NATIONAL INVITATION TOURNAMENT: NORTH TEXAS VS WISCONSIN

March 28, 2023

Greg Gard

Tyler Wahl

Chucky Hepburn

Orleans Arena

Wisconsin Badgers

Semi Finals Postgame Press Conference

North Texas 56, Wisconsin 54

GREG GARD: First of all, congrats to North Texas. Obviously they have had a terrific year and get to keep playing.

In terms of the game, I thought it was a tail of two halves. I thought we were really good offensively the first half. Second half, I thought they got up into us a little bit with some pressure. We turned the ball over early, gave them some momentum and they got some confidence going. Then obviously a tail of two halves in terms of offensively, shots not going in, or us turning the ball over, gave them momentum, and they made some plays and made some shots.

We figured it was going to be a lower possession game, and it was going to be like that. But this group has been through a lot this year and as I told them, I'm really proud of how they have continued to battle and face adversity. We faced more than our share of it, and this will help them not only as they go forward in their basketball careers but what they -- who they are as people.

I don't know if I've been in a locker room that has had that much adversity, but yet never showed one ounce of fracturing or individualism. They continue to come to work every day and gave us every single thing they have had, and that just is credit to the character of the people that are in the locker room, obviously with these two guys with Chucky and Tyler helping lead the way.

Q. Can you walk us through what you had hoped to get coming out of that time-out, what you were trying to get done on that play?

GREG GARD: Yeah, there was multiple options. We had Connor coming off a little rub-screen at the top. Chucky was screening Tyler into the post on the back side, and then Steve was cleaning up Chucky at the top.

Yeah, I think they took away Connor coming to the baseline, that area, and we were able to get to Chucky; and Chucky saw guys run at him, and then was able to get to Steve. Probably one pass too many. Needed to get the ball up on the rim.

Q. I don't know if you thought that you couldn't get it on the rim and couldn't pass it to Steven. Could you walk us through the last couple seconds of that play?

TYLER WAHL: Yeah, I got it dumped off to me. I feel like me and Steve were pretty close to each other, looking back at it now, I probably should have just put it up but I dished it off and turned it over.

Q. Did they switch anything up on you after you got off to the hot start?

CHUCKY HEPBURN: No, I don't think they switched up on me. I think they just stayed on me. In the first half they just lost me a couple times. In the second half, I don't think they lost me.

Q. Do you think you guys got a little tentative when they did get up on you in the second half?

GREG GARD: When the ball is not going in, it has a tendency to do that. I thought we were aggressive in doing some good things and between like I said some turnovers that got us out of rhythm and then we had some good looks, too, both in the paint and from the perimeter.

So the inability to keep our momentum going offensively, obviously I'm sure created some tentativeness, but it's more a credit to them. I think they dialed up a little bit more ball pressure in the second half and didn't let us be as free and easy as maybe we were in the first half.

Q. I know this is not the way you guys want to end your season. What do you take away from this season that you hope can be lessons learned that you can put to good use next year?

CHUCKY HEPBURN: For the most part we're all young players. Most of our guys are first-year players playing here at Wisconsin, so it's just learning experience. Hopefully next year we come in with more experience and more grit, and that's what's going to give us confidence going into next year.

TYLER WAHL: I think something we take away is the guys in that locker room, we could have had many opportunities where we fell apart. And then, I just I feel like we know what we're going to get with the guys who are in there.

Q. You saw on the film they defend late into the shot clock pretty often. How is it to create things when the first, second option wasn't really there?

GREG GARD: I'll go through the tape. But I thought we got -- we moved the ball pretty well for the most part. We had the ball into good position whether it was dribble penetration, post-play. We had some good looks from the perimeter, too.

You know, I'll go through and grade all those, but I think we just -- I think the biggest thing was the turnovers that gave them just momentum, and it increased their aggressiveness even more, and we were able to capitalize and put them on their heels and counter back with making plays.

Q. Offense was a season-long struggle for you. You've talked about being active in the portal. Is that a need, finding more scoring?

GREG GARD: We'll address those things as we go forward. Not into that right now.

Q. The team has talked throughout this run about the positives that you've drawn from this. Does the way it ended this way change anything about that?

TYLER WAHL: I just I feel like the way it ended was kind of a cap to how the season went. We get some good things going, and then something happens and it's a step backwards, take a few steps forwards, take a few steps backwards. So, yeah, that's just kind of how it went.