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NCAA MEN'S REGIONAL SEMIFINALS AND FINALS: NEW YORKMarch 23, 2017Greg GardBronson KoenigEthan HappNigel HayesNew York, New York THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening statement from coach and then take questions. GREG GARD: Thank you. Obviously, coming off last weekend, the exciting time for us and our players, our program in terms of how we performed last week. So, extremely excited to be here in New York. Actually it's our third time I think in the last 15, 16 months. So, looking forward to tomorrow. Obviously we're playing a really good Florida team as any time this -- you're still playing at this time of year, you've got an exceptional team, and Mike's done a great job there. So just happy for our guys, our four seniors that have been able to grow and mature throughout their year and still be playing at this time of year. So hopefully we got a lot more quality basketball left in us, with that I'll take any questions you got. THE MODERATOR: Questions? Q. I know any win at this time of year is big, but could you talk about beating the defending national champs and if that had any special meaning to you guys. GREG GARD: Well, obviously the program that Jay's built there and what they have done obviously last year specifically is terrific. And they had a great year. We never talked about in preparation for Villanova, about playing the defending national champion. We just talked about playing a really good team. And that we were going to have to play really well in order to have a chance in that game. So, we don't get caught up too much, I don't make any big deal of the seeds. When we got put as an 8, it really didn't matter. Knowing after having been a 1, having been a 2, all the way down to a 12, in our time at Wisconsin, that you just have to go play the game. And play well for that 40 minutes. And really what has happened in the past, whether for the opponent or yourself, is irrelevant to that 40 minutes that you're going to play. So, we played really well, made some plays down the stretch, and were able to beat, obviously, a very, very good team. Q. I think 13 of the 16 coaches left have never won the tournament. Only three of them have. What does that say about the opportunity for those coaches to win. And a lot of great coaches like yourself, Mark Few, Scott Drew, Huggins, the opportunity for those coaches and just how tough it is to win the tournament. GREG GARD: Well I think that's -- your last statement there, sentence, is that the most important one, it's really hard. Obviously I'm at the very beginning and those other guys you mentioned have been doing this a long time. And there's been a lot of very good coaches that haven't won the whole thing, because you have to have a lot of things go your way, you have to be playing exceptionally well, you have to get some breaks along the way, you have to stay healthy. You can go on and on and on about all the obstacles you have to overcome. So, I don't, and you have very good teams and coaches that have terrific years that don't get to a Final Four and that point where you can play for a National Championship. So, it's very hard to do. I know that having been a part of two Final Four teams and also been a part of National Championship teams at the Division III level in Platteville, you can have very good teams that something goes wrong along the way and you don't get there. Q. Could you address the issue, you followed a Wisconsin legend in Bo Ryan, and certainly Mike White has done the same at Florida. Could you talk about how maybe it might be a little bit easier in any way having spent 23 years on a bench with Bo Ryan, 15 at Wisconsin, before you took the job as opposed to coming from somewhere else. And as a follow-up, could you talk about the advantage, if you feel it is one, having 69 combined games amongst your starters in the NCAA versus Florida who has only one starter with any NCAA experience coming into this year. GREG GARD: Well, I think the answer to your second part first, you get to this point in time in the season and really you can throw a lot of that out. Because they have been in big games, we have been in big games. They have obviously been in two tournament games to get to this point, so I think sometimes there's more made of that experience than necessarily applies, because you get -- now we're to our 35th, 36th, whatever game of the year, 37th. They have been in a lot of those environments, as has Florida. So in regards to our two positions with Mike, I think the one thing that I've tried to do is just be myself and not try to compare and contrast what Coach Ryan did or how did he it. Obviously, I had great legend and a great mentor for a long time, almost a quarter century. So I learned a lot along the way. But one thing I've also learned is that you have to be comfortable in your own skin and I think Mike has probably would have -- that would apply to Mike, too. For as a terrific a job as Billy did there, Mike had to come in and be his own person. And obviously we're a little different track in terms of how we got to where we are, but I think the one thing you keep in mind, is you take all the exceptional teaching and learning that you've got from whatever mentor you have and obviously Bo has been mine, primarily, and you apply that. But at the same time you have to not forget who you are and even though terminology may be the same, we have tweaked some things, a lot of it has remained the same. You still have to do what you feel comfortable with and what you feel is best for you and your team. So, I give Mike a lot of credit, because that's -- it's not an easy position to walk into in either case. But I think Mike, from what I've noticed, from a far, is that he stayed pretty true to himself and not worried about whose shoes he had to fill; it was just trying to do the best thing for his team and his players and his university and doing things that he's comfortable with and we have tried to do the same thing. Q. Can you, is there anything you can -- you said it's kind of a played out story