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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

February 22, 2016

Greg Gard

Madison, Wisconsin

THE MODERATOR: Winners of 8 of its last 9 games, the men's basketball team heads to No. 8 Iowa for a Wednesday night matchup at 8:00pm on BTN before playing its final home game of the season against Michigan 5:00 p.m. Sunday, also televised on BTN.

Head coach Greg Gard is here.

COACH GARD: Going through last night's game film, I was able to pick out some more things that I thought we did really well, especially the last ten minutes. Defensively, I thought our numbers proved out to be pretty good although I found a few things we have to get better at and some mistakes we made.

I thought offensively for us to go from .74 the first half to 1.5 the second half and obviously gain some confidence by seeing the ball go in, not only at the free-throw line, but I think having post players finish plays around the rim, have the ball go through, and all that confidence and positive energy that generates helps everybody else on the team too.

I think, looking back and going through possession by possession, we were definitely able to take advantage of playing from the inside out.

I thought we did a decent job the second half on Hill. The three shots he hit were really tough, the two step-backs on the left baseline and the one going right. I don't know how much better you can guard those when you have a 6'9" with a hand up. That's how good he is offensively. To be able to withstand that and to struggle offensively and still be able to bounce back and find a way to get things done and get a lot of positive things accomplished the last ten minutes showed me a lot in terms of their resolve, and I mentioned that last night, in terms of how they've grown, the toughness, the togetherness. Maybe early in the year they have that type of a shooting night, and the wheels would have fell off.

I'm proud of those guys. Now we get ready with a short turnaround, a really good Iowa team. And looking forward to going down there and playing on Wednesday night.

Q. Greg, you've talked about Showalter before as being one of those guys this program has always had, being a tough guy, hard worker, but has he gotten to the point where offensively he is not afraid to either attack the rim or hit big three-pointers at key moments of games? Which maybe wasn't the case earlier this year even.
COACH GARD: He has definitely. I think his confidence has grown. He hasn't taken a lot of threes, but his percentage is pretty high. He's hit timely ones for us. Obviously, the one he hit last night was big, in terms of extending that lead again after they had scored.

I like his confidence. I like his aggressiveness.

The play where they reversed the charge to a block, I thought was a big play for us, and it was the right call. Watching it on film, the left heel broke the plane, and that's what they look at, not the plane. It doesn't have to be on the line, it has to break the plane.

So for him to make that type of play, it really got us going in the start of the second half, both him and Ethan, by being aggressive and drawing some fouls and getting us on our way. Not only the scoreboard racking up fouls on them, but also it set our mentality of how we had to play and knowing that it wasn't going to be -- there wasn't a six-point jump shot we could get. We had to chip away, and a nice way to do that, when you're trying to come from behind, is to be aggressive and try to get to the free-throw line as quick as possible. So I do like how he has progressed.

Q. Greg, you mentioned last night, with Nigel being a little fatigued in the first half, this is going to be your third game in essentially six days. Have you guys had to do anything special at all to prepare for that? Have you managed things differently?
COACH GARD: I think the one thing we've tried to do is, even before we got to this stretch, knowing this was coming, trying to take advantage of those three days between games.

You've heard of the developmental days we've done when we've given the heavy minute guys more time off and tried to really focus on the younger guys. We did that not only for developmental purposes of the younger guys, but also with the idea in mind we were going to have a heavier stretch coming down the road like we're going through now. So hopefully, we can have a little more fuel in the tank.

We'll adjust. We adjust things in the weight room. We'll adjust reps on the practice floor today, and we won't go exceptionally long today. We'll work on some things with Iowa and make sure we're good and loose, and especially the guys that play heavy minutes. I obviously rode those guys, the five starters, consistently last night. Once we got on a roll, I told them in the huddle, tell me if you need to come out. Otherwise, as well as they were playing and as much cohesiveness and synergy they had going, I wasn't going to mess with it.

I pulled Ethan once near the four-minute media time-out because we had the stoppage in play, and knew I could get him a couple minute break extra. Then got Alex in there. But otherwise, I was going to go with those guys. Today we'll back off some of those heavy minute guys. They'll be around at practice, but probably have them watch more than participate.

Q. Are you surprised at the growth of Jarrod Uthoff, a guy that, I'm sure, you know pretty well. And defending him, is it just slowing him down because, I imagine nobody stops him this year?
COACH GARD: No, he's turned into a terrific player, we thought, obviously. That's why we recruited him. He's gone on to have a fantastic career at Iowa and done really well. I'm not surprised. He really showed signs of that the year he redshirted here.

