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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SOCCER MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 7, 2013John TraskTHE MODERATOR: Coming off a win last week over in‑state rival Marquette, the men's soccer team continues with a pair of games this week, hosting Drake tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. and Big Ten foe Indiana comes on Friday at 7:00 p.m. Head coach John Trask is here. We'll have opening comments and then take questions. COACH TRASK: Another exciting week for Wisconsin. Drake coming in giving up at least one goal in the last, I believe, six games. Feeling good about themselves. And then obviously playing the NCAA Champion Indiana Hoosiers here Friday night as part of the homecoming weekend. So great week last week beating Marquette 1‑0, big in‑state rival, NCAA Tournament team. I think that was a nice result for the guys, and hopefully it will carry over to this week, two more home games, and then we start next week off as well at home against Western Illinois. This was a part of our four‑game home stand. Nice to be back in Madison. Q. I know you mentioned Drake having given up one goal the last six games. What else do you know about the Bulldogs, and what should the Badgers expect, I guess, tomorrow night? COACH TRASK: Drake's a very well‑coached team. I've known Sean Holmes, their head coach, he's been there close to 20 years now. They've been to the Elite Eight. They're the type of program maybe not consistently, year in and year out, top 15, top 20 program. It seems like every couple of years they put things together, and it looks like one of those years. They had some blips in the radar early in the season, changed their goalkeeper out, and they believe. They beat New Mexico at New Mexico, which is very difficult game for anyone in college soccer. So they're going to come in here, coming off a big win over Evansville in their conference, they're going to come in here and give us everything we can handle. As I mentioned to the guys, if we look past this Drake team and just start concentrating on having the chance to play Indiana Friday night, we will be kicking ourselves Wednesday morning. The other thing I mentioned to them is, after the Marquette result, was all it does is puts a bigger emphasis on your next game. Being 6‑2‑1, we're in the conversation at this point of the season, halfway through. Now every game becomes even that much bigger with only 48 teams getting in the NCAA Tournament. Q. I know you had mentioned Tomislav Zadro earlier in the year. He kind of makes your team go. Seems like Nick Janus is going pretty well right now. Can you explain his level of play this season so far. COACH TRASK: Nick has been tremendous. Scored the game winner against Marquette. We've been unfortunate not to get another one. Tomislav has been out a little while. Not sure exactly when we're going to get him back. As I said to the guys, let's get that big white elephant out of the room. These guys needed to prove to themselves‑‑ not to us as coaches, but to themselves‑‑ that they could beat a good team without Tomislav. When and if we're able to add Tomislav back into the team, we become a much more dangerous team for people to try to scout and/or game plan for. It's been nice being home. I know the guys were excited to get to Coopers Tavern for the pregame meal last week. We got a lot of alums showing up Friday night, which is going to be awesome, and hopefully, we can continue to play some good soccer. Nick's a huge part of it. He's playing with that senior drive and energy, and he, along with some other guys, they're keys to the attacking unit of this team. And love Nicky Janus, couldn't want it for a better kid to have the type of season that he's been putting together so far. Q. You touched on it a bit, but do you think you'll be able to tap into some of the homecoming atmosphere for your Indiana game? If so, how? COACH TRASK: We're hoping. It's a great week for UW Athletics. With men's hockey starting on Friday night‑‑ obviously, we're at the same time as they are‑‑ and then with the Northwestern football game on Saturday, I know a lot of our alums are excited to come back for all the festivities. There's a good soccer crowd in town. We're starting to create some of the students on campus wanting to be a part of what we're doing over at McClimon. We had close to 1,000 people at our game the other night, Wednesday night against Marquette. We're hoping for a good crowd tomorrow and then a real good crowd on Friday night. I'm sure 83,000 are coming to the football game. We can share that a little bit with men's hockey and hopefully draw a few of those people that are back in for the weekend. Q. Going back to what you said about the warning you gave your players about looking forward to Indiana, is that a good thing or a bad thing with this team? Is it something you felt you had to say because you were concerned about it or you felt you're going to have to say it again, or is this a one time only thing that's going to carry them through to the first match in Indiana? COACH TRASK:  You know, it's interesting. Coach Alvarez came and spoke to our team about a week and a half ago and made a point that kind of sticks in my head. For all coaches, all that matters is the next game, but kids are excited to play in the Big Ten. They know the national ramifications and conference ramifications of playing the big boys, as it were. But in men's soccer, having only six games in conference, you've got to do the business. If you want to get to the dance, you've got to do the business in your nonconference portion. I think it's easy. I played and coached in the Big Ten. The Big Ten conference is very unique in the sense of what it provides for student‑athletes in terms of opportunities to compete, and they love it. Whether you're playing Michigan State, Penn State, whoever it may be. I think the kids need to realize and kind of heed the message of every game's important. You've got 18 chances to compete prior to the Big Ten Tournament, and if we don't take care of the midweek friendlies‑‑ I think, if you look back the last 15 years since '95 when the program won the National Championship, it would be some of the midweek games that cost former players a chance to compete in the NCAA Tournament, not necessarily their Big Ten record. You know, I'd like to hope that we've got the maturity to not look past this game, but sometimes a gentle reminder, more importantly, a kick in the ass makes people realize that, if we're not focused on Drake, we won't win that game. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach? COACH TRASK: I promise not to swear anymore. Q. Weeks like ‑‑ obviously being home is a nicer environment than being on the road, as you were most of September, for games. But weeks like this, where you have a Drake and an Indiana game like this on a Friday, what is it that you kind of step back more with an older team like this and let them kind of take over the reins of preparing younger guys for games where you have like the midweek friendly and then the conference game again in the same week? COACH TRASK: Yeah, it was nice. Quite a few of our guys were able to get home over the weekend, spend a little bit of time with their families. We gave them Saturday off. We came back late afternoon on Sunday, had a great session yesterday. Obviously, we're game planning for tomorrow, just kind of ticking them over this afternoon because the energy has got to be right tomorrow. But then not having to go on the road again and to gear up for Friday is important as well. A little bit of rest at this time of the season, I find, is important, and the way that the schedule has gone, I think, as long as we handled what we needed to in September, October, 6 of 9 games at home to run out the rest of the season. Most of the trips we do have to make from here on out‑‑ it's a one day, one and a half day over to Michigan for a Big Ten game‑‑ it sets up nicely for the players that they could concentrate on winning games at home for the most part and then hopefully grabbing some results on the road in the Big Ten. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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