates were calling him, 'high school' last year because in the first half of the year, in practice and in games, he must have taken 80 percent of his jump shots standing with two feet on the line. So, they called him 'high school' and they had to inform him that he wasn't at Aquinas (High School) anymore. He just had to realize where the 3-point line was."
On Sam Dekker's all-around game:
"He used his length for deflections, which is something we've been trying to get him to be cognitive of without being a guy who jumps passing lanes and gets beat backdoor. I thought that his dunk was key. Sam, in other words, provided a spark."
On his Hall of Fame nomination:
"It would be a thank you to all the people that I've either played for, played with, and all the administrators, all the faculty at all the schools, and the players, obviously. Some of the players have texted me or e-mailed me, and I said thanks for making this possible to any of the people that have responded to that announcement. If that would put a smile on the face of the 12th man that I had at Brookhaven Junior High School, Sun Valley, Platteville, Milwaukee, Madison, I'd be real happy."
Wisconsin Players
Bronson Koenig
On making their opponent play against the shot clock:
"We just try to move the ball and swing it on offense. Run (the) swing, run the shot clock down a little bit and make them defend. I thought our bigs did a good job of getting those tip-outs and other offensive rebounds. Like I said, they did a good job of finding open guys on the 3-point line. We nocked some shots down, too, so that was good."
On a game like today, what stands out the most to him:
"The first thing I look at when I see the box score is my assist-to-turnover ratio. I guess I didn't have any turnovers, so I was happy with that."
Sam Dekker
On if they played better in the second half after the close scoring in the first:
"I thought we did okay. Maybe we don't have to talk about that as much, but Bronson (Koenig) I thought played really well in the second half. He raised the level for us and hit those three 3s. Then Frank (Kaminsky) and Nigel (Hayes) got on that offensive glass a couple times there in the second half, leading (to) the kick outs. Those types of plays are big. We can build off that and see that we put together a pretty good 40 minutes, learn from it, and tomorrow is another day to get better."
On how good they really are when they don't play well in the second half but still win by double-digits:
"I think there's always going to be questions, regardless of how things are going. Things are going well right now. We're playing good basketball and we're sharing the ball, having fun with it, and winning games. There's always good times and bad times, and right now we're in the good times and a good year overall. But, there's always room to improve on. You guys have questions, but we also have questions within the locker room that we have to answer. We have goals that we've set, so we're nowhere near where we want to be and we have a lot of work to do if we want to get to our ultimate goal. But, like we said, it starts Wednesday again. if we can continue to build off this last 40 (minutes), things will shape up for us."
Frank Kaminsky
On what the scoreless stretch for Kaminsky says about the versatility of the team:
"It just says that anybody can step up at any time. Sam (Dekker) had a stretch. Bronson (Koenig) had a stretch where he was scoring. Nigel (Hayes) had some big buckets. It just goes to show that we can beat you in a lot of different ways."
On what was going well for him and what Illinois implanted to slow him down:
"Just the way they were playing. It seemed like they were doing something different pretty much every time, so I was trying to take advantage of it. Whether they were switching from man (defense) to zone (defense) to pressing us. I was just trying to get something going inside, because if we can get that inside game going, it's going to open up a lot of different stuff for us. I was able to have a pretty good stretch there, getting the ball into the paint. In the second half you could see that they made adjustments. They were playing ball screens differently. If I set good screens and got Bronson (Koenig) open sometimes, he was able to get into the lane and knock down some big shots. It's just one of those things where you have to read how the defense is playing you and go from there."
Illinois Head Coach John Groce
Opening Statement:
"In no particular order, five things stood out to me during the game. Number one, obviously they are really good. I felt that way coming into the game after watching film. When they have five that can triple pass and shoot like that, it makes it very difficult to defend. I certainly don't coach their team, so you will have to ask Coach (Bo) Ryan, but I thought they played well. I'm interested to see what his opinion is and I think they had a lot to do with the outcome. Second thing that stood out for me was the fact that we got brow beat on the backboard. It's unacceptable. Three of them were on free throw block-outs. When you're not in rotation and you got inside position in the first half, that part was really disappointing. To give up more rebounds then we were able to get defensive rebounds for a team like ours that is ranked top 35 in the country in defensive rebounding percentage. I thought that was really disappointing. I thought it was a key to the game and we just didn't get the job done there. Thirdly, turnovers, I know we finished with 10 and two of them were in the second half, which I thought, was better. We had to address that at halftime, because we had eight at the half and that's not us. I thought five of them were situations where they just took our ball. We lacked some toughness there. No player, regardless of team or level, wants someone to just deflect their pass or take their ball. I thought we need to be a lot tougher with the ball. We did do that in the second half. I thought that was good. Fourth thing, I thought we had some guys playing at a really high level here of late and for whatever reason (they) didn't quite have that today. Obviously, when you are playing a really good team like Wisconsin, you are going to need to have that. Lastly, I thought (Frank) Kaminsky was terrific. I thought he scored at all three levels of the court, he made very difficult shots, he passed well - obviously he had a double-double. (I) watched him play a lot and I certainly think he is one of the country's best players. Today he definitely played like it."
On defending Wisconsin:
"I thought Bronson Koening was terrific in the second half offensively. I think you spend all that energy and effort defending them and then we give up that many offensive rebounds, or, you look at it from their side, where they got those offensive rebounds. Then, you have to guard them again and they are already the number one team in offensive efficiency in analytics for the last 17 years. So, it would be preferable to guard them one time not multiple times on a trip down the floor."
On closing the gap between Wisconsin:
"Number one, I think they are a really good team. (We're) Still a long way to go from them and for us and for everybody that is playing down here for the stretch. I think that they are the best team of the three that we played in the last three years. I thought the last two were pretty good. I also think as of today, we're better than what we were the last two years. We have to worry about getting better this week. Take the week off that we have and sprinkle in some mental and physical refreshment for those guys that get a couple days off. We will be ready to go a week from today."
