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NCAA MEN'S 2ND & 3RD ROUNDS: ALBUQUERQUEMarch 17, 2012Jared BerggrenBen BrustBo RyanJordan TaylorALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO Wisconsin – 60 THE MODERATOR: Coach, an opening statement, please. COACH RYAN: I'm just so proud of the effort that our guys gave, as you can imagine. I just sat back there and listened to questions about the look that Vanderbilt got. They beat us at that opportunity. That was a wide open shot as we gave up the whole game. It just didn't happen to go down. We're the beneficiaries of maybe a play here or there. But Kevin was right about the other thing. There were some loose balls, some 50‑50 balls, and we did get them, and that's a tribute to these guys. Q. Jordan, when did you think that you had a potential Sweet 16 team that you were leading? JORDAN TAYLOR: As soon as the season began. Last summer, before the season started, we knew we had coming in. We had a pretty balanced scoring attack. We felt like we had guys that could put the ball in the hole. Any time you lose guys like John and Keaton and Tim, it's going to look like you might not be much coming in next year, but I think that's a credit to Coach too. It seemed like year‑in and year‑out we lose guys but just replace them. Q. Jared, can you take us through your final offensive rebound and even the final sequence of the game there? JARED BERGGREN: I knew I was close to the end line there, so I was hoping I didn't come down on the line. I was a little nervous about that, I guess. I was able to come down with the ball. I was look to go either get a timeout or throw it off a defender behind me. Throw it to a teammate or something. They ended up getting a hand on it, knocking it out of bounds and they were lucky enough to retain possession. Q. If you can follow up, obviously your job was to stop that inbounds pass. What were you trying to do, just swat that ball there? JARED BERGGREN: Yeah, well, we knew they couldn't run. We knew they weren't going to throw anything short. Obviously, it had to be a long pass. Coach told me just keep my hands up, use my length, and just try to get a finger tip on it. I ended up pretty much getting my whole hand on it, getting the deflection and it was good. Q. Jordan, I think it's been only three teams have been to more NCAA Tournaments in consecutive years, yet you haven't been to the Final Four. Do you feel like this team still has something to prove on a national level? That you're an elite program? JORDAN TAYLOR: Yeah, I think every year we take the approach never satisfied. The beautiful thing about the NCAA Tournament is we're going to enjoy that win for about 45 minutes. Some guys might be done enjoying it already because we've got to get ready for a really good Syracuse team. But we're ready to go. We're enjoying our experience this year and just trying to make it last as long as we can, just trying to play hard every possession, every game. Q. Offensively you hadn't contributed much in recent games, today you did. What was the difference? Confidence in your shot and the ability to just take it? BEN BRUST: I've got great teammates. Jordan and Rob, their senior leadership has been key throughout the past couple weeks. They never gave up on me, and the whole team has confidence in each other. So we're just going to keep that going forward. Q. Jordan, I know it happens pretty fast, but what's going through your mind when Jenkins got that really good look there at the end? JORDAN TAYLOR: We were talking about it earlier. He's one of the best scorers in the country, one of the best shooters in the country. So when you see a guy get a look like that, your heart kind of drops. I know my mom already bought tickets to Boston, so I was hoping that it didn't go in. But Jared did a great job of recovering there and making it as difficult as possible. Ryan did a great job of checking out down low and securing the rebound. But it was definitely heart definitely stopped for a second there. Q. The late shot clock buckets that you made, especially late in the game, how much of that was by design to lull Vandy in? Or was it more of a case that you didn't have an opening until it was down to one second? JORDAN TAYLOR: It was just more of kind of an opening. But Coach said to me in the huddle you've got to step up as a senior and take that shot. I know I missed a few, but got one to go down, and obviously the one that's I missed, my teammate it's a great job. Josh with that huge offensive rebound at 16 seconds. I can't say enough about him. He was throwing up at 3:00 a.m. this morning, and he did a great job of just coming in. He dogged Jenkins as much as he could. That's why we're able to have the success we have because we have teammates like Josh. Q. I wanted to ask you about that last ten minutes. It seemed that you were looking for your shot. Was that something coach told you to do or did you just come in and see the opportunity? BEN BRUST: I think coming off the bench, Coach tells everyone to be ready. Just take advantage of the opportunities that were there. They were there today, and teammates found me and knocked them down. Q. You guys were talking about Vanderbilt's open look, but that three‑pointer you hit, was that as clean a look as you might have gotten? JORDAN TAYLOR: Yeah, I know Jared set a pretty good screen up top. I just tried to make a play, tried to make a shot. For the most part, I don't think anybody but Ryan shot the ball that great. It wasn't pretty, but we made just enough plays down the stretch to beat a really good team. We're proud of that win, and now we've got to get ready for Syracuse. THE MODERATOR: Questions for Coach Ryan. Q. Evans, another hot start. Can you talk about that keeping you going in the first half and that big rebound at the end? COACH RYAN: All of our players are opportunistic. We don't have a guy that we say, okay, the first five shots are going to be taken by this guy. We just don't have that, even