	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 2, 2015

Mike Eaves

Madison, Wisconsin

THE MODERATOR: Men's Head Hockey Coach, Mike Eaves is here and will take questions.

Q. You've got a young team, had its first wins, and now you play probably the best team in the country. What's the challenge and their readiness to take that on, and do they know what they're going to be facing?
COACH EAVES: Well, for certain the younger guys, the freshmen that haven't been there; our juniors have been there, which isn't a lot of people. I don't think you can tell them or show them in video and really capture the environment they're going into.

I like going there, we like going there as a coaching staff, just because of the fact that we're going to find out a lot about our young team, and if we can play well enough and we're doing better things now -- we, over our next four games, we've got NODAK, and then we've got Denver coming in. These become signature wins for a young program.

I think having the success that we had this weekend, and we've talked about playing better and doing these things, and now we get right back into it, and this is -- these games here, no matter what happens, they're going to make us better at the end of the year, because of who we're playing, and even B.C. and BU, those games there helped us play for this past weekend and get a couple of wins. So your original question is, are they going to be ready for it? Probably not. But in saying that, we're excited to go there and play.

Q. To get those two wins, could you feel a sense of -- I don't know if "relief" is the right word, but just a feeling amongst your -- not just the younger players, but everybody in that locker room?
COACH EAVES: I don't think that was -- like, in my opinion, being around the guys after the game, it wasn't like, oh my gosh, whew! It was, you know what? Good for us. There was an excitement there, and from a coaching standpoint, I think we've talked about this before, the fact that we see their growth in practice, we see their confidence growing in what we're asking them to do, but you solidify that or that cement becomes hard when you do it in a game.

So we take that with us this week, and we get ready to play a NODAK team that's going to be very good. We are going to have to play a very clean game, get good goaltending, specialty teams, but at the same time, I mean, there is an air of excitement about having this challenge.

Q. Any individuals that have stepped up, maybe beyond what you may have anticipated, or at least in the time frame you anticipated over the last few weeks?
COACH EAVES: I think because we're so young there is a lot of stepping up there. Guys that come to mind right away are young Jarod Zirbel, who steps into the lineup, gets an assist the first night, he's a plus player, he's noticeable out there. Another guy that's not been talked a lot about is Patrick Sexton. He jumps in there in his playing time, and he does a lot of good things. Seamus Malone is second on our team in points as a freshman, so there's a lot of guys that have stepped up and are doing good things, and that makes us even feel better about ourselves in moving forward.

It's funny, I talked to Kelly walking out, and I talked to the other coaches, and they're like, hey, how you doing? You all right? And at first it catches me off, because they're on the outside looking in, but on the inside, they don't understand the excitement that we have and the growth that we're having that, that, yeah, I'm pumped to be here today, and we're pumped to get on the ice and work together.

So it's kind of interesting to see that kind of relationship, but you take a look at it, we've only last three games in eight games, three games in eight games, and we're undefeated at home! But everybody is, saying, "Are you all right?" And I find that fascinating just because we're on the inside working out and we know the good things that are happening.

Q. How does an Arizona State compare to some of the upper echelon talent that you guys are accustomed to facing on a week-to-week basis?
COACH EAVES: I don't think they're as high, but the one thing they brought and demonstrated is they worked hard and they pounded us till the last second, and they were in the that game on Saturday because of their never-say-die attitude, and they reminded me a lot of Penn State when they came in that first year; they beat us in overtime. We had a pretty good team.

We fired 50 shots both nights, and their young goaltender -- Arizona's young goaltender played very well, and we couldn't get that third goal and put it out of reach, and they hung around and had a chance. So they remind me of Penn State in terms of their work ethic, and they've got good hockey people there. We know they pretty well. They're going to be bona fide sooner rather than later.

Q. How would you characterize the way Patrick Sexton plays?
COACH EAVES: Coach Luke said something about him the other day, and I'm going to paraphrase it, but he's not very pretty but he gets the job done, and he had a much better way of saying it, but that's kind of Patrick. You know, you hate to say guys are "gamers" but he's got -- the 6 inches between his ears make up for maybe what he's lacking in the 6 feet of body that he has, in terms of natural ability. He's a spark, and because of his effectiveness on the ice he's going to continue to get good minutes for us.

Q. He just kind of keeps it simple, doesn't he?
COACH EAVES: He has to, and he does, and when he does that, that's what makes him effective.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach? Thanks, Mike.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297