Ryan Addresses Media
November 21, 2006 | Men's Basketball
Wisconsin men's basketball coach Bo Ryan addressed the media at the Kohl Center Monday. Ryan fielded questions on Marcus Landry and Mickey Perry and talked about his team's upcoming game against Delaware State, among other topics. A full transcript follows:
QUESTION #1: What do you know about Delaware State, Bo, and have you seen film on them yet' They've got a pretty good player in Jahsha Bluntt, and just talk about him a little bit.
BO RYAN: Well, he had preseason player of the year, very good player, very athletic, wiry. Delaware State, guys that I went to school with in Chester went to Delaware State, and it looks like on their roster they might have another one or two from my high school. That's what I know about them. They're not that far from southeastern Pennsylvania.
They play pretty well. Their coach has done a good job. They've been in the tournament, and we know that they're used to traveling. They've already played at places like Pitt and North Carolina State. So again, it's an opponent that's used to traveling, and I'm sure they'll come in here and give us their best shot. We're going to try to give them ours.
QUESTION #2: Bo, just can you talk a little bit about Marcus, and at least up to this point, what maybe you like about, you know, what he's doing for you'
RYAN: Talking about Marcus Landry'
REPORTER: Yes.
RYAN: Did you see last night's game'
REPORTER: Yes.
RYAN: Okay. So you want me to tell you what I like about him.
REPORTER: Well, can you just talk about . . .
RYAN: He's a great young man. He's working hard.
REPORTER: Can you just talk about maybe where you think he's at in, you know, in his play at this point in the season'
RYAN: He's doing fine. He just had a couple tough things happen last night that he'd like to have back. But knowing Marcus, he's a competitor. He 'll be right back on his feet today at practice, ready to go. So, I mean, he 's been doing a good job of getting on the glass, defensively picking up some things, you know, that we want to see him pick up on rotations. And it's just a matter of repetitions, but he's working hard and he'll make some noise here.
QUESTION #3: He was talking about the other day that he is playing the three, four, and five spots for you at various points. Just can you talk about maybe the challenge of, you know, doing that and maybe some of the tricks that go into having a guy play those three spots . . .
RYAN: Well, with our system, it's not that difficult. It's not like you have to learn a whole lot of different things. And that wasn't a part of the struggles last night, whether it was the three, four, or five. So, I mean, he'll get that. He'll just, and most of the guys, guys like Krabbenhoft and Bohannon and some of these other younger guys that are playing different positions, Kevin Gullikson. They figure out a way. It's amazing. If you want to be on the floor, you just figure out a way to get things done and things will work out.
QUESTION #4: Bo, do you get a sense that Mickey's maybe pressing a little bit when he's getting his opportunities, and how do you think he's handled kind of being that fifth guard at this point'
RYAN: Well, I don't put numbers on guards. It's just you take advantage of your opportunities that we've been saying for, or I've been saying as a coach for a long time, for decades, and it's the same position as a player, that I look at in my own mind these are the things you have to do to get on the floor. And if you pressed, then that means you're not ready yet.
So if you want to call it pressing, you can call it that. It's still all about competing and taking advantage of the moment. Tanner made him look pretty good last night. Tanner got two assists, I think it was, and on that one, of course they always say a no-look pass. What's a no-look pass' He knew exactly where Mickey was. It 's just you look away as you make the pass.
I remember when Magic was diagnosed with AIDS and he made the announcement, and some kid was crying, and I said, you know, the kid was interviewed, the kids says in the Dubuque paper, oh, what does this mean, Magic not, oh, my gosh, with tears in his eyes, the kid says, I'm not going to see a no-look pass anymore. How is that for an answer ' That's what he was going to miss the most. So I don't know. Tanner made a good pass to him though. Mickey will be all right. Just compete. That 's what the world's about.
QUESTION #5: Coach, you've always talked about how important the conditioning is. Are you excited now this upcoming stretch, kind of a good test to see where you guys stand, with games coming up in the next six days'
RYAN: Yeah, I think conditioning and depth can help us. But it's there and we just need to use it properly when we have our opportunities. So hopefully, and if a guy, we had two guys get in foul trouble in the first half in Butch and Marcus, and the guys that came in off the bench against Southern did a nice job.
And what we have to do is be able to do that against an experienced team too, because we 're going to get guys in foul trouble. Things are going to happen. It happens every year to every team. So conditioning and depth hopefully can get us some that maybe we wouldn't have otherwise.