line, but that's what we do, we kind of play it out. Can you, is there anything that you can take from the fact that I think that Nigel and Bronson are playing their 14th NCAA game? GREG GARD: Well it means they have had a lot of success at Wisconsin. They played with a lot of really good teammates, they had great role models in front of them. Obviously the two Final Four teams that they came in and were a part of as a freshman and sophomore are -- they kind of walked into college basketball utopia. They went through a probably abnormal track in terms of a college student-athlete, of walking into two teams that were back-to-back years with having that much success. So, they saw the pinnacle of it and they have also learned in the last two years how to grind and strain and work through adversity maybe when things weren't going quite as smoothly as those two years, specifically the 2015 year. So they have seen both of it. Both sides of it. Usually it works the other way, in terms of you have to grind and strain and then you see the pinnacle as you close out your career. But they were obviously, like I said, with two very good classes ahead of them that did things the right way and worked their way through our program. And being around a national Player of the Year, I think they saw the dedication that a Frank Kaminsky and the commitment that he made to make himself into the player that he was. So there's benefits of that. But you also, watching it is one thing, and seeing your teammate go through it is one thing; having to actually have your hands on the wheel yourself as a leader in the locker room is a little different. And those two guys specifically have had to learn a different role over the last two years of that leadership quality. Q. To follow up that question, when it comes to Nigel and Bronson, being that this is their last go around and they have been deep in the tournament a few times now, do you find that they're coming in this one with a different urgency being it's the last go around? GREG GARD: Well I think any time seniors see the hands of time ticking a little bit that they have a sense of urgency, whether you go deep into the tournament or not. I think you get that sense as you come down and close out the regular season, that it's the last home game, the last road trip, senior day, all those type of things that come into play as a senior walks that walk. I think that their sense of urgency at this time of year always gets heightened, everybody does. And I think as you know you have to play really well for 40 minutes or you pack up the uniforms and for them, you pack them away for their career at Wisconsin. So, they have kept things in perspective, I think they have approached it the right way. But I don't know if they have any more sense of urgency than any other senior class I've seen come through. They have just been apart of a lot of success and have had a huge hand in what we have done over the last four years. But they have taken the steps that I think you see any seniors take. They know it's, there's not a lot of time left regardless of how far you go. Maximum they will have four games left. Maximum. Anywhere from one to four is what they have left. And they have tried to take advantage of every opportunity that they have here in the -- as the regular season wound down, and then as we got into post-season. They have done a good job of helping lead our younger guys. Q. You talked about your seniors. This is the sixth time in seven years that Wisconsin's in the Sweet 16. So what is that like just to have that much consistency, especially when it's so tough to get to this point? GREG GARD: You have to be playing some of your best basketball late. I think having upperclassmen as our program is predominantly been in that position, where we have relied on upperclassmen leadership. Sometimes it's you have star power in that upperclassmen leadership; sometimes it's just a matter of guys that have had experience. So, you draw on that, you have to play well. You can't afford an eight or 10 minute stretch of inconsistent basketball. I think our guys have handled that the right way. We have tried to keep things in perspective, too. I don't try to overstimulate this time of year in terms of what we're going into or what's at stake. They understand. They grow up around it, they watched it their whole lives, they have been in it before. I don't need to throw fuel on the fire, so to speak, of what this time of year's about. Let them enjoy it, play well, and try to continue to March on. Q. Having two post players as skilled as Hayes and Happ, how is it to your advantage and how have they learned to play off one another through the course of the season? GREG GARD: Well they have each learned a little different course. Not only this year, but through their careers. Hayes started in the post, as a freshman and sophomore, and then kind of worked out the wing as a Junior and somewhat as a senior, now is kind of doing both. Ethan's a guy that grew a little later in life in terms of he was a guard primarily in high school, specifically his freshman and sophomore year, and then hit a growth spurt. So they have each kind of developed into the player they are in a different way. They both have had to grow through things this year. So, advantage disadvantage, what they have -- they just have to continue to use the experiences they have had thus far to this point. There's not a whole lot they haven't seen. They have seen double teams, they have seen specifically basketball-specific, they both have gotten better. I think that's, as the year's gone on. And obviously through their careers, but specifically I think they have both have improved as the season has gone on and both are very willing passers. I think they both make their teammates around them better. They're both very unselfish, sometimes too unselfish, to a degree. But they both have understood the impact they can have and how they can improve our team and help our team just by their facilitation of basketball and their vision. And obviously Nigel's in more of a leadership role than Ethan is, but