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NCAA MEN'S 1ST AND 2ND ROUNDS: SAN JOSEMarch 21, 2019Khalil IversonD'Metrik TriceEthan HappSan Jose, California MODERATOR: We welcome the Wisconsin student-athletes to the dais. We have D'Mitrik Trice, Khalil Iverson, and Ethan Happ. Q. Ethan, what have you seen in Oregon's alignment with 4-6-9 guys playing and how does that impact the way they play, especially defensively? ETHAN HAPP: Obviously they have a lot of length, which is tough for any team to deal with, and then boxing out and crashing the boards and things like that that they like to do, but for us offensively we just have to stay poised. And that's really the biggest thing for us, is to remain calm and collected. Even though their length, they might get a few, but they can't get more than that. Q. Ethan, did you redshirt the year they played Oregon? ETHAN HAPP: Yes. Q. You remember kind of that matchup there? And when you came in here, did you know you would sit out a redshirt year? Is that something that kind of came up throughout that year? ETHAN HAPP: I kind of remember the game, but I couldn't really give you too many specific details off of that one. And then when I came in here, I was planning on playing right away, but obviously they didn't lose anyone in the front court from that Final Four run the year before, and I was looking at maybe playing eight, ten minutes a game or playing two games and not playing for a couple games. So that's not how I wanted to spend my first year in college, so that's why I ended up redshirting. Q. D'Metrik, Wisconsin is always known for playing sort of a slow, grind-it-out style. What do you like about that, and do you notice how it frustrates opponents a lot? D'MITRIK TRICE: Yeah, I definitely think that it's an advantage to us because a lot of teams, especially in the Pac-12, don't play our style of basketball. So it's going to be definitely different for them. As for us, we've seen teams that like to get up-and-down like Oregon does and has the length that they do. So I think it's an advantage to us that we like to slow the game down a little bit more. We know that we can't get rushed, and I think if we stick to our game plan, that we can come out with a win. Q. Redshirting that first year, that gave you the opportunity to come back. Can you take us through what the decision was like for you to come back, and has this been the year you'd hoped you'd have? ETHAN HAPP: I had a lot of things factor into coming back to school here. One of the big ones was I kind of wanted to start a new streak of going back to the NCAA Tournament after we had that lapse the previous year. So that's nice that we were able to get that done, but there were some things that we kind of left on the table this year that I came back hoping for a couple of Big Ten Championships tournament and during the season. But we can't do anything about that now and now it's just focused on winning game by game here in the tournament. Q. How about their inside guys, Ethan? They got Wooten who is kind of the shot blocker, and Okoro is the muscle guy. Some of the six-nine guys are more on the perimeter. You guys kind of have a match up there with Kenny and Francis. ETHAN HAPP: Yeah, we know they're real long and they're real bouncy, and we've played against similar types of guys throughout the Big Ten season. But like I said before, the biggest thing is just to remain poised, take your time around the interior and know that if we can use some pump fakes, extra pivots, whatever it may be, hopefully get them off balance and find ways to score against their length. Q. Ethan, you were on Pardon My Take last week, and Big Cat gave you some tips for your free throw shooting in the Big Ten Tournament. You went 0 for 1. Was Big Cat ultimately a distraction, and will you still continue to use that during the NCAA Tournament? ETHAN HAPP: No. I don't think he was a distraction. And I don't really think that I'll think about the interview too much throughout the rest of the tournament. And I didn't really think about it during the game either. But I don't believe that Big Cat is a distraction for us, no. Q. Khalil, they play a lot of matchup zone, the two-three matchup zone. Have you seen a lot of that kind of defense, or does it remind you of anyone? KHALIL IVERSON: We've definitely seen it. Doesn't really remind me of anyone, but we just know we have to get the ball to the middle of the zone and guys like Mit will knock it down if we kick it out to him. Us players on the inside have to finish inside over their length and just have to be paced, like Ethan said. That's it. Q. D'Metrik, the last eight, ten games Oregon has kind of slowed down. Numbers-wise, possessions-wise they're a little closer. Do you figure a team that -- they might be a team that's going to come in here and be content to kind of play kind of a grind-it-out game that you guys are used to? D'MITRIK TRICE: Honestly, I think for any team that plays us and the type of basketball we play, teams have to kind of conform to what we do and how we play our style of basketball. So I think that honestly they'll try to stick to what they do, which is getting up and down and getting easy baskets. But definitely playing a team like us, you gotta scout a little bit different. Q. Is there a team in the Big Ten that you think compares favorably to Oregon in terms of how they play? ETHAN HAPP: I would say style-wise, Illinois a little bit, how they -- Illinois likes to get up into you and pressure you and deny some of their entry passes. And then offensively they kind of play a similar style, too, where they put the big in the middle of the floor and kind of just run guys off of him and try and make plays that way. MODERATOR: Thanks, guys. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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