He was really good on the scout team a lot of days and knew that, as he continued to mature and develop and continue to work at his game -- which he did work at it. He's a hard worker and puts a lot of time in -- that you would expect to have success.

That's a credit to him for how he's had a handle -- I'm sure transferring is not easy. Obviously, there was a lot made of that at the time. That's water under the bridge now. Like I said, for Jarrod to do what he's done back in his home state and the season they've had, obviously, he's a big part of it, and he deserves credit for that, how he's persevered and continued to work and has really gotten better as his career has gone on.

Obviously, he'll be in consideration as nominations and voting comes down the stretch in the next couple of weeks for high honors in this league.

Q. Greg, inbounds plays have been a challenge at times. Is there a common denominator there?
COACH GARD: Yeah, we're not hitting the guy that's open. That's been the common denominator. Sometimes we look at two guys that are open, and we don't throw it to either one of them.

Q. Follow-up to that, correct me if I'm wrong, but for pretty much four seasons here Josh Gasser was the guy that took the ball out of bounds. We all know his decision-making is pretty good.
COACH GARD: Yeah, he was good.

Q. Is that a job that's harder than it should be, or are these guys making it harder than it is?
COACH GARD: It's both. Illinois plays it differently because they'll invert like Ohio State used to do, put the big up on the ball and exchange everything. So that adds a little different twist to it than their normal inbounds play.

But we have -- it's been an ongoing issue that we change out of bounds plays, we've changed formations, and basically we have to hit the guy that's open. We obviously, every -- we usually have every set set up to score, but it doesn't necessarily mean we have to wait for that guy to come open. Trying to hit the guy that's open is always my first priority.

And we've had different guys take it. Different guys a little bit more adept to it and more comfortable with the ball out of bounds than others, but sometimes based on formation, the play that's called dictates who takes it out. That's an area that, again, is part of film study. It's been every day. Even at times where we've gotten the ball in with no hiccups, I see guys that are open that we could have the ball to a little sooner.

So we'll continue to work at that. It's an area we need to improve. Nothing bothers me more than throwing a pop fly to half-court and hope we catch it. We've got to be better than that. Hopefully, we'll get that remedied and continue to improve.

Q. Coach, your next two games against teams you haven't faced yet this year. I know with all the tape that you have, that's probably not an issue. Is it kind of strange that you don't face two teams until this late? Is there any challenge to that?
COACH GARD: That's the quirks of having a 14-team league. You're not playing everybody twice. Obviously, there's been imbalance. Some of it's set up due to TV, of what they look at, maybe marquee matchups coming down the stretch. Not only have we not seen them, but they haven't seen us. So I guess it's all even when we come down to it.

We know Iowa is a very good team, very experienced with four seniors. The development of Peter Jok has been terrific, how he's evolved. Obviously, Woodbury, Gesell, Clemmons, and Uthoff being the other four that are seniors. Then they've been able to get timely contributions off the bench.

It's a team that's had a terrific year. Obviously, they're still in the hunt. We're obviously chasing them, but they're right in the mix for the league title, and obviously they're well positioned for postseason play.

I don't think it's any different. We know them pretty well. They're going to know us. They haven't changed too much over the years. Obviously, with having so many guys back, you're very familiar with the names. So that helps.

Q. You've worked in or watched Big Ten basketball for a long time. What do you think of Big Ten basketball 2015/'16? Could be a long winded answer, I know, Greg.
COACH GARD: I'll try not to make it long winded. It's extremely competitive. If you talk to coaches or players that played here -- Rashard is around right now. He's hanging out with Howard, Rashard Griffith. You talk about when he played or go back -- I remember watching, when I was growing up, watching the late '70s and '80s, how competitive it is. It doesn't matter who you play, what night it is, just look at scores and games across the league.

That's how I remember it too as a kid growing up. I couldn't get many stations. I didn't have ESPN. I could tip the rabbit ears just right on our TV and get KWWL, and I actually watched more Iowa games than I did Wisconsin games because I couldn't get Wisconsin on TV. We were closer to the Iowa border. You think living in Iowa County going to Iowa Grant that obviously I'd watch Iowa, but that just because I could. Like I said, the rabbit ears, I could tip them, in our basement, I could lean them against the wall and pick up Iowa on TV easier than I could get Wisconsin. Iowa was on that in-state TV station probably more readily than Wisconsin.

