|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 23, 2015Bobbie KelseyBOBBIE KELSEY: Pardon my voice. It's very bad. But had a tough game last night for senior day, almost déjà‑vu from last year, with the same team and the same scenario, going into overtime and having the last shot and missing it. I felt really bad for AnnMarie. She's battled back from injury, and for her to have that shot and to potentially make it would have been a big thing for her. But I just told her that moment will not define her career. It's just a missed shot, don't make it more than it is. We had plenty of opportunity throughout the game to close it out, but that's a tough team, and they hit some big shots. We hit some big shots, and it went back and forth, so it could have gone either way. These kids are battling. They're not giving up. Some teams would have packed it in by now. But they're showing everyone that they have a resolve and a work ethic that's going to continue throughout the season until we're eliminated because of the rules, not because of our attitudes, our body language. I'm very proud of all of them. Questions? Q. How difficult is it, you're dealing with 18‑, 19‑, 20‑year old kids basically, to get them to buy in still and not hang their head at practice after something like that happens yesterday? BOBBIE KELSEY: I haven't had a real problem with it, with this group. As coaches it's our job to encourage them and to keep them positive in spite of the losses, because as we know, with any team, if you lose so much, what is the point. Some people just say what's the point in working hard. But I always tell them we're going to get the next one, and they tend to believe us, I guess. By obviously their play and how they come out and at least fight from beginning to end, even when we're down or up, we continue to press forward, and that's a tribute to them, sticking together. All the things you're asking kids to do before you get in those situations, when you're actually in them, will they then do the things that we're hoping that they will do, which is stick together and continue to look for their teammates and not try to do all of it by themselves because some people will just try to get out there and go one on five, try and do everything on their own. But we try to show them when we're sharing the ball how good it looks, and then that kind of gets them to understand that in spite of the losses you can still play with some pride and some fortitude out there and show the fans that if they're going to come support you, in spite of you losing, at least you can put some effort, and that's exactly what they're doing. But we don't want moral victories. You want to win the game. But if you don't win it, at least you want your kids to be playing hard, give yourselves a chance to win the game. Q. Totally hypothetical, but you get a game like this, if you win a game like that, that could just keep going and going, don't you think? BOBBIE KELSEY: Oh, I think so. Just like losing kind of snowballs sometimes, winning can snowball in the right direction. But again, we're down in areas, so you get like‑‑ like Cassie had a double‑double yesterday. Well, you needed that a game ago. You get one person on track, and then somebody else kind of‑‑ like Jacki had 19 points yesterday. We needed that two games ago. Not to blame anybody, it's just they have got to figure out how five of them can play that well at one time, and if we do that, we could be talking a whole different story right now. But like you said, it's all hypothetical. It's not reality. When you're trying to build a culture of winning and getting players that you have already to buy in, as you're trying to get better ones, this is what it is. I hate to say that, and I believe in our kids and what we're trying to do, and they're showing you that. But again, we're just trying to get on that winning culture. I told them last night, too, when we are winning championships, Big Ten, national championships, going to Final Fours, it's going to be because of these kids now. You've got to have some pioneers, trailblazers. It never happens with them. It always is after they leave. After they leave, then things kind of turn around, but somebody has got to get it started. I think they're showing‑‑ and they're setting the tone for the next group, that when you come in here you have to play hard and you have to not give up and be tough and all the things you're asking them to do while you're waiting to win, or working on it. Q. The rematch with Iowa, you can score with them, right? BOBBIE KELSEY: We can. I think other than the Maryland game where we only scored, I think, 60 points, this stretch of scoring 70‑plus points, we have not seen that since I've been here. We haven't scored in the 70s and 80s consistently. Now you've got to play a little defense. But I guess it's just one thing at a time. If we can get them all playing well on offense and then shut some people down on defense, but we're talking about ranked teams and teams that have players that can create their own shot and can hit shots consecutively. We'll get back to the drawing board. Iowa's tough, but if we do what we're supposed to do, we'll have a very good chance to win the game. They're on the skid but they're going to come out fighting. That's the good thing about the Big Ten. It's not one team's championship to lose or win or one game. Anybody can beat anybody. It's shuffled around so much. I think last week we were in sixth place, now we're in, I think, ninth place or something. The games that separate each team is one or two games, which I like, because it gives you an opportunity to win your conference if you can make a run or get it going uphill instead of struggling so much. Some conferences, you know, Connecticut is probably going to win their conference. You're not going to beat them. Stanford probably is going to‑‑ they've won it for 15 years. Nobody in our conference has run the conference for 15 years straight. It's a good conference in that way, even with the addition of Maryland and Rutgers. Maryland is showing that we've got a little more work to do to catch up with them. But we had them to three points. Two lay‑ups we missed and we turned the ball over, and that just‑‑ so we make those two lay‑ups and you don't turn that ball over and they don't hit that three, it's just one little sequence where it just kind of‑‑ oh, man. So it gives the kids encouragement that they can play with a team like that and have a chance to win the game. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|