|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 9, 2012Jared BerggrenBo RyanJordan TaylorRob WilsonINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA Wisconsin – 79 MODERATOR: Let's start with the coach giving an opening statement then go to questions for the student‑athletes. Coach? COACH RYAN: Well, needless to say we had a player that was in the zone and teammates found him he worked hard to get open. And I think Rob Wilson's the story of the game as far as our offense end goes. And defensively, we did just enough to get by. But I think Rob has really stepped into his own here at the end of the year, and I know his teammates are thankful. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Rob, how often have you been in the interview room before and when is the last time‑‑ I know you haven't had this kind of game in college before, but when is the last time you had a game like this in your life? ROB WILSON: High school maybe. I don't recall having‑‑ I mean the weight of the ball felt like it was going in today. I don't remember that feeling in a long time. I don't know the last time I've been in the interview room. Q. Rob, as you're heating up like that, what are your teammates saying to you as you're just getting more and more successful from the 3‑point line? ROB WILSON: They saying the same thing they always been telling me. Just be confident and always look to be aggressive. Q. Rob, at the end of your career, to have a game like this, what's it mean to you right now? What are your emotions right now? ROB WILSON: Right now it's a good feeling that we get to play another game in the tournament. And we get to go against a team that we failed to earlier this year to prove something. Q. Jordan, a couple things I think you've said maybe even last year that Rob has, some things maybe not to this level, but are you surprised by anything you saw today? And then the second, part can you talk about the intentional foul call? What happened on that? JORDAN TAYLOR: No. I think I meant to this level, I think Rob is‑‑ he's a scorer. He can put it in the hole and he showed that tonight. But it's something he's been doing here recently now, and I'm just happy for him. I'm so happy, I wish I had 30, because the most important thing, we got the win. And the intentional foul, I just thought‑‑ I was just trying to get back in front of him and I guess I grabbed him, so it was an easy call. Q. Jordan, you're kind of struggling there a little bit in the first half. How important was it for Rob to pick you up like that? And also how much better is this team with Rob performing like this this late in the year? JORDAN TAYLOR: Yeah, it was definitely huge for Rob to step up like that. That's what coach talks about a lot. When a teammate is down, you gotta pick him up, and I think everybody really buys into that. And as far as being a better team, what he's doing now, I think we're infinitesimally times better. Obviously teams are going to prepare for guys who are‑‑ with the higher averages, but when you get a guy like Rob who may not‑‑ kind of like a sleeper. We know what he can do but they might not, and you come in and he made 'em pay today. Q. For Jared and Rob. Back‑to‑back possessions where one fed one guy and the other fed the other guy, could you take us back to those plays and what did you see in each of those plays that you fed each other for hoops? THE MODERATOR: Jared, start with you. JARED BERGGREN: The first one, I think I got a touch on the block and started to make a move, and I saw Rob cut to the basket, found him open, and I think he pumped back and had a good finish, though. That was good. And then on the second one, I had a little kind of wing screen action with Jordan going. And first time, I think it might have been there, too, and Jordan kind of told me, he's like, run to the rim. And then second time he went and set the screen, he just yelled, read it. And then I read it, Rob came over the top, I ran to the rim, had an open pass, Rob found me, and a couple big plays there. THE MODERATOR: Rob, your thoughts. ROB WILSON: Just like going off what Jared just said. He had the ball in the post on the first, the plays you guys talking about, I just cut to the rim, consistent movement. And Jared's a good passer, and he found me. On the second play, Jared set the screen. He just made himself big and no one was on him so I just found him. THE MODERATOR: Other questions? Q. Guys, Jared, Jordan, at what point did you notice Rob was really in the zone and really going to stay and he wasn't going to miss? THE MODERATOR: Jordan, start with you. JORDAN TAYLOR: Just I think he hit two threes in a row there from the top of the key, and I think on the second one, it was kind of like‑‑ he's got it going, especially there in the