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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 4, 2016

Bobbie Kelsey

Madison, Wisconsin

THE MODERATOR: Women's head basketball coach, Bobbie Kelsey is here. We will have some opening comments then take questions.

COACH KELSEY: Like Brian said, we split last week with our games, this past game and the game before. Big Ten play is what we expected it to be. It's tough. We match-up really well with most of the teams in the Big Ten, some are bigger in the inside, and we're not as big, and some are quicker on the perimeter, so you have all these different scenarios and you have to adjust every two or three days, because you have a game every two or three days, but it's exciting to get ready for the next opponent.

Win or lose, you have a quick turn-around so you can't celebrate too long or wallow in misery too long. We have Rutgers coming up, and we know what they can do. They're very athletic, rebounders, big, strong, physical, all the things we see all the time. So we just played a Michigan State team last night that's big, strong, physical, athletic, rebound, but we did a great job against them. We just had a couple of little minor let-downs there, but -- where they got our -- but we were within 7, so we -- with low numbers, we're proud of the kids for their effort. We will get ready for Rutgers here on Thursday. I will take questions, if you have any.

Q. The team is doing very well with ball control, turnovers, you're averaging less than 11 per game the last three games. Has that been like a key to the team's improvement?
COACH KELSEY: Absolutely. We've been preaching for I guess years now "take care of the ball!"

You cannot beat anybody having 20, even 15 or more turnovers; these teams are too good. They will score on you, especially if they're live-ball turnovers, where they're right at the top, there is nobody to get back. We had a couple of them last night that they got transition on, we got some on them. So everybody's gotta take care of the ball, but we have to because we don't have a deep bench, and we have a rotation now where we're trying to get people out before they get tired to have those turnovers.

Sometimes those are fatigue turnovers, sometimes I'm too tired to even think turnovers, I don't want the ball turnovers, somebody else do it turnovers. So, we have to make sure that everybody is fresh mentally to be able to take care of the ball, execute our offense the way -- and get a good shot. Whether it goes in or not, you want an opportunity to get a good shot at the rim, because then you can get an opportunity to get a good rebound, so I think taking care of the ball has helped us tremendously in these last couple games.

Q. Do you expect to have Tessa back anytime soon?
COACH KELSEY: You know what? The trainers -- her illness -- I don't want to talk about anybody's issues but she has something that will take a little bit of time, unexpected; these things happen. Tessa is tough, she is resilient, sometimes I think mentally she can fight off things that maybe medically not can't be explained. We're just prayerful that whatever it is, what it is will go away quickly, because we need her. She would have helped us last night. But, you know, everybody -- Chelle Marble stepped up, Marcia stepped in there, came back from her concussion, Rosie gave us some great minutes. You know, Dakota struggled a little bit. They were face-guarding here, so it's hard. We gotta run some more stuff for her specifically to get the ball, but Dakota was in a little bit of foul trouble. She came back in and got us back in and Ivy did a great job inside. So we got contributions from everyone, but, you know, when you just don't have that full, full roster, you got people in and out, in and out, you just try and make adjustments. But you play who you have, and you don't make excuses, and you go out there and fight to the end, and that's what they did last night.

Q. Is it difficult or was it a difficult transition going from the halves to the quarters, or have you liked how that's gone?
COACH KELSEY: I love the quarters; it makes the game go by really fast. When we had halves last year, it was like, oh my God, is there still 13 minutes left? It never ends. It's slow. But the quarters, you look up, it's 5 minutes left oh, okay. Strategywise, it helps you a little bit. I think we're finding nationally the scoring is up, which we wanted to have in women's basketball. The advancing the ball has helped us a couple times. We won a game in San Diego advancing the ball. That's been fun to try to run -- you know it's going to be ball side -- team side, so you don't have to worry about running on the other side of the floor any of your sideline out-of-bounds plays, so that's nice, because kids don't have to remember. Some brains don't flip; mine does not. If it's on this side, that's what I remember, if it's on the other side, I might have to think about it for a second. That's the good thing about advancing the ball. So we haven't seen these long heaves at the last; you just have a chance to win the game. I would be curious to see how many won the game or had a chance at the end with advancing the ball. That's exciting to me. I think it's great.

I was one of the resistors, so I'm like, why are you changing it? Nothing wrong with it. Now I'm like, oh God, thank you! Thanks for not listening to me! I'm glad I didn't have a vote.

Q. Chelle Marble has really improved the last three games, shooting 70% from the three-range especially lately --
COACH KELSEY: Is she?

Q. Yeah, 7 of 10.
COACH KELSEY: I didn't know that. Good.

Q. What is the key to her improvement, especially now, stepping up.
COACH KELSEY: You know, Chelle is a good shooter. I didn't realize how good of a shooter she actually is, and the thing about Chelle is she's not scared. She hit a big three last night. She just turned and shot it. She hit a big one in the Indiana game, right after -- I think either before or after Nicole hit hers. So that's refreshing to know somebody who hadn't played last year, coming off a major achilles injury can step in and do those things. And when we have allowed her to play through some of the mistakes, Chelle is just going to get better and better.

I just passed her in the hallway going up -- she had her two balls in her arms and her little boom box, and she was going to try to find somewhere to shoot the ball. She can be as good a shooter, I belive, as Nicole, I really do believe that, because she is not afraid to take the big shot; that's half the battle. If you're afraid, you're not ever going to make it. And she makes 'em. Now we lookin' for her. So it takes pressure off of Nicole, if Tessa was out there, she would have had a chance to make some, Dakota still can make her three's, Kayla has really come along. Kayla has picked up her game. So our two young players, they have done a good job. And then Marcia, she had a concussion, so she's coming back, so she is a decent shooter, but you gotta get your reps in. I always tell them, you are not going to get better on the pillow case! If a nap could get us where we wanted to go, man, we would all be successful! Napping and socializing, social media, those things have their place, but you've got to sacrifice some of that stuff to get in the gym and get your shots up, and we can't get those up in practice.

We got too many other things to work on, and we encourage them -- using Nicole as an example, she did not come into Wisconsin shooting the way she does, but by her hard work, changes, tweaks here and there, she has been able to get herself in a position where they face-guard her now. So I always say, if you open, you're not a good shooter, because a good shooter is not open, or the other team is not very smart. So if they're open, they know that's probably not a good thing. Get in the gym, work on your shot.

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

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