Ryan Addresses Media Monday
December 16, 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 partial transcript of the news conference follows. The news conference video is available by clicking on `multimedia' on the red menu bar.
On the Marquette game: 'I've never tried to oversimplify a `W' or an `L', but you know, you can look at it and look at it and look at it and I look at this film the same way I've looked at every other film that we've played. Missed opportunities on the offensive end; defensively [we] didn't make a lot of mistakes, but a couple times in key situations they'd get magnified. If you were to tell me that Freddie and Kirk would go 5-for-19'and of those 19 shots, three of them were in any way contested to where it might have affected the shot. The other 16 shots were very good looks at the basket. Those guys would love to have them back, but that does not make for a loss. So your question is, just by making shots'if everybody makes one more, of course it 's a W. The way I coach a lot of times and teach, you get one more offensive rebound, you get one more defensive rebound, get one more assist, get one more bucket, get one more rotation, get one more charge. In the game of basketball, in every category that 's a plus if you get one more thing; look at the difference that makes for seven or eight players that usually play the majority of the minutes for any team. I would never put it into the hands of one person or two guys or say that if this guy would have scored ' Fans ask that a lot because they listen to what you tell them. It's okay though. But when you look at a 40 minute game, if each guy could have done one more thing better on the offensive or defensive end'and that's the way I 've always like to teach so that way guys won't have to think man I 'm terrible, I can't do anything. [It's] `gosh, if I just do one more rotation defensively, if I didn't reach that one time, if I get one more assist.' Right on down the line. I think that helps players to keep everything in perspective and learn. And that's what we'll play off of this week just like we did before.'
'I'll tell you who it really helped. Alando. Boo. The other guys on the bench that are real close to minutes now. I think just being in the environment, a lot of times when a guy is redshirted, coaches like to take those guys on trips just to see what it's like to be at Indiana, Michigan State, places like that. I think for guys who maybe aren't quite getting the minutes right now who are hoping to in the future, we get them in that environment, see what it's like. They are ready to go at any time if somebody's in foul trouble. I think for those guys it really helps. I think our guys that have been around a little bit, if they don 't feel that every game that we go into or every place that we go play that we can 't win, hey, they're not playing for us. Those guys won't be around for very long, I don't have any of those kind of guys. We prepare to execute properly. Some people say you prepare to win. You prepare to execute properly, which usually gives you pretty good results. Do I think it helped' I think it helped younger guys more than older guys and I'm hoping that with the older guys that if there were some things that got away from us, because of their experience they recognized them and they hope to turn the tables the next time around.'
'When you get tapes on other teams and you listen to other teams' media people talk about them and everything else'about the rebounding for an opponent you're going to play' You talk about and you look at numbers that a team has and then you take a freshman a sophomore and a junior and Dave that got 14 minutes, but you take our front line against theirs with a fifth year senior, a transfer from Mississippi State, Merritt who's in his third year and Sanders who has been around the block a little bit, he's a little bit older and you take our freshmen, sophomore, juniors against their people and their size, I thought that front line battle was [good], our guys did one heck of a job.'
'They're a very good team. Wade is good enough to make up for a lot of things if you don't have them and I'm not saying Marquette doesn't have certain things but he can make up for offensive inefficiencies by other players in a hurry, more than a lot of individual players that I know or have coached against or have seen. But he's good enough physically to create his own shot and if they're going down, he can get to the rim, [and] he draws enough attention to be able to find open guys and he's a difference maker that way.'
On Dwyane Wade: 'He's so above. He 's more of a go-to guy because of his athleticism. There are other go-to guys that I've had in coaching who were maybe able to do something because of what other people created for them, maybe that person was a good penetrator but not a good shooter or couldn't penetrate but could shoot. Dwyane Wade can do both so what would I rather have, I'd like to have a guy that could come down and go 15 for 20 every night from the floor, 9 for 10 from the free throw line, never turn it over, okay I'm dreaming. But I like the guys we have and you embrace young men when they shoot it well, you embrace them when things don't happen for you on one end and that' s all part of this. Get ready for the next one.'
Is it difficult to schedule during finals and prepare the team while they're concentrating on different things' 'I have not found it to be a problem because at Platteville, Milwaukee and here last year, we do a lot with wind work, sprints, just what a guys looking for after a final, `oh good, I'm going to run.' So many people I've known in athletics'if they can get a workout in every day during finals week their grades go up, they feel better during the test. People have all their names they use for what it does for the body'whatever terms are used, I don't know those because I was an econ major, but I do know that it does help the players to stay focused on the academics when they can (we say) blow their lungs out a little bit and keep the legs in shape and so we'll shoot a little bit do a few drills, but we don't give them a lot of stuff on the floor to really have to concentrate much on each possession. It doesn't mean they don't work hard, it's not as long, the next couple days especially, the final's schedule starts to thin out a little bit later in the week so we'll do more things with possessions. The idea is, while their minds right now are on certain tests, we make sure that their body doesn't forget the conditioning that has already taken place, so we're going to make sure that their legs and lungs stay ready.'