second half. But like I said, we know Rob can do that. I've seen him get hot, maybe not in the game to this point, but in open gym, other stuff like that. We're with each other 45 weeks out of the year, so I've seen Rob get hot before and it definitely wasn't surprising. THE MODERATOR: Jared. JARED BERGGREN: I don't know if I can pinpoint a specific point where I knew that he was hot, but you could definitely feel it and you could see the confidence in him and it was good. And, I mean, he's been doing this in practice, in these last few games, and he's really been coming on for us. I can't honestly say I expected him to have 30 before the game. I knew he was capable of putting up good numbers, so it was fun to see. Q. Rob, knowing how well you've played this second half of February and obviously now into March, knowing your career with Wisconsin is coming to an end, is there any active change? Are you saying I'm going to go out with a bang or anything like that? ROB WILSON: Yeah. You always want to go out with a bank, but it's that time of the year when every team in the country steps it up and every player steps it up because it's tournament time. So that's what I did, stepped up as a senior's supposed to. Q. Coach Ryan, you had a‑‑ THE MODERATOR: Just student‑athletes right now. Q. For Jared and Jordan, you've all alluded to the defense did just enough to get by. How tough is it to defend against Indiana? But also there were two blocks. Jared, you had one on the jumper, and I think Ryan had one as well. Those turned out to be key plays. JARED BERGGREN: Both those turned out to be pretty big plays. They were kind of chipping away at our lead and trying to make a comeback, so any time you can get a stop when they're trying to get a little momentum going, trying to get the crowd back into it, things like that, both of them are big. And I thought we gave up a little more points than we normally do, a little higher scoring game than what we are really used to playing in, so defensive effort wasn't great, but like you said, it was enough to get by. JORDAN TAYLOR: Jared pretty much said it. They did a great job of just keep fighting back. And every time we kind of pushed our lead up, they just went to getting it right back down to two or three or whatever it was. And we just did a good enough job, like Coach said, to withstand their runs. THE MODERATOR: Got time for one more, if there was one. Thanks, fellas. You may return to the locker room. Questions for Coach Ryan? Q. Bo, can you honestly say you saw that coming from Rob? COACH RYAN: Pardon me? Q. Can you honestly say you saw that coming or anything close to that coming from Rob Wilson? COACH RYAN: You know, he's had some streaks on the scalp team. Last year we probably should have red‑shirted him with the hamstring injury, but he kept battling through it. And because he couldn't do some of the things that that he wanted to do, I think he withdrew internally somewhat about the aggressiveness to getting minutes and getting on the floor. So sometimes other guys come in and they're performing better. Josh Gasser, hard to get him to the bench, hard to take his minutes away. It's a competitive world. So what happened was we started talking about the clock ticking one day in the locker room, and I should have used the term sooner. But with the assistance and talking about it, it's like ever since‑‑ and he realized, hey, yeah, this is it. So is that what it takes to‑‑ no, you still have to put the ball in the basket. I mean, there are a lot of guys who can give‑‑ go out there and run around and really hustle and will do this or that. But in order to execute, that's something that comes from within. He believes every shot he takes is going to go in. We've got some guys on our team that don't believe that. They try to get us to believe it, but if they played defense, hustle rebound, things like that, guys can play for us. But Rob is one of those guys where in streaks, he has done this in practice at times. But did I see 30? No. But I've known some guys that got lucky for one night. THE MODERATOR: Other questions? COACH RYAN: But I don't think that was luck. I wasn't finished. THE MODERATOR: I'm sorry. COACH RYAN: But that wasn't luck. I mean, you look at those shots, he was open. His teammates got him the ball. He was squared up. I think he might have forced one shot, one shot that might not have been a solid follow‑through finish‑type of shot, round the basket or from 3‑point range. And if you want to write down that I should have been playing him more sooner, feel free. Where were you earlier to say: Hey, how come? But we sure enjoy having him and he's worked so hard. His mom was so proud for Senior Day. First in the family. He's going to get his degree this end of the spring. It's