Postgame Quotes: No. 5 Wisconsin vs. Nicholls State
December 13, 2014 | Men's Basketball
No. 5 Wisconsin vs. Nicholls Stae
Dec. 13, 2014Â
Kohl Center - Madison, Wis. Â Â
Wisconsin Head Coach Bo Ryan
On Sam Dekker's performance:
"He took advantage of his opportunities. Sometimes they're there, but you have to be aware of them. He was really aware of his ankles and the way he shot the ball. He was ready to go."
On the team's execution:
"They stayed to the task in the first 20 (minutes). Some things got away from them and you start throwing different combinations up there and sometimes it will show inexperience and people not used to playing off of different individuals on the court. Especially in the first half, there were very few bad shots and we moved the ball and got the ball where we wanted it. Again, you don't worry about the name on the shirt, it's the opposition and it's the game of basketball that you play against at times. Sometimes people don't respect the game enough, and I thought our guys played hard all the way through. We didn't execute the way we wanted to, but we respected the game."
On Zak Showalter's performance: "Teammates love Zak Showalter. He's here for a reason. He's a good player and not just a hustle guy. He's been scratching and clawing for some minutes, and he knows there are some good things coming. That's what makes doing this so much fun. You get good, hardworking young men who don't expect to have things handed to them and they know that they've got to earn it. Those kind of guys are always fun to coach."
On Vitto Brown's performance: "Sometimes you can't tell by the game situation, but he's somebody that's here for a reason too. He's got some ability. He's trying to refine some things in his game, trying to play more consistently and under control. So, any minutes that he can get on the court like that should be able to help him gain some confidence. He's playing behind a guy that's not bad, just like Frank (Kaminsky) played behind a guy that wasn't bad in (Jared) Berggren. So, keep working at it in practice, and you got to believe that if you get two minutes, make it the best two minutes you have. If you get 20 minutes, make it the best 20 minutes you have."
Senior G Josh Gasser
On how he kept the team focused despite the opponent's record:
"It's just fun to come out in the Kohl Center and see a large crowd and play in front of them. It's a basketball game, it shouldn't be too hard to get pumped up for a game. Yeah, you can get up a little bit more for some other games, but Coach Ryan does a great job preparing us and getting us focused."
On looking at the first 11 games and assessing the season thus far:
"10-1, and that one obviously stands out more than the 10, because that's just the way it goes. But right now I think it's kind of the first part of the season, the non-conference season, and we're pretty happy with where we are. But the real season is about to come up. We've got to put everything behind us but learn from what we have done. Take the good, learn from the bad, and really focus up on what is to come."
Sophomore F Nigel Hayes
On Vitto Brown's success and progress over the course of the season:
"I think he's done a great job this year of getting settled down. He sometimes still gets out there and is a little sporadic or a little uptight, but this game I think he did a lot better with coming out and not worrying about messing up or trying to do this or that but just trying to play basketball."
Junior F Sam Dekker
On his ankle's progress and whether it was a factor in him being more aggressive in today's game:
"It's getting better. It's the best it's been in a while. It's just nice to be practicing again with the guys, staying fresh, and mentally getting back into it is big for me. I like playing aggressively, that's my game. I like making things happen. That's what our team expects out of me and what my coaches expect out of me. I expect that out of myself. I'm just going to play my game when I get out there. It just feels good to be feeling pretty good."
On looking at the stats sheet and what sticks out from the team's performance:
"Well we shot 35 free throws which is a lot. We had five guys in double figures. Nigel (Hayes) had no assists. Overall, I think we were pretty balanced. It's good to get other guys in the game and get them double figure minutes when they may not get to play as much. It was one of those nights that was fun to get everyone in there."
Nicholls Head Coach J.P. Piper
Opening Statement
"Well, they are as good as advertised in my opinion. We've watched a lot of tape, and everything we thought would be a problem for us tonight was in fact a problem for us. It's a highly skilled group of guys that shoots the ball very well and plays stingy defense. We held them to 70 percent field goal shooting in the first half and we shot 26 or 24 percent, so it's a bad recipe. It was a tremendous experience for our guys, a great atmosphere, and it was a team that we told them before the game we expect to be in the Final Four. We saw nothing today that would make us think otherwise.
On Nicholls' low offensive output and whether that was tribute to the Badgers:
"It sounds crazy, but I thought we executed better today than we have all season. They're just so long. It's not even that they're blocking shots, they're physical, they're athletic, they alter everything, and we looked exhausted by the time we got to the shot. For us to get to a point where we could catch and shoot, we looked like we had just finished running a race. We told our guys at halftime, I think we had 29 field goal attempts to their 27, so I felt like we executed and got shots, but if you look at the percentages, we just didn't make them and they didn't miss. That's a credit to the way they defended."
