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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 31, 2015Sam DekkerJosh GasserNigel HayesFrank KaminskyTHE MODERATOR: We can open is up for questions for Frank, Josh, Sam or Nigel. Q. Nigel, I remember talking to you after the loss to Kentucky last year and you were critical about the fact that you weren't able to contribute as much as you wanted. I'm just curious about what you remember about that and in what ways you're a better player today than you were at the end of the last season, physically and mentally? NIGEL HAYES: Last year I just felt that I didn't contribute to help the team in the way that I should have, and as I said, all I had to do was to be average for us to win, and I was below average statistically. I think this year, just a year of being better, a year of more ups and downs, more situations in the game of basketball, and especially the situations like Final Fours in the games that we have played in and hopefully it will show. Q. Josh, how much time have you spent thinking about the last shot of the Kentucky game? And I know you have a hate‑to‑lose mentality, but how tough was it to get over? JOSH GASSER: Try not to think about. It's one of the those moments you just don't want to think about, but it sometimes creeps into your head a little bit, but it's something we put on the back burner and moved on from that. I think we did a good job of learning from a game like that and really, you know, pushing momentum forward and learning from it and getting better from it. Obviously, you know, it was a heart‑breaking loss, but I think it's made this team this year what it is, so we've got to take the positives from it. Q. Josh, along those lines, I think you wouldn't watch that game. Have you? How much do you prepare with the video, did you go back and look at it? JOSH GASSER: No, but I watch some of the other games they played this year, so we'll be prepared. Q. Frank, I know you've talked all year about the fact that you've seen just about every defense that you can designed to slow you down whether it's a small, big‑helping, double teaming, firm directly they double‑teamed you a lot last year to get the ball out of your hands, and you were more of a passer than shooter. Do you expect that kind of defense this year and do you think you might attack it any differently from an individual perspective? FRANK KAMINSKY: I don't know. They have such a big frontline, and they have so much depth that you never know what's going to happen. I feel like they didn't play as many people last year as they do this year so we will see how it's different. I'll just do whatever I have to do, whether it's double teams, one‑on‑one's, whoever is guarding me, I will be ready for whatever. Q. Guys, what do you guys think about the NCAA helping you guys out with the costs of this and helping your families come to support you on the road like this? JOSH GASSER: I think they should be doing it for every round. I don't know why they're just doing it for the Final Four, but definitely helpful. I have a lot of family and friends that come to my games and take a lot of time‑out of their lives and work, work‑life all that to come see me play, see your team play, so it's good they get some type of benefits. We only get six tickets each, which is tough for my family, so they will spend that money on extra tickets, but it's a good start. SAM DEKKER: It's not cheap flying the whole family down to LA, and friends, and stuff like that. They're willing to do it, but puts a hole in the pocket a little bit, but this obviously helps them out, getting down to Indy, and it's good it's not a bad drive down to Indianapolis but, yeah, they'll probably end up spending money on tickets, too. Got a football stadium, and you get six tickets, but whatever. Q. Sam and Nigel, I don't know how much time you have had to watch Kentucky, but how do they look different to you? The two scorers from last year aren't there, but are they different? SAM DEKKER: They're different in the sense that they have new bodies and new faces and a little more size, obviously, but Willie didn't play last year in the game. Our big problem match‑up problem last year was Julius Randle, and he's with the LA Lakers now, but they got a lot of good players, a bunch of pro's. You can go nine, ten deep on that team and still not skip a beat, so Coach Cal does a good job of pulling them in and out and just filling their teams, whether it's offensive or defensive ends. So you've got to be able to react to the situation and play our style of basketball and not get moving too fast, because they're going to try to throw a lot at you, but if we be ourselves and play our style of basketball and not move the game in our minds too fast, it should be all right. Q. Josh and Frank, you guys over the years have heard about the pace of play, how many points you guys score or don't score but the last two years the offense has been either the most efficient or among the most efficient in the country. How has it evolved in the time that you've been here? What ways has it become better and why do you think it is better the way it is today? JOSH GASSER: Well it's better, definitely, obviously. I think, you know, we got good players. Sam came in and developed a lot from his freshman year to his sophomore year. Frank, obviously, flew through the roof from his first two years until now, and having guys like Nigel and Bronson to come in as freshmen and contribute the way they have. Coach Ryan let us do our thing. If we have the ability to get in transition and score, he wants us to take it, if not, we want to work for the best shot we can, and I think we have a bunch of unselfish guys to make the extra pass, and we trust everyone on the court to score, so when you've got five guys on the court who have the ability to score, pass, dribble, that's