both have done a very good job as the season has gone on. The main thing is that they improved. They had to improve for us to get to this point and they have taken some steps forward for us. Q. Going back to Mike making it his program, I know there's not a lot of history between these teams, but you did play them when Billy was there. What's the stamp you see that Mike has put on this team and this program as you scout them this week? GREG GARD: Personnel-wise the three guards really jump out, especially how Chiozza has played here in the last week or 10 days or. So been very impressed with the back court. Obviously to be able to overcome an injury, midway through the conference season with the big kid getting hurt, Egbunu, is that how you see it? Okay. You know, I thought he really watching games earlier in the year was a force inside and what Hayes has been able to did and Leon's been able to do and other guys that have helped them off the bench, I think Gak has helped them here recently, you know it starts when you have good guard play have you a chance and his back court is really, really good. So that puts you in position on both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively, starts with what Allen, Hill, and Chiozza. So, very impressed with them on film. And obviously the only teams that are left right now are ones that are really good, so I think he's done a really good job of maximizing what they're good at and what his individuals are really good at. He's put them in position as any good coach would do, to have success and try to maximize their abilities, which they have definitely taken advantage of the position he's put them in. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you, coach. We'll take questions for the student-athletes. Q. Bronson, you hit some big shots in March over the last three years. Was there a certain point in your career where you felt comfortable in those situations whether here or going back to high school? BRONSON KOENIG: I can't really put my finger on exactly when, but just watching guys before me Traevon Jackson hit a bunch of tough shots. Taylor too, obviously playing with Frank Kaminsky, Sam Dekker, those guys, and then my confidence just kind of grew year after year to take those shots. Q. Nigel, could you talk about your mindset before you beat Villanova, because you were not really given much of a chance by the so called experts. Did that put a little more chip on your shoulder when you faced them and also what did that win over the national champs mean? Did it mean any extra to you? NIGEL HAYES: One, no, we don't have any extra chips, we just want to win the game. We just want to win. We have the same goal every other team in this tournament has and we came out and fortunately we won the game before and we had another opportunity to play and win. And as far as taking down Villanova, they weren't the national champs, because the national champ hasn't won yet. They won last year. They're chasing the same thing that we were chasing. So, it was just another win, we know that we have another good team to face, there's nothing going to be but good and great teams from here on out. So we just have to come with the same focused mindset playing smart, playing together, playing hard, leaving it all out there and hopefully it's enough to win. Q. For you and Bronson, does your coach ever give you guys grief about being so socially active and how does he deal with that and also from your point of view, how important is it to both of you that you use the game as a tool for something more than just your on means? BRONSON KOENIG: To answer your first question, Coach Gard has always supported Nigel and I both in our stances and our activism and everything like that and he tells us if he needs us for him to do anything for us, then he's therefore us. So he's been great through it all. I don't know, I kind of realize that I have a voice, especially in the Native American community, and my mother has always kind of pushed me to be that role model and to use my voice, so I'm just doing what I think is right. NIGEL HAYES: Everything is correct he said about Coach Gard and as far as what made us want to do it is just knowing that have you an impact you have a platform, you have a stage, you have a voice, you have the ability to change a lot of lives or bring change to a lot of situations in life based on your voice, based on the things you say and do and just knowing that basketball is a small part of our lives and we can use it as a vehicle to go through our life and make it a better place. Q. When you walked in the doors at Madison, could you have imagined playing in at least 14 games in the NCAA Tournament and do you think that can be a advantage for you guys, Florida's only had one guy before this year that had played in the tournament. NIGEL HAYES: No, to be honest, no, I didn't think that I would have the amount of success that we have had. We knew we had the potential to be good, but potential is one thing, actually doing it is another. And as far as experience goes, I think it helps in some situation, especially when the game gets tough, but at the end of the day its about whichever players on the team step up and make those plays, so we just want to make sure that we're the ones that make those plays and hopefully that experience allows us to make them a little bit better. BRONSON KOENIG: Coming in, I didn't really know what to expect. Coach Ryan told me before I came that with everybody coming in and everything, everyone they had at that time that we could win a National Championship and obviously making it to back-to-back Final Fours was a pretty special thing. And I didn't really expect that. But all the experience I think is definitely going to help us and has helped us just not be nervous and jittery and all that kind of stuff. Every team is the first game, but everybody's good right now and everybody's going to come ready to play, so, yeah. Q. Two seniors, does this run feel different just because it's the last one? BRONSON KOENIG: Every run feels different, every season has its own