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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN BASKETBALL MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 21, 2013Bo RyanTHE MODERATOR: The men's basketball team, one of four Big Ten teams with just one conference loss this season, hosts a pair of ranked league foes this week. The Badgers square off against Michigan State tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. on ESPN. Then Minnesota comes to the Kohl Center on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. on BTN. Head coach Bo Ryan is here. We'll take questions. Q. Bo, what's Frank's status, and can you give us any details on the injury? COACH RYAN: We're not going to have him. For how long, I'm not sure until Henry makes some kind of release on it. Very unfortunate accident, or injury, he suffered there, especially after he hit two threes. And not that if he had missed those, it would have made the injury different, but you know what I mean. Size, developing big man. Q. You had Evan working with the first group yesterday. Is that a realistic option at this point? COACH RYAN: Yeah, I've done that a couple other times. Just keeping him sharp, keeping him ready. You never know with foul trouble. You saw what happened against Iowa. Scratching and clawing, trying to play from behind. You commit more fouls, you get guys in foul trouble, you got to make sure guys are ready to add when they come into the game. I thought Jay Bo did some good things when he came in against Iowa. I'm glad he didn't try to say it was a shot lob on his three that he took. Q. Bo, so much is made of the rivalry between you guys and Michigan State. What's the relationship like with Tom Izzo, if you have one at all? COACH RYAN: We're on the National Association of Basketball Coaches committee together. Tackle all the issues, at least three, maybe four times a year in meetings. Probably see him more than any other coach in the league because of those. It's trying to do what's good for the game. It's a lot of time. As if this profession doesn't require enough hours or enough things to keep you busy, it's just part of, I feel, coach's duty to belong to those types of boards and help the game in any way that you can. And he obviously feels the same way. He's been on it longer than I have. Q. I know you're not one to dwell on injuries. You forge ahead with whatever happens, but how difficult has it been this year with losing key player after key player for the entire season or various stretches? COACH RYAN: We won't have George today. He has been ill all morning and will not be allowed to practice. Probably weren't looking at that as part of your answer, were you? Unless you had heard otherwise. I do know that he will not be practicing. I said it to the luncheon today. There's about, what, five or six different things in Airplane movie where the guy keeps saying, picked a bad week to stop this, to do that. Picked a bad year to have these kind of things, but, hey, there's some other guys ready to jump in, and hopefully we can just string enough together to keep, to stay competitive and give ourselves a chance. I've seen other teams that happen to them. They didn't fare so well. We don't want to be in that category. We're still going to try to get things done this year that we wanted to accomplish. Q. When they have Payne and Nix on the floor at the same time, what kind of challenges does that present? COACH RYAN: We've played other teams over the years where they've had two bigger than average guys. Ryan Evans and Mike Bruesewitz have guarded big guys, so I at least feel that isn't something that they haven't seen before or that they haven't tried to do. And still defense is about help and about not just individual matchups. Our defense has always been predicated on the synergy of the group, not just on one or two stoppers. Q. Bo, having lost Josh early in the year and losing Mike for a little bit and with Frank, has it toughened this team a little bit? In the long run, once everybody, at least minus Josh, is back up and running, you anticipate it will help the team in the long run? COACH RYAN: What you do is it has to because you don't have another option. The options are limited. I think every one of these young men has played youth basketball, youth sports, junior high, middle school, into high school, AAU ball, all those types of things. During the summers, you see teams get injuries to certain players, and it's hard to add to the roster with your AAU team. So you have to play with who you have or you add maybe people who aren't as experienced, as good, as talented. So it's probably not the first time they've ever been through this. It probably won't be the last because there will be other similar things in their jobs and at home and in their communities that they'll face where‑‑ you know, I look at these disasters‑‑ the hurricanes, the tropical storms, the floods, the things that have happened‑‑ and it's amazing, when you really look and see how many of the people that are helping in the recovery are people who played sports, who understand the team concept, who understand, hey, let's get in this thing together and help build it back up. It seems to me they're the ones that do the less complaining because they know what it's like. Q. If George isn't feeling well enough tomorrow, how does that change the situation at point guard? Would you have to kind of move up Showalter behind Trae? How do you deal with that? COACH RYAN: Hypothetical. Hopefully, he'll get better. I certainly wouldn't wish whatever I have on everybody. I have no idea how something can hang and make a person feel this way for so long, and it's like thank goodness I don't have to guard and I don't have to score. Doesn't sound like it's what yours truly has. I'm starting to think that being in the hospital down in Florida, when I was visiting my mom‑‑ I've been told by a few people that, if there's something to be picked up, you pick it up at the hospital. Flus and things like that. I said, why is that? Well, because at the hospitals, everything's there. That's why people go there, because of different‑‑ that's just my theory. Q. Is this the best stay‑‑ is the Big Ten the best this year as it's been since you've been coaching in this conference, in terms of talent? COACH RYAN: I don't even know about how many lottery picks or first round. I have no idea about that. But that's not what's made the Big Ten the Big Ten. It's the systems that teams have that are so hard to crack. People tell us we have one. People tell Michigan they have one. People say Ohio State has it. You go right on down the line. But experience and talent is what's made the Big Ten what it is this year, but it's every year. But the depth is what everybody kind of keeps touting as the difference, and I tend to agree. There's going to be a lot of bumps out there for a lot of people. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach? Thanks, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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