helpful. Q. Nigel and Frank, you guys have talked since the beginning of the season about the sting of last year's lost and how it's motived you this year. How did that show itself for you personally, whether it's off‑season workouts or during the course of the year how did it show up in your mind, in your actions? NIGEL HAYES: Again, that loss definitely motived us, not only as a team but individually my work ethic. I know I worked hard to make sure I was better, so if I'm in a situation again and here we are in the exact same situation as last year that I will be able to perform better and contribute and hopefully we can win the game and fulfill our goal. FRANK KAMINSKY: Same. Q. Frank, can you recount how the "Captain America" nickname came about for Josh and over the course of his career where has he had the most impact? FRANK KAMINSKY: Credit Frank for the "Captain America." I don't know. It's Josh's identity. Just to give you an example, in that Arizona game when Nigel threw that awful pass to Sam down the court, it seemed like Arizona was going to get it, and Josh came out of nowhere and picked up the ball and I think we ended up scoring on that play so just plays that Josh makes like that help us win basketball games, plays that a lot of people don't necessarily see that really change the course of a game. He's my hero. Josh has been my hero for a long time, ever since I got on campus, I've been following Josh around. He's somebody you look up to and somebody you love having lead your team. Q. Sam, it's one thing to want this game for a year but now here it is, have it circled on your calendar. You guys are loose and confident right now, probably doesn't matter as much but how do you keep your emotions in check and go out and do business on Saturday knowing that this is the game you wanted? SAM DEKKER: Well, I mean, you just‑‑ it's the team we have and we like playing basketball. We're not going to get too hyped up. It's just another game, it's just in a bigger gym. Once you get on the court it's the same basketball. We just gotta do our thing. We have prepared so much for this, you know, starting in June, we knew what we wanted to do, we put in the work and now it shouldn't be anything different. We don't have to change anything, we just got to be ourselves. If we changed how we act on and off the floor it's not going to help anything so we got to be ourselves, go out there, play our game, focus up and be ready to go. Q. Frank and Josh, Nigel, I don't know if you've seen the game, if you've watched it from last year at all, but how often do you guys find yourselves thinking about the game, even though you haven't watched it? Is it a daily‑type thing? Does it hit you every day, that game and getting another shot at 'em? JOSH GASSER: I think in the off‑season, it crosses our minds, when you're walking I at 6:30 in the morning to go to your lift, you think about games like that because we were literally one possession away from playing for a National Championship, and it wasn't necessarily the last couple of possessions, it could have been an entire 40‑minute game. So I think that's the mentality we have taken this year, is valuing every single possession, especially on the defensive end because we know it can make a difference not only in the entire ball game but the entire season, So that's something we've done. FRANK KAMINSKY: For me it was the first couple of weeks after the game, it replayed over in my head, over and over again, but as workouts started again and lifting and the summer started again, it was more of a motivating factor. I haven't really thought about it at all much this season because we've been focused on getting back to the Final Four, but now is the time when you can remember a moment like that and try to make sure it doesn't happen again. Q. Did you watch it, Nigel? Have you watched the game? NIGEL HAYES: Yes, I have, I've watched the game. It does come to your mind sometimes, but I think we're past that, once the season started and especially during tournament where we know that play is a year behind us, and we have more important things like the games in front of us to focus on. Q. Sam and Josh, last year at this time Trae was the lead guard, Bronson was the guy coming off the bench and now their roles are flipped. I'm curious how you think they have handled the change and what you expect from them moving forward, whether it's one game against Kentucky, or two games going into a National Championship. SAM DEKKER: I think they've handled it great. Bronson has always been ready to play, but Trae was playing at such a high level for the last few years, it was tough to get him extended minutes because Trae won so many games, and unfortunately he went down with an injury but we didn'tskip a beat just because Bronsonis such a good passer and can get us into our offense so well. Trae has been supportive throughout this whole process, getting hurt, he's a great teammate and he's always been there for Bronson and for us, telling us‑‑ being a coach on the sidelines. Now that he came back, he understands his role, understands that he came back last weekend, we weren't expecting to get 25 minutes out of them, he was going to try to come in and contribute. That's what you need out of a guy like that, and he's got a great mind‑set on it, and he's going to‑‑ the mind‑setis not going to change. JOSH GASSER: Trae is happy to be back and playing, you can tell the last ten days, back in the lineup he's feeling good. He just wants to play, doesn't care if it's 2 minutes, 20 minutes, and obviously Bronson has done a tremendous job stepping into that role, and you've seen his growth over the past few months. Q. Sam, are you using the Final Four chair? SAM DEKKER: No, I don't know where they put it. We got new chairs in the locker room, and I don't know where they put it. It sucks! A, it was