adversity and I feel like our class and our team over the past couple years has faced dang near any adversity that a team could possible face with a coaching change and a lot of other things as well. So, this one definitely feels a little different and obviously being our last run we want it make the most of it and we want to just come out with the same mindset we did the first two games with nothing to lose and just go out there and have fun, really. NIGEL HAYES: Yeah, just kind of reiterate everything he just said. Just knowing that it's the last one that it can be over and you just want to make sure you go out and don't leave a bad taste in your mouth, make sure obviously that's what you preach all the time, but it just means a little bit more knowing that it actually will be your last, so you leave everything out there that you can and you want to make sure that you put your best foot forward and we don't speak about negative things. Yeah, so we just want to come out and make sure we do what we can to try and win. Q. Ethan, the size and physicality inside playing alongside Nigel, how have you used that to your advantage this team's used it to its advantage this year and how can you use it to your advantage on Friday night? ETHAN HAPP: First of all -- hello? Hello? First off, thank you for the pity question. (Laughter.) Secondly, I think that if they pressure the wings and they give us one-on-one in the post, Nigel and I like our chances in isolation. Regardless of who we're playing. Q. Ethan, I don't know how much, I don't know if you even have seen one like of film on Florida when I Egbunu was in there, if you have, how much does your perception of Florida's interior change without him there? ETHAN HAPP: Thank you again for asking me a question. And I think from what our coach has told us that he was a lock down post defender and I haven't seen any film on him specifically, but obviously any time you can get someone like that out of their lineup it helps us. But it's not like they drop off much after him, so they still got some guys on the interior that play really well. Q. Ethan, three in a row for you. The one game that you guys played at the Garden this year against Rutgers you had a big day, it was a pro-Wisconsin crowd, can you take anything away from having been in this building once before this season? ETHAN HAPP: Not especially, no. Hopefully, we shoot better than we did in that game. And our guys are, it's not like we're in awe of Madison Square Garden any more after being here last year for two games and playing here once this year. So hopefully it's just like another arena to us. Q. Ethan, stick with you again, but I'll ask you a question about the seniors. How have they impacted you on and off the court? ETHAN HAPP: Again? Oh. I mean, they have all four of them have really helped me out on the court, obviously. Especially starting from last year. My play was pretty poor and it just kept getting better as the season went on and that's big thanks to these guys for taking me through even when I had bad games and good games and telling me what I should and shouldn't be doing. But off the court, I mean they have I think I'm closest with this group of guys, so I think that's something special as well, especially Vitto, who is not up here right now, but so they have helped me a lot grow and grow in a lot of on and off the court. Q. Ethan, and for all you guys, too, there's so many positions in college basketball that are interchangeable now. You got so many teams with like 18, six-six guys and you really have to me like an old school team that where positions are defined, you got a real big man you got guards who play guards and big players who play down low. Do you sense that, do you even think about it, do you think of yourself as an old school team or is this just the offense that you came to run and believe in? ETHAN HAPP: I don't see it as that where -- I mean outsiders might see it as an old school team -- but Nigel's a very versatile player, can play on the wing and in the post. And I think, I like to think that my ball handling ability isn't like a typical big guy. And Bronson has been in the post a couple times this year. So with the offense that we run, I like to think that we have guys that they get in a lot of different spots in a lot of different ways. NIGEL HAYES: We kind of have interchangeable parts. We run the swing offense, so at any given time Bronson will be in the post, Ethan will be up top with the ball. So we all have the skills necessary. And if you watch a Wisconsin practice you'll see the whole gym is doing posts dribbling moves and doing shooting and so we all have the skills and capabilities that, when the going gets tough, obviously we're going to go to what we're going to do, he's going to go shoot threes, we're going to go down low and impose our Will, but we can do a little bit of everything, we try to be as versatile as we can. THE MODERATOR: Bronson, final thought on that one? BRONSON KOENIG: No, not really. Q. Nigel, in terms of the half spin move that you had against Nova at the end there, were you working on that with Jim Spanarkel out on the court before you left there and do you remember just watching videotape of the Jordan move or is that something that somebody brought up to you at some point? NIGEL HAYES: Well, we were wanted to recreate what he actually did, so I think it occurred in the garden, against the Knicks and we were just talking about what he did compared to what I did and we just kind of walked through it to relive the play and as far as that I've seen, some film I watched a lot of old school film. My stepfather always told me to watch the old school guys and see what they do, because there's obviously nothing is new under the sun, everything will be copied whether it's basketball or any other aspect in life, and the play it kind just happened, as I said, it obviously wasn't as glamorous as what he did, but nonetheless, it was still effective. THE MODERATOR: All right. Thank you, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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