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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEMarch 13, 2016Greg GardBronson KoenigNigel HayesMadison, Wisconsin COACH GARD: We practiced for about an hour yesterday, few things we reminded each other of, regardless of who we are going to play we have to take another step forward defensively but, again, I just tried to, for as out of sync as we were, Thursday night, there was a multitude of opportunities for us, even within the last minute and a half, where we had chances to close it even tighter and be within three, two, if we complete play. So, again, I try not to make too much of something when it doesn't go well, and I try not to overreact or, you know, oversimplify things when they going well and try to find that happy medium. They understand that. You know, when I say something about, are we going to do this better, are we going to do that better, we didn't play up to our capabilities, our potential, I'm not the first one they've heard it from. They know it. They all are smart enough; they're good enough players. They have enough experience, specifically these two guys up here. They know. You know, it's -- and they understand, they have high expectations of themselves. So it just took some friendly reminders and showing them on film, I think, helped, in some regards, and now we take a step forward. Q. Do you see any value to a light weekend leading into this final push? COACH GARD: You can analyze that 100 different ways. If you get knocked out of your conference tournament early everybody says, oh, you're gonna have rest. If you go play deep into your conference tournament, and you don't win it, you're going to have to fatigued legs and you have nothing to show for it. If you win your conference tournament, you played for a higher seeding. I think you can analyze it 100 different ways, and, you know, somebody played deep into today, they get knocked out early next week, they will say well they were fatigued from playing too deep into the weekend. Somebody plays well in the week, and they got knocked out Thursday or Friday in their conference tournament, they were fresh, so -- or they play well next weekend, and they won through this weekend, they had momentum going. So, you know, we just try not to, like I said, make too much of what's happen in the past, understand we got to be very good for forty minutes on Friday. That's what we'll focus on. Q. Greg, how much have you watched Pittsburgh this year and how much stock do you put into common opponents? You guys both played Syracuse, both played Purdue? COACH GARD: I haven't watched them a whole lot. I saw them a week and a half ago against Duke. I just happened to be home on -- in the afternoon, saw they were playing them on a Sunday, if I remember right, but I just watched them a little bit then, and they were handing it to Duke at that point in time. So I haven't seen 'em a whole lot. Did not watch the preparation for Purdue, did not watch the Pitt game because it was earlier, and I was just -- Syracuse was after us, so -- we'll look at that, though, maybe a little bit of Syracuse just because they're a common opponent, but also they're consistently sitting in the zone. So some things you can draw parallels from; that's one that you probably can't too much. Q. Greg, parity seems to be a big thing in college basketball this year. No Kentucky or Duke or even Wisconsin this year. Do you see it that way? And is that in some way encouraging to you guys, you played a lot of these teams, beaten some of the higher seeds? COACH GARD: Yeah, I think there is a lot of parity. Obviously you've got four or five that I think are playing really well right now, the four number one's, plus Michigan State are, I think, in my mind -- and I thought the two today, Purdue and Michigan State, in our lap through the league, seeing them up close -- we didn't see everybody twice, but seeing them up close I thought when they were -- when everybody was playing at their best, they were the best two in the league. That showed true through this weekend, too, so I think Michigan State is playing well, even though they're not in the one line. You're a one or a two, you've got to play very good teams as you go through the tournament and as you advance on anyway, but I think there is, there hasn't been a dominating for sure, you know, top two or three teams all year that have held on to that spot, but I think there is an obvious three, four, five that are playing pretty well right now. Q. When you guys were sitting in there waiting for it to be announced, did you know that the bracket had leaked and did you guys know already you were playing before it was showing up on CBS? COACH GARD: Yeah. (Laughter.) Q. Greg, we talked to you obviously after the game, and I'm curious, as you looked at the tape and kinda went over what went wrong that night, what was the most troubling part to you about that performance? Was the it the effort that the guys alluded to or the execution or what? Q. Anytime the ball doesn't go in the basket, it's always -- the effort label is thrown out. We had several -- you know, we run -- if you compared it with the team yesterday, we ran the exact same calls, some of the exact same plays, the exact same spots on the floor we had the ball, against Maryland on the road, the No. 2 team in the country, the ball goes in the basket. Run the same thing. Two weeks later, the ball doesn't go in, all of the sudden the effort wasn't there, but it wasn't that in terms of the ball and the effort, in terms of the ball not going in or not. There were some things in terms of a loose ball that I thought they set the tone too early, couple forced jump balls where they were more aggressive to it than what we were. They did to us what we did to Maryland, in the terms of the personality they played with. We, for the most part, through, you know, three months that I've been in this position, have played with that personality. Not all the time, but I thought -- I thought it was an advantage. I knew going in -- I felt that it was an advantage for Nebraska having played the