pretty good stuff. So but we gotta play tomorrow. We got another 40 minutes. So hopefully he has a lot more in him. Okay. That's it for Rob. Q. Wisconsin has struggled in the tournament in the last couple of years. I know you're not thinking about the past; you're thinking about this year but‑‑ COACH RYAN: Where were you between '04 and '08? Were you doing your job here? Q. In the past couple years. COACH RYAN: Oh, okay. Bad timing. Q. But does that makes it extra gratifying to be getting a strong start this year? COACH RYAN: I think we beat a good team. I think we came into a tough environment I think for our guys. You have always want your guys to play as many games as they can. So we didn't even talk about '08, '09 or '10 and ‑‑ we just prepared for Indiana. So I can't say that it's any different. Feels good, but that will die off. And we got a tough one tomorrow. THE MODERATOR: Other questions? Q. For those of us who don't follow your program, could you talk a little bit more Rob, just the kind of kid he is, what he's gone through in his time at Wisconsin, just who he is because he's very quiet. COACH RYAN: He is quiet, but, boy, he works. He's always done everything we've asked. You know, as we grow as human beings, there's just certain times in our lives where maybe things click. I've seen it happen to so many young people. Whether it's on a basketball court or in the classroom or for people socially, they become‑‑ they mature a lot. I always think of that cheese that doesn't get passed because it hasn't matured. People mature at different stages and things click at different stages. I'm just glad that this is his stage. And his teammates really appreciate that, too, because there's no one who dislikes Rob Wilson. No one. Q. In addition to Wilson's second‑half scoring, at halftime, what did you tell the guys would be the key to victory ‑‑ not the key to victory, but the key to sustaining the lead the second half, playing on what was essentially home court advantage for IU? COACH RYAN: Well, we've been pretty good on the road so I wasn't concerned about that. Our guys had confidence away from the Kohl Center. Not overconfident that's for sure. But they believe they can get things done. We just needed to do a better job of‑‑ we had three turnovers in the first half, and two of them were shot clock violations, not because we were intentionally taking it down, but the ball got tipped away. And so while the ball was rolling on the ground, especially on one of them, it gets off in the corner and then we don't get a chance to get a shot. So we were talking about making sure we got a good shot whenever it appeared, 25 seconds on the shot clock, ten, 30. If it's a good shot, we're not knocking it down. So we reminded them of that. And then defensively to try to keep the ball out of the post. Zeller has improved so much, and I thought we did a good job of making them work, which if you make somebody work on offense, they're not as good defensively. Or at least we've seen that a lot of times with bigs. So that's what we talked about at halftime, just try to keep it out of post and take away dribble drives. We must have been‑‑ when I look at the DVD, I'm sure there were fouls so‑‑ or they wouldn't have called them. But I think we were half a step behind on several of them. If we could have just gotten our bodies over there a little bit quicker, we could have done a better job with their penetration. Q. Coach, when you‑‑ in the game in Madison, I think you guys made four 3s. You made 13 today. Was it a more of a point of emphasis? Were the shots just there? COACH RYAN: No, shots were there. I mean, that's what we got. Those were the looks. I thought our guys moved the ball extremely well. Wasn't that Indiana wasn't playing good defense. I just thought we made the extra pass several times. And I thought guys spaced better than we had in some games. And I think that allowed for open looks. Q. Some criticize the Wisconsin style. Do games like today answer that criticism or how do you‑‑ COACH RYAN: I never heard anybody. Q. Can you just talk about what Bud Foster has meant to the Wisconsin program?  I know that obviously you passed him in wins today, not about that achievement, but what he meant to this program. COACH RYAN: Well, he won a national championship. There are schools that don't have any. A lot of schools. Wisconsin has one. And that team he had was pretty good. I had a chance to meet some of those guys and I had a chance to meet Coach Foster. A gentleman, first class, a guy you definitely would want to play for. Stuck up for his players. And obviously did a pretty good job because he lasted 20‑some years in the Big Ten, and that's hard to do. Even back then. He's a good man. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|