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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 25, 2016

Greg Gard

Madison, Wisconsin

THE MODERATOR: Men's Basketball Head Coach Greg Gard is here. We will have some opening comments and take questions.

COACH GARD: I dressed up just for you guys! Sport coat, just for you, Jeff and Tom. Just came from an Overtime Club Luncheon.

With the game Thursday night, I felt we did some good things at times. Obviously to be able to build a 16-point lead and then have a chance to expand it, there were some positive things that I took from it, and also some things that we have to continue to get better at.

I think the positive was getting to the free-throw line 35 times was good. We've spent some time on converting those in the last few days, at a higher rate, but also being able to handle that pressure in that situation, different lineups, guys out there.

I thought we got a little bit better as the game went on against the zone and did some pretty good things. Defensively I thought until that stretch there at the end, where I think at one point they had 5 points in 13 possessions, where we had some miscommunications on some exchanges or switches, where we allowed shooters to get open. We allowed one shooter to dribble into a three, and then we fouled at times and let them score with the clock stopped, which things with a younger teams, we're learning how to close out games, and that's not one thing you want to do is foul and chip into your lead with the clock stopped.

It was a good -- very good teaching points from it, and hopefully we'll learn as we go forward, and obviously with tomorrow night's game against Indiana, team that's been on a role. We saw what they could do at their place, and I thought we had chances there to be able to tie or if we would have converted better at the line and in the paint, hopefully maybe we would have had a different outcome. But a team -- Tom's got them playing extremely well, and they're very confident offensively, and they've improved defensively.

They can surround Bryant with a lot of shooters, and they put a lot of pressure on you, in terms of where you can help from, when you can help, when you cannot help, and obviously having a senior point guard as good as Yogi Ferrell is really the engine that drives that whole machine. It will be a huge task for us again tomorrow night, but one we're looking forward too. I've talked to the team about it over the last few days.

I think you're better; I think you've improved. Now it's another opportunity for us to show it. With that, we will continue to prep for tomorrow night, and I will take your questions.

Q. Greg, I think early on when you took over the team you talked about getting an understanding about how to use certain guys as subs and get a feel for your substitution pattern. Where does that stand right now in your mind, how good you feel about when to put certain guys in and what moves to make during the game?
COACH GARD: I have a lot of confidence in Alex, that's been well documented just in what he's done. I used him sooner Thursday, because he has such a good feel, instinctual feel, against zones, and he moves and obviously he has the ability to stretch the floor and be able to shoot the ball, but he also -- he just has a nose for the ball, whether it's off the glass or whether it's finding gaps, those things, his ability to pass. I think there's some strengths of his that he can build on as he goes forward.

You know, with Jordan, I think it's still, you know -- it's all about with all of them, really I've always emphasized this, it's about production. So if you practice well, the odds that you will play well are more in your favor and I think that's one thing with everybody that I've really emphasized in the last five weeks or whatever it's been, that if you put value into practice, practice will put value into you, meaning it will make you better. I don't think sometimes younger guys understand how important practice is and how important it is to practice well and practice the right way.

So from that standpoint with Jordan, when he plays well, he shows he can do some things really well, when he struggles in some areas, decision making, then we need to step back and correct some things. I think Aaron is doing a good job on giving us some minutes. I like wherever he is at intellectually, how he understands things and picks up on things. I think Charlie has practiced pretty well, and I thought Charlie, for the minutes he had at Penn State, played pretty well, given that small amount of time.

Khalil, like with Jordan Hill, when things are going well, it's really well, and then there are some things he does at times that are freshmen mistakes, the crosscourt pass out of corner was one of them, just things like that that he needs to continue to improve upon and decision making. That will come with time and experience, and he saw that on film.

With all of them, I think it's still about if you practice well, the odds are you'll play -- play pretty well and it's want going to happen -- it's not all of the sudden going to come on and you're not going to practice well and -- I've never seen anybody not practice well and then go play well; very rarely does that happen. You have to form pretty good habits in practice.