QUESTION #6: Bo, do you sense that Kamm's evolved kind of as a leader with this team this year and he's a little more outgoing, which is maybe a change from how he's been a little bit in the past'
RYAN: Well, it's amazing what being a senior can do, mostly for the good. Sometimes guys press as seniors, but just, you know, now you've been in those situations. It's real early to be making any kind of statements about leadership or anything else at this stage. So, you know, it's still Kamm's working on his game, and he's got to continue to work on his game until he plays his final possession in a Badger uniform. All our players have to do that.
And, you know, for some people it's in a different form of leadership or different ways of expressing it or showing it, and Kamm just needs to keep working at his game and not letting up, because it is a concentration factor with him that he has to make sure that he stays on top of his attention span at all times when he's playing, just like everybody else does. Some guys just need to do it more, and Kamm's one of those guys that needs to stay in tune and in rhythm with the game. When he gets away from that, then that causes some struggles.
QUESTION #7: Bo, when you schedule a team like Southern, for instance . . .
RYAN: We didn't schedule them.
REPORTER: Oh, okay.
RYAN: These two teams, last night, or yesterday's and Tuesday's is not a scheduled game where we talked to the coach, we set it up.
QUESTION #8: When you, I mean, just for example, Southern was an NCAA tournament team last year, but they're a rebuilding team this year. When you schedule teams . . .
RYAN: You don't know, yeah.
REPORTER: When you do schedule teams from these smaller conferences, what do you look for . . .
RYAN: Teams that are going to be good teams that are used to winning on the road, the Winthrops, the, you know, of course the two in-state teams are used to traveling like that and playing in tough environments. And when it gets down to maybe the very end sometimes, it's whoever is willing to play. And that's still a struggle, but yeah, this, I have no idea what went into how the Padre Island people got the other teams to put . . . at our place before we go down there. But I know what we're always looking for. Can we always get it' Probably not, but we'll try. A lot of phone calls.
QUESTION #9: Coach, with teams like Georgetown losing and Kansas losing and even Minnesota to a small Division III team, what does that say about college basketball you see today' Is it getting more competitive top all the way down to the bottom '
RYAN: Well, yeah, Division III teams have been beating Division I teams in regular-season play. Until you beat them, and then they won't play you anymore, which is what happened to us at Platteville, but that was a Division II powerhouse that went into Minnesota and got knocked off. The coaches knew how good Winona State was. I wonder if the players knew. It wasn't a Division III school that beat Minnesota. Kansas losing, they lost to other teams in the past, just like we have or Georgetown.
You know, there's a lot of good teams out there, and every night that you go out on the court, the other team could shoot it better. You could be off. Never read too much into those types of scores or games because it depends on the development of the team at the time, are they a young team, are they a team that's maybe trying to find some parts, are they going through some changes. But it can happen.
That's why scheduling, you get a schedule, there it is, you play it, and other people spend too much time, well, why do they play this team, why are they doing this, or how about this, how come they, meanwhile as a coach and a team, you've got to play them. And whoever it is, you have to play well that night because there's not that big a margin.
There might be maybe five percent of the games that you play where you could have played poorly and still won, but the rest of the games, if you play poorly and the other team is in stride, you get beat. It's not like you play 11 or 12 games a year. It 's 31 on our regular season, and that, you know, and you play during the week, and sometimes the quick turnaround, sometimes it's this. You just play, but never read too much into a score early in the year. I wouldn't.
QUESTION #10: With Thanksgiving being this week, what in regards to your team are you most thankful for, for your team right now'
RYAN: Well, that they've, they're doing the right things. They 've made a commitment to being better. They've made a commitment to being better people and they're working at that. I think the fact that they're out there on the court every day giving it their best. I'm thankful for that. They 're good people. And to be surrounded by people like that, that's pretty good.
So it's, you know, I mean, are you asking what I'm thankful for or asking what they're thankful for' Yeah, that they're working hard and working together and are very competitive in practice against one another and still manage to talk to one another when they leave.
It's, for those that have played it, you know. That's tough every day to go two and a half, two hours, grabbing, bumping, kneeing, elbowing into the same guys and still be able to be brethren off the court. That's pretty good. And to keep taking care of business. They just need to keep working at that. And like I said, they 've made that commitment, and they're older and wiser hopefully. I 'm thankful that they've made that commitment.
