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NCAA MEN'S 1ST & 2ND ROUNDS: JACKSONVILLEMarch 19, 2010Noah DahlmanJamar DiggsTim JohnsonMike YoungJACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA Wisconsin – 53 THE MODERATOR: Coach, if you could give us an opening statement about the game, we'll get some questions for your players and then questions for you last. COACH YOUNG: Well, I applaud both teams. I applaud Wisconsin and Coach Ryan. I've admired his programs from Platteville, Milwaukee, to Madison for years. They are very good, as always. And I applaud my team. I thought just a classic basketball game, and the thing played out about the way I had hoped, other than us not winning it. But low scoring and kind of a boxing match, and they hit us with one there late or a couple there late that got them over the top. But I'm tickled to death with my team and their toughness and their willingness to play the right way every time-out. That's what they do. Q. I was wondering, Jamar, could you talk just a little bit about what you felt like turned the game from a first half where you guys couldn't get anything going offensively to a second half where you hit eight straight field goals to start it? JAMAR DIGGS: I think at halftime, we just talked about each other, kind of a team meeting, because we realized in the first half we weren't ourselves. I don't know if the moment got too big for us or we were kind of shell shocked. We were just out there. We came in the locker room and said, let's go out here and just have some fun. That's what we've been doing all year. The beginning of the second half and the second half we were just out there having fun playing the way we like to play. Q. Noah, could you talk a little bit about what it feels like, how difficult it is to get that close and then not be able to finish it off? NOAH DALMAN: I mean, it's a tough one to swallow. You look up at the score board, we're up one, under three minutes to go, I think, and you've been in that situation before, rattled off 13 straight victories, you think you've got it. Complete confidence in my teammates, the coaching staff, and so close. A few balls didn't bounce our way, hit the offensive boards hard, a few box-outs missed, and that's what happens. That's why this is a great tournament. Everybody has a shot, and we had a great shot to win the game. Q. This was your first time at the tournament. Can you just -- how did it feel to start, and did it take you guys a while to finally settle in a little bit? TIM JOHNSON: Absolutely. You know, a lot of our guys have never been here before, but like Jamar was saying, we came out in the second half more prepared to be ourselves. JAMAR DIGGS: I think we were excited to be here, first time for our school, first time for everybody on our team. But we also had the mindset that we wanted to win the game. We just didn't come to this tournament just to show up, be happy and that's it. We wanted to win the game. Like I said, early in that first half I guess we were kind of shell shocked. But going into that second half we just started playing. Like Noah said, we rattled off 13 wins, and we've been in these situations before. You feel like you've got it, but they just made a couple more plays at the end. THE MODERATOR: Guys, you're excused. Thank you very much. Questions for Head Coach Mike Young? Q. Coach, could you talk about defensively what they did in the last four minutes to kind of take you out of what you wanted to do, and also, how much of it was you got what you wanted and just weren't able to execute? COACH YOUNG: You know, we've run that action so much in the second half, you know, maybe let it break down and made a couple more decisions as opposed to hanging in there with it, sending another ball screen up and get a great shot. But you know, that's the Wisconsin Badgers. They kind of stiffened up there during the last four minutes, as we knew they would do. We probably didn't handle a couple things very well. But we got to the foul line. I wish we would have done better when we got there. Continued to get things that we wanted to get. I don't like Noah just getting six shots. That's a bad statistic for us, and I thought we had some other opportunities. But you know, they're big and they're physical, and Coach Ryan's teams have always been very good on the defensive end. Q. Jamar talked about being shell shocked coming in there at halftime. Did you have to talk to him to try and settle him down, or did they kind of take it upon themselves? COACH YOUNG: No, I thought we looked a little jittery. You know what, this has been the nicest group of fellows. They're the nicest guys. We had a couple of little spats in the huddle. Nothing bad, just missed a screen, we weren't ourselves. I thought we were a bit overwhelmed, and that is not this bunch. And I told them, just do it, guys. Just be yourselves and lay your ears back and play. You know, I'll deal with the consequences. Go play the game. And they certainly did that in the second half. We didn't play very well in the first half, but the Badgers had 27 first half points. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. You know, but I thought we were quick. I thought our shots were quick in the first half. Had a couple of turnovers that were out of character but got both ends squared away in the second half. We did more than give ourselves a chance to win. Q. Wisconsin had four turnovers; you had 11, including one very critical one at the end of the game. Was that the difference between winning and losing? COACH YOUNG: Ooh, certainly it's a big deal. As I said coming in, it's a tough match-up for us. They don't turn the ball over. I think they're number one in the country in turnovers per game. I would love to have played somebody that might chuck that thing around a little bit and maybe pinch off a couple of bad shots, but they're not going to do that. They're going to take a great shot and they're not going to turn it over. Four turnovers, that -- to hold that Wisconsin team to 37 percent from the field for the entire 40-minute period, to out rebound them, we gave them one heck of an effort, and we did obviously everything but win the dadgone game, everything. Q. Late in that last play there with Cameron, had the ball, lost the ball, was right in front of you, how did you see it? COACH YOUNG: I saw it Wofford ball. Tony Greene was the official on the baseline, and I think as much of Tony Greene as any human I know. That guy has called final games at Final Fours every year. I thought those guys did a whale of a job. I thought it was our ball. They didn't ask me my opinion, so Badger ball, you know, we've got a problem. THE MODERATOR: Coach, I think we're good. Thank you. 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