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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEDecember 8, 2014Bo RyanQ. You operating under the plan that as long as Sam is clear to play, you'll have him in the lineup; or are you considering sitting him down at any point to give him some rest? COACH RYAN: He's had rest. So what happens with the players that way is internal. And why even talk about it? We just play. Q. Forgive me if my memory is off a little bit. But I think during the postgame interview on Saturday with Greg Anthony you mentioned something about the identity of your team right now, is that the word you used? COACH RYAN: I said us trying to score was like me playing you one‑on‑one. You caught that one? Q. I did catch that. But you went on and said something about‑‑ COACH RYAN: Greg Anthony wouldn't have had a chance. He couldn't check me. No, I meant the other way. Never mind. I couldn't score on him. Q. I think the word you used was the identity. I'm just curious why you would say that, what you've seen to this point that you want to see changed? COACH RYAN: Just some turnovers. Just some sloppiness with the ball. Even though 10 or 11 assists people would kill to have that number. But to me I don't like it. I like five, six, seven. Those are opportunities where we don't get a shot at the basket. And it was self‑inflicted. It's not like‑‑ we play some pretty good defensive teams that will cause turnovers. So why cause them for yourself. Q. Playing against one of your guys like Coach Jeter at this stage, does it mean a whole lot to you? Is it tougher when you know they know what you're doing, that type of thing? COACH RYAN: I'll tell you what's tougher and scarier is that in some of these games that they played earlier that I was looking at yesterday and this morning, he had a little beard going and there's gray in there. Now, I know Robbie Jeter as a 17‑year‑old, 18‑year‑old kid that came to Platteville at about 119 pounds, 6'2". And developed into one heck of a player, student‑athlete, 3‑plus grade point average while he was with us and obviously played a little professionally and then coached with us. So he's been around. He's been in this profession for a while. So I don't even consider him that young guy anymore. And he's learned a lot of things. The way they pulled off and came around last year and won that conference tournament and got into the NCAA Tournament showed me a lot. I knew he had some things in him. But last year's run was probably his best ever, considering what he was working with. Q. Some pretty respected names in college basketball made reference to this program, this particular team, this format that you have to the San Antonio Spurs. What's your reaction to that? COACH RYAN: It's a compliment. Not just because they won the NBA tournament, but they pass and cut and move off of one another in a way that a lot of people have said kind of reminds us of watching your team. I said, well, thank you. Because at times last year you could look at both programs and see the movement with the basketball and Ben Brust had a lot to do with that because he stretched defenses. Ben created lanes and gaps for some of our other guys who may be on attack dribbles wouldn't have quite as much space. But Ben would stretch defenders where there were areas to attack that were a little wider than even what they are this year. It's not that we don't have guys that can't shoot this year. But I think seeing last year's team was what they were referring to. If we can get some things flowing again this year consistently we've run some pretty good offense. But I think we need to that's something that defenses are trying to take us out of. They're trying to take us out of our movement because we are unselfish, we do share the ball. I know defensively when we do our game plans, those teams are tough to prepare for. If they have one or two scorers, and you can play a player and a half to them things like that, they're easier to defend. It's not easy, but it's easier. I'm hoping we can still keep working on that and get better with our movement with the ball and without the ball. Q. I assume you're talking roster‑wide because everyone hears turnovers, they think of the point guard. I know Trae had the ball in his hands a lot. Bronson as well. But everyone's gotta do a better job just caring for the basketball? COACH RYAN: Yes, two or three less each game. That's a pretty good goal to have. That's realistic. That's attainable. Stronger with the ball. Q. Going back to Rob, is it hard to believe in a way he's been gone for a decade now, does it seem like 10 years to you? COACH RYAN: That's what it's been, 10? He had a chance to take over at UWM both he and Greg Gard, the whole staff was asked and we all came here together. For him to get a chance to get back there was really a good move for him. So that was 10 years ago. I think I can remember some of those years, first three or four years, but he's made the most of it to this point. Q. I know you don't like hypotheticals, but could you imagine coaching a team that didn't have the carrot of an NCAA tournament berth at the end? That couldn't have playedin the NCAA tournament. COACH RYAN: The situation that they're in. Well, there's a combination of reasons how that happened, which hopefully UWM has taken care of business on all ends with communication and passing of information and that that problem will not happen again, because Robbie and I had talked about that. But there's times when teams join from Division III to Division II, Division II to DivisionI, they have to wait X number of years before they can qualify for a tournament. Guys like to compete. Guys like to play. You don't have to have an NCAA Tournament at the end. Just think back in the day when they only took like eight teams or 16 teams or whatever. A lot of teams that realized not too far into the season that they would never see the NCAA Tournament. So it's still about the competition, the camaraderie. I still believe that it's a study break playing this sport in college. Some people go play video games, some people play cards, some people shoot pool. Some people play pinball machines. Basketball players go and play and compete at basketball. So I could imagine coaching a team knowing that there was something coming around the corner with the opportunity to do it. Q. When you watched the Big Ten football championship game, are you sympathetic? Are you cringing? How do you feel watching a game like that? COACH RYAN: Because of my age, I've been involved in probably any kind of score or numbers you could ever imagine. As a player and as a coach. And when things like that are going on, first of all, you know that we have a very well‑coached team. We have very good players, players who have a lot of pride. But when things start turning the way they do at times during games, our games, I can picture us playing Merrill [phonetic] in the NCAA Tournament. And we're trying to compete, trying to compete and then, whoa, and we turned around and we're down by 25. I don't know what it was. But it sure turned in a hurry, didn't seem anything could go right, and you just keep playing hard. I did not see Wisconsin stop playing. I saw Wisconsin still competing. I saw them.  And unfortunately, when you're in a position where you know the coaches and you know the players and you know how hard they have worked, what you say is how about the fact that we get another game, though? So like NCAA Tournament against Merrill, when we got beat, there was no consolation. There wasn't another game that year. For the Badger football program, they've got Auburn and the Outback Bowl, so good for them. And I think they'll be just fine. I felt for them. Believe me. Been there. Q. You've done a number of events, been a leader in the Coaches Versus Cancer for a number of years, but what does it mean to you to see the growth of the event? Did you guys do that again this week, and see a number of local businesses this week that are going to join in the wearing of sneakers when the coaches do? COACH RYAN: Do you know when that game is? Do you know when that weekend is? That's business. That's something different. So anytime anybody does anything to help the cause, to help through either funds or awareness programs or anything else to try to beat down cancer, it's always welcome. And anything we can do on our part, we try. And if that inspires other people to do it, then great. It was like with our Shooting Down Cancer, we ended up having those people from out of nowhere say, okay, we'll match what you guys put up, Coach. And so that number was over a quarter of a million dollars from, what, like 60,000 last year to 250 some thousand. So anything the businesses do for awareness and anything with whether it's sneakers or anything else, that's fantastic. Again, I know there's a lot of different groups doing a lot of different things throughout the course of the year. So it's all welcome. Q. After the game on Saturday you talked about how anytime you guys needed a shot or big play, Josh was kind of the guy who came up with the big shot or big play, how important is he to this team's success and does he ever surprise you with anything that he does on the court? COACH RYAN: No, I'll tell you, he's just such a delight to have as a player when you're coaching. Because he just goes hard in every practice, every possession, he dives for balls in practice. And he just‑‑ he never cheated out of anything in life that I know of. He's quite an inspiration for our guys. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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