Q. Going off Jeff's question, your comfort level as a coach within a game, not having a ton of experience coming in, are you more comfortable now and are you starting to get into a groove?
COACH GARD: I've always -- I've told people -- I've gotten this forewarning for years, that this transition, if it ever happens, wherever it would happen, would be astronomical! It would be, oh my goodness, you're now slid over 18 inches or in a new seat. For me it's been as natural and as easy -- I don't know -- I don't have anything to compare it to, but from my standpoint, I joked with a few people around me that are close to me, should have been doing this a long time ago.

For me it's been really, really natural. I don't know why. Is it my experience over the years? I've had some pretty good mentors, you know, I've been fortunate. You have a Hall of Famer in Coach Ryan, who you get mentored by and watch. Wasn't like I was living under a rock for 25 years. I've listened, and I've watched. I have binders upon binders of notes, and I know until you step into it yourself -- but you're always in that mode mentally, and then I have Coach Izzo and what he's done for me and how he's guided me. I mean, you have input I've taken from people over the years, but always mentally I tried to put myself in that position, so from my standpoint, I haven't asked anybody else, but it's been extremely normal and natural and, you know, those are probably the two words to describe it the best.

Q. You mentioned the free-throws, working on free-throws the last couple of days. If I remember correctly, after the Northwestern game, didn't you give them an assignment to go home and shoot like 100 free-throws?
COACH GARD: Right.

Q. Is it just a matter of reputation with that, just to get guys to feel more comfortable so they don't miss some free-throws like at Penn State late?
COACH GARD: To me, free-throws have always been mental, unless there is something really astronomical wrong with your technique; it's more about mentally blocking out everything else and focusing and following your pattern or whatever you have up as a routine and sticking to that all the time, not getting distracted from that.

We've done some other things with pressure situations the last few days, having them run and then having them go shoot free-throws and different things, where I put numbers on them to make more out of 10 or more out of 20 than normal. But, again, it's still about just being mentally tough enough to stand there and knock 'em down.

Because they're all -- I think, have shown me that when they follow their technique the proper way, they're good enough to make a good enough percentage of them. The encouraging part for me is that we're getting there. That's a huge step in the right direction, because we've seen games when we don't and trends when we don't. Hopefully we'll continue to grow in that regard.

Q. What's it like for you emotionally after a game compared to when you were sitting 18 inches the other side?
COACH GARD: More draining. You feel a little more, you know, like you've gone 12 rounds. But for me -- I've always tried to be pretty even keeled emotionally, so I don't get too high when things are going really well, and you don't get too low when things don't go well. It's a two-hour span where you are pretty laser focused, and you can't get too out of check emotionally because what message does that send to your team?

I have to communicate with them every four minutes in those timeouts, so if I've lost my mind in that standpoint, then I'm not doing a good job of communicating and adjusting as we go on, and they've found -- they have learned that I adjust and tweak things in those timeouts. That dry erase board, they were kinda all shocked the first time they saw that pulled that out. I said, "No, Coach Gard -- I'll use one of these, so get ready. Pay attention." They don't drift off to sleep in the timeout, I will tell you that. They're all locked in, so they never know what I might draw up there.

Usually we practice what we do. I don't pull anything out of thin air. I usually make sure we have seen it before I go into my bag of tricks.

Q. You mentioned the mentors that you had. They're, I guess, sideline mentality and the way that they worked the sideline pretty much completely different, opposite than the way you do it. Is that intended? Or is that just you being you?
COACH GARD: I've always understood I need to be myself. I need to coach my personality, I need to communicate to my personality, and there will be times when I'm a little -- the blood pressure goes up a little bit more than others, but for the most part I need to be myself. I can't pretend to be somebody else, nor should I, nor would I. It's not sending the right message, and it's not who I am. I've just tried to be who I am, and I've told the players that from day one. I don't change. My role and responsibility changes, as you heard me say, but who I am and how I conduct myself and those things won't change.

