Postgame Quotes: Wisconsin vs. Rider

Dec. 31, 2019
Kohl Center  |  Madison, Wis.

Wisconsin Head Coach Greg Gard

Opening Statement:
"I thought we were much better in the second half, much more aggressive. We stood around too much the first half and that laid into us being tentative and not rebounding the ball, not moving, not cutting, hence you don't make shots and in the second half. I thought we were much more aggressive, more like ourselves, and did a really good job defensively for the most part during the whole game. It's good to get some guys a few more minutes off the bench, get some more experience with (Tyler) Wahl and (Micah) Potter. So now we move on to Big Ten play."
 
On the play of Brevin Pritzl: 
"I could tell early that we weren't in sync, so I went to the bench early for two or three different guys just to try to get some momentum, get some juice flowing. Then, we ran a couple things specifically for him against that zone and he was able to knock down some stuff, knock down 3s from the corner and got the lid off a little bit for him…Brevin is really comfortable in that role right now. He understands he can come in and hunt his shot and do that, so that was good to see because we needed that spark at that time."
 
On improving from the first to the second half:
"It can be frustrating at times when shots aren't going in. I anticipated that we would see some zone in some of the matchup and the intent with that is to get you to stand and be hesitant and not move and we did. We did exactly what you would want a team to do against that. Then we got some better movement later part of the first half and then obviously second half we moved much better. We cut much better, got some things (goiung) in transition, got the ball at the rim a couple times, but defensively I thought we were, for the most part, pretty good all night. We didn't put them at the line too much. They've been getting to the line a lot."

Junior Brad Davison 
 
On Wisconsin's slow start in the first half:
"I think we had a lot of good shots, but I think we were settling a little bit. I think most of those shots were on the outside. Coach talked a lot about playing inside-out and getting to the 10-foot zone. I think early we were kind of settling for some 3s that we probably could have went inside more. Defensively, both teams were 2-for-22, so I thought we were really good there and trying to force them into some tough mid-range shots and clean up the offensive rebounds. I thought we did a good job trying to limit them to one shot. Shots will fall, some shots won't, but it always averages out."
 
Junior Nate Reuvers 
 
On Wisconsin and its play this non-conference season:
"I feel like we played a lot of great defense, that's one thing we can take away from that. We can learn from those past games. Offensively, I feel like we are getting there. A lot of good things, especially from these last few games." 
 
Senior Brevin Pritzl
 
On heading into Big Ten play
"I think defensively we are in a really great place and sticking to our game plans and executing on what the coaches ask us to do. Offensively, we have been a work in progress all season and we are finally starting to click and learn what each other's strengths are. That's how we are executing, by getting those guys into the spots that they will be most successful. That's something we should look forward to going forward."