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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEDecember 1, 2014Bo RyanQ. Head Coach Ryan is here and will take questions. COACH RYAN: These lights remind me of Atlantis. That was my opening statement. Q. How do you like all this excitement? Big game like Duke coming to town? COACH RYAN: Well, I get excited for practice! Yeah, it's nice that the two legs got together when they did the assignments and they thought Duke and Wisconsin would be a pretty good game so both our teams will try not to disappoint. But we play a lot of these types of games, and it's good to have one at home. We're excited, we're sure Duke is, too. Q. ‑‑ had some great stretches in that tournament in the Bahamas. I know he expected a lot out of himself coming into a senior season but does he look as confident as he's ever been to you? COACH RYAN: Yeah, he doesn't look in any way‑‑ he looks the same all the time. So his facial expressions, are you referring to body‑‑ Q. How he's playing. COACH RYAN: He's playing with a lot of confidence because he feels he can contribute and he is contributing so each time he does something positive he can't waited to do something to add to that and he doesn't get down if things do not go well. He's another one of those guys in the long list of basketball players who commits a foul and looks like he's never committed a foul in his life. Have you ever noticed how many players do that now? More than before! Has Josh Gasser ever fouled anyone? (Laughter.) Nigel even had that look against Oklahoma on one. I don't know where they get it from. Because I don't change expressions. Q. I once saw Kevin McHale take an intentional foul and complain about it. COACH RYAN: Because it was called a flagrant? Q. No, just because it was called. This is off‑topic but I know you've traveled the same path and he's from Whitewater but you see Lance Leipold go from D‑3 to D‑1 and get a job today. How does that make you feel? What does it say about chances for success when you're so successful at whatever level you've coached at? COACH RYAN: Well, I think probably 90% of the D‑3 coaches that have been in the finals for coaching jobs have called me and talked to me about that very subject. If you believe in what you're doing, no matter where it is and you get the opportunity, it's just a matter of that person having the guts on the other end to make the call. Is it always the right choice? Has every Division 3 or Division II coach that has gone on to Division 1 been successful? No, but hasevery assistant in a big time program that's been winning consistently that's gotten the job, has that person been successful all the time? No. So there isn't a sure fire, but one thing about, you know, to me, the best two hires are someone who has been in a system for a long time knows and understands what the head coach has been doing and or also somebody that has been successful at another level. So for him to‑‑ a lot of people are going, what took so long?. He can coach. He gets good players, he gets guys to run that system. It's hard winning in division 3, consistently. Q. If a player picks up a couple of early fouls and you choose to have him cool it on the bench, I know Frank had to sit for the first half the other day‑‑ COACH RYAN: Andy said, how do you think he's going to react? You know he's been sitting for almost an hour? No, Andy, I didn't realize that but I'm glad you pointed it out. Q. Along those lines, do you feel it's easy or not a big deal for someone to come out after an extended stretch like that and perform at the level you expect? COACH RYAN: What you didn't get a chance to see was a coach's frustration if things weren't going well, then would I have put him in if the other guys weren't answering the challenge. We were each dealing the other guys a jab here a jab there, it wasn't‑‑ we didn't get down 7 and we didn't get down 10, then I think you owe it to your players, okay, if you're going to go down you gotta go down fighting but I figured Frank for 20 minutes or probably 17 or 18 of the second half that he's on the floor he can do a lot of good things for us. Fortunately it worked out that way, but, you know, we haven't all made the right decisions as coaches, but in that case, the way we were playing, the fact that they weren't really big and killing us on the glass, you just got to give credit to his teammates who really kept it close. Q. (No microphone.) COACH RYAN: No. Not at that‑‑ you warm up, you get ready. I think that delay, that review against Arizona was longer than how long frank sat! (Laughter.) It seemed like it. Q. When you played at Wilkes how did you respond when you got a foul called on you? COACH RYAN: I don't think I ever fouled! (Laughter.) I would have to ask Coach Raner. I was known to have quick hands, it's not like, wow, isn't he something? I played for the same guy, high school, college, and he always expected me to get a few steals a game and always had me on the best player and I think I was kind of annoying as a defensive player, can you imagine that? Coach Raner when he would see Mike Talley play he would say, "See, that's how you were" and I said, yeah, I got away with a lot of fouls, didn't I? And he said, yeah, so does that Talley guy. You can't show officials up as a player. Players need to stay ground and had if there is a little sign it's one thing but not to keep after it. It was so long ago and they don't have any film. I can't‑‑ the flood of '72 wiped out all the records of the 60s at Wilkes. Q. (No microphone.) COACH RYAN: Oh, yeah, I'm old enough to remember that, all the ones that raised their hands. If you didn't it was the stare down, remember that? (Laughter.) Yeah. Q. (No microphone.) COACH RYAN: No, no, I never got a technical foul as a player. Only a couple as a coach. Q. How helpful was the timing of the trip you just took, battling it out with strong teams right before this game that you're about to play? COACH RYAN: What's the question again? Q.  In terms of the trip you just made, you had a couple of battles with some very good teams right before you're about to play Duke. How helpful is that in terms of confidence and knowing what your team is like. COACH RYAN: Some battles in the Battle for Atlantis, there were some battles. Georgetown played very hard, very aggressive, Oklahoma did the same. UAB was very inexperienced, that was the biggest difference in that game. But usually there are always team in there that are very good. We happened to hold up our end. Got to the Championship against a team that definitely earned‑‑ I think they're ranked now, aren't they? Oklahoma? I'm glad we played those teams. So does it help us for‑‑ you never know until you go to the next game. Certainly didn't hurt us. Q. When you watch Okafor play, what stands out? COACH RYAN: Size. Hands. You see him grab that one ball against Stanford or somebody? I thought it was Connie Hawkins out there. For the young people here, he had really big hands!  It was a guy, Connie Hawkins! (Laughter.) I have to do that now because of my age. People look and they go, who is this Connie Hawkins guy you were talking about? Size and maneuver ability, I haven't seen him dance but I bet he can dance, he's got good feet. That baseline move he has? He's pretty good that way. You can put names on guys, MacDonald's All‑American player of the year, Freshman Player Of The Year but he backs it up, just like the guy before him. Q. Frank, released a dance video, do you think he's better than frank? COACH RYAN: Are you talking about the one Frank did on the court? Q. Where he had that "shake it off" thing, whatever? There were some strong moves, right? COACH RYAN: And those were his JV moves. You should see his varsity moves, he's got more. Q. A lot is going to be made of the coaching match‑up, between you and Coach K, how do you feel about that chatter? COACH RYAN: He's done more for college basketball‑‑ for basketball, period, not just because of the National Championships but all the time he has spent with USA Basketball and developing the USA Basketball youth all the way up. You know, he's‑‑ I don't think it will be much about a match‑up between us. I'm pretty sure they're going to be talking about their players against our players, and that's where it will be settled, out there on the court, but I don't even think in those terms other than I know that Coach Krzyzewski has done so many nice things that it's nice to be able to be in a game where you are on the opposite side. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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