Q. Looking at film on Indiana, what has changed between when you played them to where they are now? Is it just confidence in the way they're playing under Tom?
COACH GARD: Yeah and Anunoby or OG, No. 3, has played really well; he's gotten better. I think they've gotten a little more production. Bryant has gotten better and obviously Yogi has done even a better job of running the whole show. But they've all, I think -- confidence is definitely a universal word you can use with everybody, but I've seen some individually improvement in guys, and maybe it doesn't always show in numbers, but Brian is more aggressive and assertive inside, and OG knocked down three's against us, but he's also done that against only some other teams, and very aggressive to the glass in how they spread you out and obviously their a threat to shoot three's, and the avenues they come to the glass with, you know, what they've done to Illinois, Northwestern and Ohio State there at home; obviously it's just been a landslide, an onslaught.

Definitely a more confident team, a team that's grown individually and collectively over the last two or three weeks since we saw 'em.

Q. Greg, looking at your free-throw attempts the last couple games, clearly you've emphasized attacking the rim, but what all goes into that? You don't just say it at practice. What all goes into that?
COACH GARD: Well, we've -- with changing some things offensively, we have tried to emphasize that more by putting people in those positions, to be able to catch the ball in the paint. I actually probably call it the "power of the paint," how good the paint can be to you.

We have done some things drillwise, too we've changed some things and added some things, with post moves and being more physical with the bags and doing some one-on-one with the blocking bags and some one-on-one in the post. We've also done some driving line drills, we call it "drive to score."

I think it's not anything-- I invented anything new, it's trying to emphasize things I see within the game, whether it be that we need to do better -- we need to be better at, or things that I've watch other teams do that are -- how the game has evolved and then changing how we need to play and what we need to emphasize, both individually and collectively as a team.

I think there's been, you know, more of an emphasis on throwing it inside, but also what do we -- we -- throwing it inside is one thing, but the ability to be able to finish and convert and have something positive come out of it is another thing, so our ability to finish in the paint has to continue to improve, and as we get better and more comfortable within what we do offensively, knowing when to drive and how to finish plays.

I think we're getting better at it. Nigel has gotten better at it, Showalter has been better at it in terms of driving through contact and forcing teams to use their hands, if the officials are going to call that, how the points of emphasis are going to be or have been. We have to try to use that to our advantage.

Q. Is it easier to drive from the perimeter these days with the new rules? Do you find that at all?
COACH GARD: If your spacing is good, I think that's one thing that's improved, our spacing has become better, which has opened more alleys for us to drive. We're starting, as we evolve more within the swing, of knowing when to and when not to, and there's avenues, too, but I think that has -- if you can catch teams closing out improperly or late or overaggressive, that's the time to really attack. And trying to do it in straight lines because of how teams come to help so fast, you've got to make that decision and get there pretty quickly.

The days of being able to really spend a lot of time with the ball, YoYoing back and forth because of how teams block to the ball, how we do it, you have to pick and choose your spots and do more straight line attacking.

Q. Anything else for Coach? Thanks, Greg.
COACH GARD: Patrick did you want to do the shoe? As you know, this is "Suits and Sneakers" week. This might not be the exact shoe we're gonna wear; that's a work in progress, but you will see us this week, tomorrow night and Sunday at Illinois with sneakers on, and obviously the whole Coaches versus Cancer Campaign, obviously for me personally it takes on a whole new meaning and a whole new level this year.

But also the yellow laces. You will see most college coaches wearing them around the country. Lacey Holsworth, the little girl who passed away couple years ago that was tight and close to Adreian Payne at Michigan State, this was one of her -- I guess her favorite color along with the sparkles, so they have done some things -- Shoe Carnival, right, Patrick -- where they're selling these now through the end of the week, and proceeds are going to the American Cancer Society and more specifically to pediatric cancer and cancer research.

Yellow is the signal or the color for pediatric cancer, which is a cancer that's underresearched and underfunded, so if you see coaches with yellow laces this week or staff members, that's what that's about. Kind of a two-fold effort there with Coaches versus Cancer, with the "Suits and Sneakers" week and obviously the laces, trying to bring more awareness to pediatric cancer. Thanks.

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