kind of a cool chair, and B I used it because that was like my little sideline from the Final Four, remembering we gotta get back. So they just took it and now it's gone! (Laughter.) Someone who has my Final Four chair, send it to me. Q. Sam, have you stopped to look at all the high‑profile talent in this Final Four, the McDonald's All‑Americans, future NBA players and if so how do you think that impacts you guys and the task you have at hand here? SAM DEKKER: I don't think that she had impact us at all. Yeah, there is going to be talent on every team, everybody we play throughout the year has guys that were good in high school, if you're not good at high school you don't play at this level. That shouldn't matter. It's about what you do on the court now. We know Kentucky has a lot of guys that will be first‑rounders and good players at the next level, but I think we have guys that are going to be good, too, and Michigan State as well, and Duke as well. I don't think it matters. You have good teams, good players, and we're here in the Final Four for a reason. You don't get here without talent and it's going to be fun to play against those guys. Q. Sam, the ankle thing early on, go through in terms of when you started feeling comfortable, what you had to do to get back to where you thought you could be and how it all ascended to last weekend where you played very well. SAM DEKKER: Had to sit back and realize that it's going to happen. I'm going to get back to myself. Everyone has had injuries, everyone has hurt an ankle or something, it just takes a little longer for some people, some people recover quick. I could have recovered better if I didn't want to push it and be on the court with the guys, but that's in the past, I learned from it. It definitely helped me in terms of mental toughness. But, you know, that's in the past. I'm playing good basketball now, that's all that matters, and, like I said, I learned from that, and hopefully I don't have another thing like that, but if it happens, I will know how to treat it better. Q. Josh, you referenced the help that Traevon gave to Bronson when he was out. How have you seen that rub off on Bronson in the postseason and coming down the stretch? JOSH GASSER: You know, his play has always been good, but the one thing he need to do work on as a young college player is his leadership and his, you know, just showing that he was a leader, and vocally saying it. So I know last year when he came in off the bench and even early this year, he didn't talk much, he looked to me to say stuff in the huddle, looked to Trae to help him out, and now he's really the one who is speaking up so he's gotten better many his leadership role. When we need a big play, he's willing to step up and be the guy. He's grown a lot obviously as a player but I think more mentally. Q. Frank, the scout team can help with the X's and O's that Kentucky can throw at you, but I think they can grow as big as Kentucky is in the course of a week. How does that make it more of a challenge to prepare for them and adjustments you make in scouting or something like that, to know that maybe a layup won't be there in the game? FRANK KAMINSKY: I think Matt Paris will give us a good look at Willie Cauley‑Stein (Laughter.) Obviously our scout team isn't going to be the same, but I think if we get an understanding of what Kentucky likes to do and how they like to play, it will be easier for us knowing what they like to do. Obviously we won't see the athletes in size, but we can take things away from our scout team that can definitely help us. Just from a defensive standpoint we're not going to be going up against 7‑footers, throwing in at any point in the game from our scout team but we understand what Kentucky is like and what to expect. Q. You guys have talked about how the game coming up is just another game, but how far is this week different from any other week? Did you learn anything from last year about the hype that leads up to the Final Four, that's helping you relax or deal with it? SAM DEKKER: Well there is obviously a lot of media, so that's one thing that's a little different from a usually week. We get there and we have a full media day, a lot of obligations and sometimes that stuff is a little more draining than playing basketball. So you just got to realize, you know, there is time to have fun, time to relax. Like I said there is a lot of places you have to be. You gotta do 'em but you got to be smart with it and conserve your energy as much as possible. So there is a lot of interactions, but you have to be able to handle those and limit them as much as possible, and if you do that that should be fine. We usually like to have some fun, so we're going to have fun with it down there and we know what it takes to play at a high level, so we've gone around and done some fun things, and I don't think that's going to change. Q. Josh and Sam, you guys have, the last two years, have been two of the more successful in the history of the program, and you talked about what you wanted to establish before you leave here. The goal obviously is to win a title, but even if you don't achieve that goal what do you think the last two years you guys have gleaned from it and provided to everybody who follows the program? JOSH GASSER: No matter what happens the last two years have been‑‑ you can't take those away from us. We've made Final Fours, won championships, so that in itself will be something we can take away for the rest of our lives, and the relationships we have built with each other is great. We obviously want more, and that's the goal. But even if the season ended right now, we've had a pretty successful career, and I think Wisconsin basketball, we're trying to take it to the next level. It's always been really, really good, and we're trying to make it one of the best, and hopefully this is a stepping stone