day before, and I thought it was an advantage for Illinois, I thought it was an advantage for Michigan, just because you're -- when all else is equal you have a comfort level, and obviously having Shields back helped them. I think it gave them a little bit of swagger and a confidence, and we didn't answer that and meet that as well as we needed to for as long as of a period of time. We did it in spurts and made little runs here and there, but we had opportunity -- we left 34 points on the rim in the paint; 18 in one half, and I think 16 in another, based on the shot chart that I looked at. So we had opportunities, still gotta convert those and there has been, for the most part, we've done that through the course of the last three months. But we will, you know -- like I said, I don't want to make it too big of a deal, because I don't do it when we do it really well, and I don't want to overreact. We have to learn from it, flush it and move on and get ready for what's next. Q. Nigel and Bronson, I don't know how much other outside of the Big Ten basketball you watched has either one of you seen Pittsburgh? Do you have any early impressions? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I haven't seen them play. I think I saw them one time, against Syracuse, like Coach said (away from mic.) Yeah, I don't really know too much about them, to be honest. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I watched the -- as Coach Gard said, the Duke game. Again, (away from mic.) as a team overall, they were winning that game pretty handily, so it could have been great shooting performance by them. Who knows if that's consistent with the season or not, but from the look of that game they were playing extremely well, and they went on to win that game pretty easily. Q. Nigel and Bronson, how much in these games do you concern yourself with what the opponent does and getting into the scouting report rather than just focusing on you what you as a team and as individual players need to do? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I'm not a coach, but in my opinion when you get to the tournament, doesn't matter what you do. There is no -- we're not going to add any plays or we're not going to try any new schemes, it's just a matter of the will and want by the players. When it gets boiled down to it, that's why you have the upsets that you have, because the lower seed usually just wants to win more, and they do the things like we talked that made us lose to Nebraska, just a couple of things, hustle plays, so there is not much of a schematic change, it's just more of the players coming down to the will and the want to win, and that's why Coach Gard always tells us March is the players' month. Q. Nigel, going back to January, was there ever any doubt that this day would come that crept in your mind? NIGEL HAYES: Doubt as to us making the tournament? Q. Correct. NIGEL HAYES: Of course not, no. As I told you guys for the last couple of months, couple weeks, all season that I believed in the guys, and I knew that we would be a good team. I told you guys there would be growing pains. There were definitely growing pains, first night first game of the year, growing pains. Once we got over that hump we started gelling together, guys got the experience that they needed, that we knew they would need in order to perform well, and they just let it take care of themselves, and here we are. Q. What was the reaction when you either saw the leaute bracket? What was the reaction when you saw Pittsburgh, let's go out and play? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Pretty much, we were excited to go back out there, especially after losing the past two games we were excited to go out there and start playing again, really. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I was upset we weren't in the west again. The west has been pretty good to us, at least my first two years, get some sun, beach, LA was nice, yeah. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Away from mic.) UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Away from mic.) UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Away from mic.) UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: (Away from mic.) Won't be there, so that'll be good. Q. This is for Nigel and Bronson. I heard you talking about the progression that you guys have taken during this season. Curious as to the last couple of years. Do you guys see this team or do you see -- I guess is there a way for a team to progress like during the tournament? Is that something that you guys have experienced the last couple of years, and does this team have the capability of even stepping it up a little? I know you hate those "sports terms" but when it comes to tournament time, you know, like the pressure is on. Do you see this team potentially growing even more, during the tournament? UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Definitely, especially since we're so young. Coach has done a great job of implementing some of the younger guys in the lineup and getting them some good experience, and I'm sure guys are going to step up big for the tournament. I can definitely see that, and we haven't played our best basketball yet either. Now would be a great time for us to start playing up to our potential. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Yeah, he's right. We haven't played our best game yet. Our closest was Maryland, it was a pretty solid performance by us, but going off of your question the first two years here we always seemed to be a little bit better, and that could have ben attributed to the older guys we had, so Bronson and I are now in those shoes, and we have to pick up our efforts the same way I saw Frank pick up his effort and Tray pick up his, back then when they were here, and I was a younger guy looking at them. So if we were able to do that, and play with that emotion, toughness, the leave-it-all-on-the-court effort, the other guys will definitely come along. THE MODERATOR: Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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