I had to watch Wisconsin on late rebroadcasts on WHA. So I couldn't stay up that late. I had to go to bed before 10:30, before Alan Zussman and whoever else was doing the broadcast at the time.

Q. Dan Stout?
COACH GARD: Dan Stout. There's a blast from the past there too. Those were always on rebroadcast late. I'd catch Wisconsin on the weekend if they were the head or marquee game. There was no ESPN in Cobb, Wisconsin. I had to go to Madison to my aunt and uncle's house to watch ESPN. What the heck is this station? There's a lot of sports on this. How come we don't get this? That's the difference between cable and antenna TV.

Q. You mentioned Peter Jok's improvement. What areas of his game have changed most in his game since a year ago?
COACH GARD: The biggest thing that jumps out to me on film is just physically, his size. I remember him in high school. He had battled some injuries, and maybe he couldn't develop as fast as he wanted to strength-wise. But he physically looks really good right now in terms of strength. He's long. He can really shoot it. He's added other parts to his game. He handles the ball much better than he did when he was younger.

I think he's just evolved as a player. You would hope that somebody who puts in time, and obviously with what Coach McCaffery does with developing players, much like every other coach in this league, that you would expect to get better over time. He's obviously put in time, not only on the court, but he's put in a lot of time physically, with bettering himself physically in the weight room and what he's done there.

But that's the thing that jumps out. He doesn't look the same physically as he did two, three years ago.

Q. So if I understand the answer to my question, the Big Ten is still what it always has been?
COACH GARD: Yeah, it's a competitive slugfest, and I don't think you can get -- a lot of times you can throw records out. I don't think it's changed a whole lot, in terms of it's still extremely competitive. You have the state border rivalries. You have some other rivalries that have matriculated or grown over the years.

The tradition, you talk about tradition of a league, and you go back through time, the players that I watched growing up, not only here in Wisconsin but across the league, and names and things pop up every now and then. Talking with Joe Crispin last night with the Big Ten Network, obviously, he played in the league for a little bit. You appreciate and really respect the history and the tradition of the league.

Q. Coach, you talked about developmental days and the starters, kind of pulling them back a little bit. What about the guys on the bench? You have a lot of freshmen, the proverbial wall. Is that a myth, or have they hit that? What have you seen?
COACH GARD: I don't think they hit it physically. Sometimes -- and it's not just necessarily basketball. It's a more strenuous school year. We've played close to 20 games before we hit semester break. Well, once we got just into conference play, that's their high school season if you have 20 games on average. You get to that point and say, oh, we're about halfway.

It's not only that, it's just the physical toll, the mental toll that it takes, but also balancing everything else that's part of their life and the change. They're transitioning to a new place, a new climate in terms of what their day-to-day interactions are. They're adjusting to a new schedule now with second semester that they're obviously a few weeks into.

I don't see anybody really hitting it from a physical standpoint. I tried to make sure -- that's why I like the developmental days because it gives them a day where they can just turn it loose and play. They like those. They really -- I get a lot of smiles and nods when I tell them that that's what we're going to do today because it's a day for them just to run our stuff.

They have to platoon back and forth for a lot of those guys -- Charlie, Khalil, Alex, Jordan Hill, Aaron Moesch has done some of that back and forth. So for a day to take just to work on Wisconsin, they really like, and it gives them a chance to run up and down and compete and just play, and they have fun with it.

Q. There's a lot of causes for awareness in college basketball, obviously, cancer being one of the most notable. But recently, autism touched college basketball with the pins that you guys wore last night. Did you wear that with a greater sense of pride knowing that it touches a manager on your team?
COACH GARD: Well, yes. I mean, you obviously -- you respect all those causes. Anything that we can do from our platform, being as visible as we are, anything that we can do to help any of that, any of those causes, whether it's autism, whether it's cancer awareness, where we did the shoes and the laces a few weeks ago, anything I can do.

Obviously, going through my dad's personal situation, I've always had that viewpoint, but I think, after going through that, it helps you appreciate or gives you a greater sense of appreciation of the platform you have from a standpoint of how can you help other people, and that's, I'm just hoping, the tip of the iceberg of what I have in mind down the road, using my dad's experience and what we went through to try to help other people and grow in that regard.

But, yes, anything that we can do to help others and use our visibility to bring awareness to make their lives better, and hopefully at some point in time find cures or better treatments for a variety of things is always a good thing.

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