What do you take from playing lesser opponents' Do you review the games' 'I don't know about a lesser opponent, I think the way the game [versus New Hampshire] ended up, and especially when you 're top guy isn't there which I appreciate 99 percent of the media pointing that out, I really appreciate people that do things that show class. There 's only basically one person that didn't say that but I really appreciate it when honesty is the best policy. New Hampshire actually got us four points in the Marquette game because they zoned us; we hadn't worked against zone in a game. Alando Tucker gets two great opportunities because of film work we did on Thursday after the New Hampshire game where he learned something and he got us four points and you know maybe it ended up a nine point game, but if that's a two point game, if that goes down to that last possession those are two. So on Thursday, we went over the New Hampshire game just like we went over the UNLV game. That doesn't make any difference, we still coach the game and teach the game and you'd be surprised what you can learn from everybody that you play and we'll take something from a practice and say from our video taping of practice, a great teaching point, so you're question was do we 'yeah we went over things after that game just like we'll do after this game, this past game Saturday night, UNLV, Wake [Forest], Northern Illinois. It's all the same, from the teaching standpoint.
On Scheduling: 'It's probably not your business to need to know or worry yourselves, because you figure people in our position are going to do the right things, but try juggling a facility, with three other sports, concerts and schedules as far as finals week. The week leading up to finals, which for a lot of the athletes, the students'there's a lot of work that 's done in the last week, things that are handed in. I'm a little older, I forget what it was like during that time, but I keep hearing from younger people how tough it is the week prior to finals with a lot of things that they're finishing up on. So we try to schedule in a way that doesn't take our players away from getting done with what they [need to get done]. We're not going to go on the road. That' s what was great about having New Hampshire at home last week in the middle of a week at the end of classes, that's a great break for your students. Four true freshmen we have in here. Haven't had four true freshmen in a while [and] that gave them a chance to be home, over at the Fetzer Center every day [and] every night after practice and keep the work schedule that they have going and we didn't disrupt that so when you say do you want to play a game Saturday'then you have to say how many dates do we have that we can plug a team in coming here' A great statistic. Not because I looked it up because I could care less. Somebody tells me today `coach did you know that every team in the Big Ten has 7.9'they averaged 7.9 home games for each team non-conference. Well, we only had seven this year and five last year. They say `yeah it was seven-point-something last year too so you're so far below the normal in the two years that you've been here you ought to go out and get another eight or nine next year and I'm like, no, we already have our two guaranteed games for next year. It's Eastern Illinois and Detroit. It's like well, you 're playing fewer home game s than the other teams in the conference. We 'll you have to play on the road, you have to get ready, I told people early that this will be the year that we have the most home games. We didn't know until August that we had a home ACC/Big Ten Challenge game and the legal action that was taken on the tournament to try to hold them up and not let people play in them and all that we weren 't assured of that until the summer so there's three home games that we couldn't even count on before we had to get a schedule out. So that's why you scramble and call anybody and everybody and say who wants to come in here around finals time and who wants to come in here in January. You know why people don't want to play in January non conference' Because you start conference. Chicago State was willing to play in early January. So you talk about scheduling and how it's perceived. And then somebody ought to take a look at the non-conference opponents of every other team in our league and then come see me. It's absolutely amazing because they have some of the same problems too. They don't want to travel during finals time, they don't want to travel during certain times of the year. They have other things in their buildings. It seems like institutions in the Big Ten it is tougher to get your home court in a place like this and at Ohio State. Ours are the two toughest. '
Ideally, would you want a game after finals ' 'We are taking this week off playing. In a perfect world, you 're correct, but I just gave you the reasons why we can't live in that kind of world. That's what I'm saying. That's why I gave the longer answer. It's not a perfect world. Here's what we have to deal with. But do you think the average person out there knows that' They just want to know `when are you tipping it up get us our tickets and here we go.' [We] still don't have the respect out there for the TV games yet. We're trying to negotiate for some games next year where we'll be on a CBS or an extra ESPN game or whatever, with schools like USC, Pittsburgh. Right now the two teams that are getting those ' the strength of schedule right now by the RPI has come out'where do you think we rank in strength of schedule' Take a guess. Third. You know why we 're not first or second' Name the two teams right now that the national networks went out and got on TV. Indiana. Michigan State. We're third. The thing is, what you people try to do sometimes is take a game and oversimplify it or over-magnify or whatever and I don't know if that's fair to the general public. When I don't pay attention to those things and somebody comes and tells me `hey did you know this' I go no, I didn't know that and I'll bet I 'll be talking to a bunch of guys this afternoon that probably don't know it either but I'm just giving you that information just so you understand what this is like and yeah finals are important. No I don't want to play during finals week, to end finals week, [do] we want to have a game' Absolutely not, but can we get the facility can we get another team in here that wants to play us' That 's the dilemma every year. Next year we're set. I don't know where they're going to send us for the ACC game, but like I said [we have] our two guaranteed games. We tried Butler and Xavier and a few others, but they're in positions where [it's] `hey you come back to our place.' Well, if we have to get two games at home, Eastern Illinois is pretty good and Detroit is pretty doggone good every year. I know those two schools. I know those coaches and that's done already. Those are locked in and not only do you get those teams now we're locked around trying to get dates. You ought to talk to Greg Gard, my assistant that does scheduling; it 's a full time situation when you're in a facility like this and trying to get people to play at certain times. I like what he's done when you have to put up with all those things that people don't know about.'
What would you give your players this holiday season ' 'I'd like to give them my patience. [It's] something they don't get all the time. Something I can give them' I can 't buy them anything, that's illegal. A better dose of my patience. Because I can give them all the love, I give them all the time. I just might be able to [give] a better use of my patience. I think I hear that at home too. That's a good question. I like that ' they're all good questions, but that was a little different. Are you going to ask what the players are going to give me' '