as to what's to come, to accept nothing less than Final Four Championships and Big Ten Championships. SAM DEKKER: He hit it pretty well. Around the Big Ten Wisconsin has been on the map, but in the national circuit, I think it's solidifying Wisconsin basketball as something that's a household name and back‑to‑back Final Fours, it's cool, you can't take that way from us. Someone tweeted at us this year, some ESPN guy, "Wait, I didn't know Wisconsin was in last year's Final Four." That's the type of thing we sometimes get but you can't ignore two in a row, and hopefully he remembers this one. Q. Sam, you were talking about the fun. What through this whole run, whether it's been Aaron Rogers, stenographers, the claims of Frank's fatherhood up in the stand from holding up signs. What's been the most fun or memorable ride for you guys going through this? SAM DEKKER: Is that your kid? (Laughter.) It's been fun! It's been hilarious, some of the signs. I feel bad for the kid that tried to make signs for me and they spelled my last name wrong, because their parents obviously didn't push 'em in the right direction there! (Laughter.) But it's all in good fun. It's great to see what we've done, and the fans that we've been able to accumulate here has been great and then not to mention the people that have always stuck with us is always really cool to see them travel, Wisconsin sports always travel well, so they have been behind us and pushing us to get wins has been cool. FRANK KAMINSKY: Personally I like doing the fun stuff. Sitting up here in front of you guys gets boring, so whenever we get out and get an opportunity to do something that's fun and there is something that we actually get out of it, it's a lot of fun! (Laughter.) SAM DEKKER: No offense! FRANK KAMINSKY: All offense intended! Q. Nigel, since we're in the area, what do you think of the cattywampus, onomatopoeia tee shirts, and we checked in with Wisconsin Technical College, and apparently stenography inquires are way up. Can you talk about your off‑campus contributions to all this? NIGEL HAYES: The fact that a shirt is being made and sold and has sold out is pretty egregious given the fact that‑‑ I don't deserve any royalties or anything like that, I'm an athletic student of the NCAA, but I guess it's been a good thing. The stenography world and faithful appreciate it. They constantly tweet at me and tell me thanks for bringing light to their profession, so I'm glad I could help enrollment and boost the word out there for stenography, but, yeah, I haven't gotten a shirt yet. How ironic, seeing that it wouldn't be a shirt without me saying those things. That's neither nor there! (Laughter.) Just glad to be part of the hoopla, I guess. It's been a good time. Q. Sam, I've got to ask a follow‑up, when you saw the tweet that someone said they didn't know you were in the Final Four, what was your reaction? And since you're active on Twitter, did you respond? SAM DEKKER: No because it wasn't at me. I think it was at Duje‑‑ he's the Twitter police if you didn't know, he sees everything! He tweeted his ring when we got 'em, and what was his name? Bomani Jones tweeted his‑‑ tweeted something like, "Didn't know Wisconsin was in the Final Four, Huh!" And people were tweeting at him and he was saying, "No, I actually didn't know," and Duje made that a good talking point for five minutes, and then we told him to get over it, but for some reason I still remember that. I don't think that's, like, anything for us to write home about. It's just funny how some people don't recognize things, but I'm over it. I'm not mad at him; it's cool. Q. Side note, that's what the tee shirts are for, make 'em believe, an example. SAM DEKKER: Tell 'em Nigel. Q. They're told. Nigel, or any of the guys, do you need to play a near perfect game or perfect game to beat Kentucky? NIGEL HAYES: Probably what will happen is that we definitely will have to play well. You can't have a bad game and think you're going to beat them but I think that comes with not only the type of game it is, it's a Final Four game, so you expect the best from all your players and, again the team that they are, all the attention that they have, rightfully deserving of it, that's what they usually get is the team's best effort and I think we will have to, I guess, perfect game, maybe, close to that, but I think we will have to play exceptionally well in order to get the job done. Q. Is Frank still the fourth best player on FIFA on the team? SAM DEKKER: I would say Ferry, Trae, Duje. (Overlapping speakers.) FRANK KAMINSKY: I beat him in the locker room in front of everyone. Next question! UNIDENTIFIED ATHLETE: We're a Super Smash Brother's team, so FIFA has taken a backseat to that. (Overlapping speakers.) (Laughter.) Q. Frank, Sam, after Michigan State won on Sunday you guys were tweeting something out about critics, earlier critics about the Big Ten. Have you taken pride in the fact that half of the field is from the conference after it took a hit for losses in nonconference? SAM DEKKER: Obviously it's big for the conference to have two teams representing them. But I think someone made a good point saying teams make Final Fours, not conferences, so in a way it's right and wrong but it's great to have two Big Ten teams in it. People are not going to say we didn't have a good year. I don't think that was the case. We had great teams, Maryland, Michigan State, obviously, no one was able to extend themselves, everyone was just kind of beating each other, and it was a grind throughout the season. I don't think the Big Ten was down, I just think it was‑‑ different type of balance this year, but it's big for us for the Big Ten to have two teams in the Final Four and I think it will give us validation. FRANK KAMINSKY: Same. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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