Ryan Addresses Media Monday
November 25, 2002 | Men's Basketball
Wisconsin men's basketball coach Bo Ryan spoke to the media on Monday during UW 's weekly news conference. Ryan addressed various issues about the team.
A transcript of the news conference follows. The news conference video is available by clicking on `multimedia' on the red menu bar.
What do you think of your team so far this season ' 'The results are good. The bottom line is that you accomplish what you set out to do when you compete. When you look at [it] from the coach's standpoint, there is always room for improvement. The good part about the three games that we have had is that we executed well enough over the forty minutes to get the major accomplishment of the win, but still so much work in every area. It's not just one, it's every area.'
Are you expecting an excited atmosphere in Green Bay this weekend' 'I would think so. There are not too many states where the biggest state university competes with the smaller state schools. Both UW and Milwaukee represent a lot. When you throw Green Bay into the mix, that is three Division I schools and each one has their own personality. When you are playing this game it is players opposing us that feel they are as good as us because they played against each other in high school. There is no mid or high in any talk when you prepare for the two teams competing. It is UW against UW-Green Bay. There is going to be a great crowd, there will be a hostile environment. It'll be a great opening night for their facility. You can't beat it. This will be two Saturdays in a row where you get two state schools playing against one another in Division I basketball. I think that's pretty special. '
Do you consider your team to be good offensively ' 'Right now we are average. I would like to be above average. I think your points per possession usually tells a story. Right now our points per possession are excellent. With that being said, how can we improve' There are many ways: better passes, better movement away from the ball, better decision making. But it 's average right now. On paper it looks pretty good, but we'll have to see if we can maintain that.'
After the success you have had at home, how do you feel about going on the road' 'This will be great. In order to get anywhere, you have to win on the road. It's already been said that we have more home games this year than last year. But next year and the year after it gets back to a more normal ratio for home versus away games. This will be a great game; the records will not matter. Wisconsin had a tough game up there a couple of years ago, we expect a tough game this year. That's just the way it is when state schools play.'
Did you expect freshmen Tucker and Wade to see so many minutes this early on' 'The momentum kept building. It 's like anything else: when you get a chance to show what you can do, that is what competition is about. You have moments and if you take advantage of those moments you get more of them. The two who have been playing the most have been more consistent in practice and have been doing really well in the games. The other guys are coming along too. They are doing some good things.'
How have things gone for the team defensively ' 'We are going to face teams that have bigger and more active front lines and teams that are more consistent shooting from the perimeter than Northern Illinois. Northern had their strength of being very athletic and they played big around the rim for their size. Defensively our guys have made a commitment to working at it. Our offense let us down on a couple of turnovers, and the other team gets threes and that adds to their points per possession. That one stretch of four or five minutes made our points per possession average go up a little bit. But for 35 minutes defensively Saturday night, we played pretty well. The other two games I felt we played pretty well so it's still a work in progress.'
Do you have a scouting report on Green Bay from their last games in Alaska' Yeah, it's real rough. Any film that we have is hopefully not frozen on the flight back from Alaska. We've got some tape coming in. We took Platteville up there in the '95, '96 season. It was a tournament in Fairbanks for all the national champions from the year before, NAIA Division II, and Division III, and then Fairbanks. Fairbanks selected us the first night figuring we'd the easiest. Our guys played pretty well. We beat them and then had to play Southern Indiana, Bruce's team, and they got us. It was a nice placed to visit, but you couldn't wait to get on the plane and get out of there. It's a nice place. I don't want it to get back to Fairbanks. Their rotary club was unbelievable. I still have this thing at home. How many guys do you know that have had a chance to speak at the northern-most rotary club in the world' And they give you a little certificate that tells you that. I still have that. I thought it was pretty neat. As I said to people, you know, it's really a neat trip. You know we got a chance to see the sights. We had our picture taken at the most famous place up there. We all stood on the pipeline for about 15 seconds for that one shot. Can you tell that I'm really not interested in doing an exempt tournament up there' But Green Bay, they had three good games up there. You know, you got a chance to compete in the short period of time got in three games. Do we have anything on them' No, it's in transit.'