when we had some players that are still playing at the next level. You just have to be ready to take what the defense gives you. I think our teams have been really good at that. Unselfish guys, understand what we have at Wisconsin, who we are, and that's why they came here to play for us. Q. To follow up on the question about Ryan. Where was his game when he got here, and where have you seen the biggest spikes in his performance? COACH RYAN: He was pretty raw, but we could see the athleticism. He wanted to be a player. His eyes on the visit. What he talked about. Great student. Big Ten roots. We don't get Ryan Evans if his dad hadn't wrestled at Minnesota and his uncle wrestled at Wisconsin. I kind of remind Ryan every once in a while that I think he needs to wrestle a little bit. He needs to mix it up maybe a little bit more. He's smooth, but we'd like to have him be a little bit more physical. So that's when you say, well, where was he and is he now? He's getting stronger, and he's filling out even more. He's definitely one of those guys that's so much fun. When you go home and you reflect and you look at games or after practices, you actually realize that as a coaching staff he rewards what you give him. Feels good. It's like a teacher in a classroom. Kids do well on the test, and teacher goes home, you know, that feels pretty good. So when a guy gets better and a guy does the thing that's he's doing, helps his teammates. It teaches the younger guy that's if you work hard these kind of things can happen. I think in our society has been lost a little bit, but that's for another day. He's not entitled. He wasn't‑‑ everybody wasn't chasing him. He wasn't on anybody's list. He just plays and enjoys it. Q. The guys felt like they still need something to prove in terms of Wisconsin being an elite program and getting to that Final Four. Do you think you need anything to prove? COACH RYAN: What is your highest award as a writer? Have you won the top award? Q. No, I have not. COACH RYAN: Are you still trying? Q. Yeah. COACH RYAN: That's our guys. We love this game, and we really don't care about the peripheral things that are‑‑ I would think that people have learned that over the years. There are just some programs that have a way of doing things. They keep working hard, and then sometimes every once in a while things fall into place. Guys get hot. That's what the NCAA Tournament is. We're not anything but who we are, and people can dissect that anyway they want. Q. Who are you? COACH RYAN: We're going to the Sweet 16 in 2012 to play a very good team. That means we survived and advanced. Gets harder. Everybody wants to win. Q. How concerned were you that Josh would be limited or wouldn't be able to go at all? COACH RYAN: I didn't even want to say anything about it. Jordan let the cat out of the bag here. You know, the IVs. I mean, we didn't know. We didn't know if he was going to be able to play. But we know that he didn't have a very pleasant morning after midnight. But he gave us what he had. The medical staff isn't going to let him play if he doesn't have certain vitals. No way in the world Josh Gasser wasn't going to play in that game. But really we don't make a big thing out of that, and I wasn't going to say anything. I always tell Patrick not to get that stuff out in the media. We've had guys with the flu during the year. Have you ever heard us say anything about it? Jordan's the first guy. I've got to talk to him on the way back. We don't make excuses at Wisconsin. Q. I read a story that said you arrived in the state of Wisconsin on March 17, 1976. If that's true, can you tell me what you remember about arriving in the state? Also, what is your county of lineage? COACH RYAN: I realize people in Wisconsin drink a lot of beer because it was St. Patrick's Day. Not any more than anybody else. But I realized Wisconsin is a state that they love life. They know how to enjoy themselves, but they also know how to work hard, and they appreciate people that work hard. Just watching Barry's football teams and other football teams before Barry, there is a certain way that people play. It's what fans become‑‑ they appreciate effort. Again, we led the Big Ten in average attendance. We're always one of the top teams in the country. I think there were only 300 or 400 tickets this year that weren't sold after about eight or nine years of sellouts. It's just the way it happened. Wisconsin, I haven't left. It's a good place. Q. Can you talk a little bit about limiting Jenkins and Taylor, the two top SEC scorers? COACH RYAN: Well, what you have to do is you have to take the coaching staff. Gary Close had the scout on this, and just pat him on the back and say there are some things that we did with some jump outs where we switched off or some keys. In a one day turnaround for our guys to stick to those rules pretty well, that's what I mean. That last shot was the one time that we did not have him covered. Little nerve‑wracking. But it's what we do with people that are good. I mean, we guarded a guy like Gatens from Iowa the same way, and he's fading backwards. He's fading sideways. He's hitting threes. I mean, it doesn't always work, but I like our percentages. Q. Had some pretty good success in this building now. Any impressions on it before you leave? COACH RYAN: Well, I think other than the allergy issue, which I guess is everywhere, especially this time of the year, great city. The people at the hotel couldn't have been any nicer. They were very helpful. It was nice to get the Wisconsin fans here that were here. And our teams usually travel well, so hopefully in Boston we'll pick up a few more. We don't care if people jump on the bandwagon because the bandwagon needs to get bigger. We need some help. But Albuquerque, great city. I've always liked it, and I was only here once before. But it was a great experience because I had it with my dad. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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